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Emotional Valence and the Free-Energy Principle

Figure 1

Basic forms of emotion and the dynamics of free-energy.

(top and bottom rows) Two hypothetical dynamics of free-energy and their corresponding basic forms of emotion. (left column) Free-energy plotted as a function of time. (middle column) The same free-energy and its first time-derivative (valence) as a function of time. (right column) The first and second time-derivatives of the same trajectory of free-energy as a function of time. Notice that the basic forms of emotion are mapped to specific quadrants in the first and second time-derivative spaces independently of the free-energy trajectory. The black arrows indicate the direction of increasing time. The background colours identify the basic forms of emotion elicited at each time point: happiness (dark blue), unhappiness (dark red), hope (light blue), fear (light red), relief (transition from dark red to light blue), disappointment (transition from dark blue to light red) and surprise (grey).

doi: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003094.g001