The target article by Lindquist et al. contributes a wealth of information to studies of emotions, and to psychology in general. However, I would expect such an in-depth article on emotions to address specifically human, “higher” cognitive emotions. Whereas in the past emotions were often considered irrelevant or opposite to cognition, recent research emphasizes closed relations between the two (Adolphs et al. Reference Adolphs, Damasio and Tranel2002; Bechara & Damasio Reference Bechara and Damasio2002; Bradley et al. Reference Bradley, Codispoti, Cuthbert and Lang2001; Damasio Reference Damasio1995; Duncan & Barrett Reference Duncan and Barrett2007; Grossberg & Levine 1987; Mayer et al. Reference Mayer, Salovey and Caruso2008; Ochsner & Phelps Reference Ochsner and Phelps2007; Perlovsky Reference Perlovsky2006c). Discrete emotions discussed in the article are limited in number and thus represent only a minor part of human emotional abilities. Specifically human emotions are related to “high” cognition. As discussed later, their number is very large, and this is why they are called “continuous.” Musical emotions (Juslin & Västfjäll Reference Juslin and Vastfjall2008) are an example of “continuous” emotions that set humans apart from the animal kingdom. Yet, the entire target article is devoted exclusively to discrete emotions that appear in the perception of concrete objects. Here are a few quotes from the article to support this point:

These statements might almost equally refer to animals or humans. The target article does not consider emotions related to abstract concepts. No emotion of pleasure from understanding is discussed; for example, that understanding an object to be food might be emotionally pleasant for a hungry animal or human. But understanding is also pleasant in itself, otherwise there would be no motivation to understand abstract concepts. Understanding the meaning of one's life is emotionally pleasant; a simplified reason is that this is necessary for concentrating one's efforts on the most important goals. This emotion, according to Kant (Reference Kant and Bernard1790), is related to emotions of the beautiful. Kant explained that aesthetic emotions are related to knowledge.

Specifically human “higher” cognitive emotions, especially musical emotions, have been called “mysterious” by thinkers from Aristotle to Darwin and by contemporary evolutionary psychologists (Aristotle Reference Aristotle and Barnes1995; Ball Reference Ball2008; Darwin Reference Darwin1871; Masataka Reference Masataka2008). Yet, “higher” cognitive emotions have been studied by many authors. I will mention just a few references: emotions of cognitive dissonance (Cabanac et al., in press; Festinger Reference Festinger1957; Haidt Reference Haidt2001; Levine Reference Levine2009; Levine & Perlovsky Reference Levine and Perlovsky2010; van Veen et al. Reference van Veen, Krug, Schooler and Carter2009), musical emotions (Cross & Morley Reference Cross, Morley, Malloch and Trevarthen2008; Juslin & Västfjäll Reference Juslin and Vastfjall2008; Levitin Reference Levitin2006; Panksepp & Bernatzky Reference Panksepp and Bernatzky2002; Patel Reference Patel2008; Perlovsky Reference Perlovsky2010d; Reference Perlovsky2010c; Purwins et al. Reference Purwins, Herrera, Grachten, Hazan, Marxer and Serra2008; Sloboda & Juslin Reference Sloboda, Juslin, Juslin and Sloboda2001; Trainor Reference Trainor2008 ), and emotions of language prosody (Buchanan et al. Reference Buchanan, Lutz, Mirzazade, Specht, Shah, Zilles and Jäncke2000; Davis et al. Reference Davis, Zhang, Winkworth and Bandler1996; Deacon Reference Deacon1989; Perlovsky Reference Perlovsky2006a; Reference Perlovsky2006b; Reference Perlovsky2009b).

Even when discussing emotions in voices, Lindquist et al. do not recognize them as possibly different from discrete emotions. Yet the voice of human languages carries a significant emotional load different from that of discrete emotions. Emotions in language sounds are similar to emotions in poetry and songs, and (among other things) motivate us to relate language sounds to their meanings (Perlovsky Reference Perlovsky2009b; Reference Perlovsky2010c). Animals relate sounds of voice to meanings automatically; in an animal's mind the sounds of voice are inseparable from the meanings. Humans have to be motivated to do this (Deacon Reference Deacon1989; Seyfarth & Cheney Reference Seyfarth and Cheney2003a). Emotions related to knowledge of abstract concepts have been discussed in Cacioppo et al. (Reference Cacioppo, Petty, Feinstein and Jarvis1996), Levine and Perlovsky (Reference Levine and Perlovsky2008; Reference Levine and Perlovsky2010), Perlovsky (Reference Perlovsky2009b; Reference Perlovsky2010c), and Perlovsky et al. (Reference Perlovsky, Bonniot-Cabanac and Cabanac2010), and emotions related to creativity discussed in Levine and Perlovsky (Reference Levine and Perlovsky2010), Lubart and Getz (Reference Lubart and Getz1997), and Pfenninger and Shubik (Reference Pfenninger and Shubik2001). “Emotions of the beautiful” are discussed in Biederman and Vessel (Reference Biederman and Vessel2006), Dorfman et al. (Reference Dorfman, Locher and Martindale2006), Perlovsky (Reference Perlovsky2002; Reference Perlovsky2006c; Reference Perlovsky2010b; Reference Perlovsky2010a), Tooby and Cosmides (Reference Tooby and Cosmides2001), and in Silvia (Reference Silvia2005). Yet the “beautiful” is mentioned only once in the target article: “A painting is beautiful” (sect. 3, para. 5). Emotions pertaining to the beautiful are not mentioned.

In the Perlovsky studies cited above, I have discussed evidence and other studies relating “emotions of the beautiful,” as discussed by Kant, to the need for knowledge; aesthetic emotional mechanisms are essential in every act of perception and cognition; at the level of perception they are autonomous and below the threshold of consciousness, at “higher” levels of cognition they could be experienced as conscious emotions; they are in complicated interaction with cultural discussions of these emotions in language (which usually are more conscious). The origin of aesthetic emotional mechanisms is in the need to adapt mental representations to concrete conditions around us. Contradictions between basic drives and knowledge, as well as within the system of knowledge, cause emotions of cognitive dissonances. A need to resolve these contradictions emotionally is related to the origin of music. (These emotions are usually “continuous” because the number of contradictions, and therefore the number of emotions, is combinatorially large; Spinoza [Reference Spinoza and Curley1677/2005] was the first one to mention that emotions differ depending on the object of reference.)

Lindquist et al. mention in conclusion that emotions and cognition might be a unified process:

But no discussion was devoted to emotions related to cognition “above” perception of concrete objects. An opportunity to study specifically human “high” cognitive emotions has been lost.