Neural correlates of emotions in psychiatric patients in the light of functional neuroimaging findings.

The question whether there exists "the emotional brain" still remains open. The greatest scientific challenge at the threshold of 2000 is to make "a map of brain emotions" with a detailed topography for each "basic emotion". The investigations, with the use of the most advanced neuroimaging techniques: positron emission tomography(PET), functional magnetic resonance (fMRI) and SPECT (single photon emission computed tomography), aimed at obtaining more precise location data on the system regulating the effect in normal and in pathology. In recent years, with the use of neuroimaging techniques, an important role of posterior temporal cortex, orbital-frontal cortex, amygdaloid nucleus and insula in the regulation of emotional behaviour has been indicated. The present study is an attempt at: 1) systemizing the research experiments serving the investigation of emotions with the use of neuroimaging techniques, 2) systemizing the latest results of investigations aimed at either search of the "emotional brain", or neural correlates of emotions responsible for the regulation of emotional behaviour in anxiety and affective disorders as well as in schizophrenic disorders.