Map-like representations of emotion knowledge in hippocampal-prefrontal systems.

Abstract

Emotional experiences involve more than bodily reactions and momentary feelings-they depend on knowledge about the world that spans contexts and time. Although it is well established that individuals conceptualize emotions using a low-dimensional space organized by valence and arousal, the neural mechanisms giving rise to this configuration remain unclear. Here, we examine whether hippocampal-prefrontal circuits-neural structures implicated in forming cognitive maps-also support the structural abstraction of emotional experiences. Using functional MRI data collected as participants viewed emotionally evocative film clips, we find that hippocampal activity represents emotion concepts in a structured hierarchy, whereas ventromedial prefrontal cortex more accurately tracks locations in a two-dimensional affective space. Computational modeling reveals that hippocampal-prefrontal responses to films can be predicted based on the statistical regularities of emotion transitions across multiple temporal scales. These findings demonstrate that hippocampal-prefrontal systems represent emotion concepts in a map-like way at multiple levels of abstraction, offering insight into how the brain organizes emotion knowledge.