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The Research of Belinda Liddell
The questions surrounding the essence of concepts such as consciousness and emotion are among the most intriguing in the disciplines of psychology and neuroscience. As a part of my honours thesis, I investigated the temporal correlates (using Event-related Potentials) of the conscious and unconscious processing of threat-related emotions such as fear. This research appears to support the well-established theories of LeDoux and Damasio, that emotions which are fundamentally vital to our survival and well-being as humans, are processed unconsciously if need be as well as consciously if the situation allows it. The disadvantage of the ERP technique is that it doesn't allow much inference of spatial location of such conscious and unconscious processes. As part of my PhD, I wish to investigate similar ideas with different emotions, as well as using techniques with improved spatial resolution (fMRI, electrode source-localisation techniques) to begin to fully complete the picture about how, in terms of 'where' and 'when', our brain is able to process emotions at different levels of conscious awareness.
email: belindal@psych.usyd.edu.au
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