Homeostatic emotion


A homeostatic emotion is an attention-demanding feeling evoked by an internal body state that drives behavior aimed at restoring the body to its ideal state.
Derek Denton defines "primordial emotion" as "the subjective element of the instincts, which are the genetically programmed behaviour patterns which contrive homeostasis. They include thirst, hunger for air, hunger for food, pain, hunger for specific minerals etc. There are two constituents of a primordial emotion--the specific sensation which when severe may be imperious, and the compelling intention for gratification by a consummatory act."
Bud Craig argues that humans and anthropoid primates form an image of all of the body's unique homeostatic sensations in the brain's primary interoceptive cortex. This image is mirrored in the mid- and anterior insula, and the anterior insula's image embodies conscious awareness of the whole body's homeostatic state. A sensation re-represented in the anterior insula and that sensation's related motivation hosted in the anterior cingulate cortex form a homeostatic emotion.
Antonio Damasio uses "primordial feeling" to denote this class of sensations/motivations in his 2010 book, Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain.