In your brain, there is more neural traffic rising from your limbic system to your cerebral cortex than the other way around. One more piece of hard evidence that your emotion is an integral, if not dominant, part of your decision making. Let me explain.
In very simple terms, your limbic system controls your emotions, while your cerebral cortex controls your rational cognitive processes. When you are faced with a stimulus or new situation, both systems work together to determine your reaction (behavior).
Your emotions first establish the domain of possible behaviors - for example, a stimulus might evoke your attention and interest, and your emotional impulse is to move towards it and examine it closer. Your rational cognitive process serves as a secondary pathway, which modulates your emotional impulse - for example, the stimulus is a cute outfit on a stranger. Your rational consideration tells you that it is not cool to simply approach a stranger and gawk at her clothes. So, you discretely turn your head as though you are looking at something behind her while checking her out.
The fact that there is more neural traffic from your emotion system to your rational processes says a lot about what is really driving your behavior. It suggests that in the interactions between your 'feeling' and your 'thinking', your feeling part has a lot more say. Hmmm...
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