Child-Emotion Research Lab
                                             Seth Pollak, Director
                               
                    Department of Psychology
                    University of Wisconsin
                    1202 W. Johnson Street                                   
                    Madison, WI 53706
                    Tel: 608-262-6647
                    Fax: 608-262-4029
 
 
 
 

             Emotions allow us to communicate our intentions and feelings to others, to figure out what other people are up to, and anticipate and plan our own behaviors.  How do our brains take all of that complicated information and combine it with other things we know and expect and have learned about people.  And how can we do this so quickly?  Emotions involve complicated tasks that, curiously, even very young children can do pretty well.
             Interestingly, little is known about the origins and functioning of the neural architecture that allows humans to perceive, communicate, and respond to emotional information.  Is this ability something that we are born with?  Or do we learn about emotions very quickly during early childhood?  Our research group is interested in where emotions come from.  What parts of the brain to we use to understand emotions? What processes are involved?  And most importantly, how might the development of these processes put some children at risk for the development of psychological problems later in life?
 
 

                ABOUT/MISSION       PEOPLE        EDUCATION    PROJECTS    LAB TOUR    COMMUNITY OUTREACH    GALLERY
 
 

            PSYCHOLOGY DEPARTMENT            WAISMAN RESEARCH CENTER                 UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN   RESEARCH NEWS