An interoceptive network, along with the affective niche it helps create, is not sufficient for feeling and perceiving emotions. For that, a brain must also be equipped to build a conceptual system, to construct emotion concepts, and to make sensations meaningful as emotions in themselves and others. A hypothetical macaque with the capacity for emotions must be able to look at another macaque swinging in a tree and see not only the physical movement but an instance of “Joy.”
