According to Stuart Zola Morgan of the University of California at San Diego, and others, the hippocampus is strongly involved in the storage and processing of memory. This view is supported by evidence that the hippocampus and neighboring brain structures are thought to be involved in the control of emotions. The limbic system, which is well developed in all mammals as well as in the human brain, also appears to be involved with emotional experiences and expression. Therefore mammals would seem to have the required neurological equipment for the experiencing of emotion.⁴⁸

Both positive and negative emotions, in addition to drives, have aided the evolution of intelligence in the direction of increasing complexity. All drives and emotions result in various forms of behavior. Certain behaviors facilitate the survival of an organism, and others are counterproductive and ultimately lead to death. Those behaviors which facilitate survival are filtered out through natural selection and are kept, and become either inbred through genetic programming--therefore becoming automatic behavioral programs--or are learned when taught by one generation to the next. There are many examples of both throughout the animal kingdom. The positive emotion of interest results in the behaviors of investigation, exploration, experimentation and learning, as well as cognitive development.

Emotional states that are focused can be a prerequisite for analytical, critical, logical and rational processes. Specific emotions have also been identified to coexist with altered states.⁴⁹

Lorenz has concluded that the mind-brain complex of various animal species, including man, have certain innate properties--such as curiosity and exploratory behavior--which create motivation. He believes that curiosity and exploratory behavior are internally generated and are unrelated to genes, experience or learning. Exploratory behavior is self-motivated learning, and is similar to the drive to pursue research that certain scientists have.⁵⁰...One might say that his concept of curiosity is synonymous with the emotion of interest. Both curiosity and interest, as defined by Lorenz and Izard respectively, lead to the motivated behavior of exploration and learning. Either would provide the "fuel" that helps drive the evolutionary machinery in the direction of increasing complexity and greater intelligence.

The emotion of joy facilitates creativity and social responsiveness since both tend to produce this desirable feeling. The negative emotion of distress promotes remedial strategies and problem-solving as well as creativity. The negative emotion of shame stimulates social responsibility and self-improvement when properly dealt with. Anger when directed constructively can prove to be a source of strength and courage, and supplements the basic survival instinct. Fear provides motivation for avoiding dangerous and survival-threatening situations.⁵¹...It has resulted in the evolution of a large multitude of fight-or-flight behaviors within the animal world. Cats hump their backs and hiss, chickens flap their wings, some animals stay motionless, and others run. The more intelligent behaviors, whether learned or inbred, have the greatest statistical chance of survival within any species. By definition, any behavior that is selected out and maintained within any species, thus enhancing its chance of survival, is a more intelligent behavioral pattern than one that is eradicated because it is maladaptive.

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