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Abstract
This article reviews the modern literature on two key aspects of the central circuitry
of emotion: the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the amygdala. There are several different
functional divisions of the PFC, including the dorsolateral, ventromedial, and orbital
sectors. Each of these regions plays some role in affective processing that shares
the feature of representing affect in the absence of immediate rewards and punishments
as well as in different aspects of emotional regulation. The amygdala appears to be
crucial for the learning of new stimulus-threat contingencies and also appears to
be important in the expression of cue-specific fear. Individual differences in both
tonic activation and phasic reactivity in this circuit play an important role in governing
different aspects of anxiety. Emphasis is placed on affective chronometry, or the
time course of emotional responding, as a key attribute of individual differences
in propensity for anxiety that is regulated by this circuitry.