Which parts of the cerebral hemispheres produce emotion has been learned from patients with epilepsy and from operations under local anesthesia in which the electrical stimulation of the brain is carried out. The limbic lobe, including the hippocampus, is particularly important. Stimulating certain regions of the temporal lobes produces an intense feeling of fear or dread; stimulating nearby regions produces a feeling of isolation and loneliness, other regions a feeling of disgust, and yet others intense sorrow, depression, anxiety, and, occasionally, guilt. An ecstatic feeling can also occur in which it appears to patients that all problems have been or are just about to be solved.
In addition to these regions of the cerebral cortex and the hypothalamus, regions of the thalamus also contribute to the genesis of emotion. The hypothalamus itself does not initiate behaviour; that is done by the cerebral hemispheres--insofar as one may abstract any single part from the whole.