The Primordial Emotions Denton distinguishes between primordial emotions, "imperious states of arousal and compelling intentions to act" (p. 7) driven by activation of interoceptors and involving ancient, lower brain regions such as the medulla, midbrain and hypothalamus, and "classic" emotions, such as anger, fear and love, driven by distance receptors (vision, hearing, olfaction) and mediated by higher, more recently evolved brain regions. The Primordial Emotions The Primordial Emotions: The Dawning of Consciousness is a 2006 book by the Australian neuroscientist Derek Denton. Denton argues that, if self-awareness and intentionality are intrinsic to consciousness, the primordial emotions such as thirst, hunger and pain (that
Anatomy of the cerebellum folded layer of gray matter, the cerebellar cortex. It has been estimated that if the human cerebellar cortex could be completely unfolded it would give rise to a layer of neural tissue about 1 meter long and 10 centimeters wide—a total surface area of 500-1000 square cm, all packed within a volume of 100-150 cubic cm. Underneath the gray matter of the cortex lies white matter, made up largely of myelinated nerve fibers running to and from the cortex. Embedded within the white matter—which is sometimes called the "arbor vitae" (Tree of Life) in the cerebellum because of its branched,