Recognizing X from EEG: Is X Really Emotion?

Understanding emotions is key to Affective Computing and in many other research and application fields. Therefore, researchers are working on various strategies to recognize emotions, e.g., emotion recognition from EEG signals - a rapidly growing area of research in recent years. This scientific study of emotions is based on the assumption that emotions can be identified objectively (locationist approach). At the same time, studies have shown that emotions are complex internal experiences. As such, they cannot be objectively identified, nor do they have a unique fingerprint in measurable human behavior, physiology or neurology (constructionist approach). In this paper, we argue for a more sophisticated view on emotions taking other emotional components into account.