Glossary / Lexicon

Cannon–Bard Theory was the opposite of James–Lange theory. Walter Cannon, and later Philip Bard, argued the conscious emotional experience can be divorced from bodily sensation or expression. Although today most scientists agree that there is a correspondence between cognitive experience of emotion and sensory experience, types of emotion, emotional intensity, and individual variation appear to vary considerably. Cannon-Bard theory states that activity in the thalamus causes emotional feelings and bodily arousal to occur simultaneously. (See Cannon-Bard Theory of Emotion)