This evening I took part in a computer experiment that was initially conducted by a team of scientists in Finland and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They asked participants to map out where there felt different emotions on their bodies. It is not unheard of for people to speak about the way love and happiness can trigger a warmth across the whole body. Nor is the saying ‘feeling blue’ when your sad. Lauri Nummenmaa, a psychologist at Aalto University stated “Our emotional system in the brain sends signals to the body so we can deal with our situation”. For example, when you feel fear your nervous system increases oxygen to your muscles and raises your heart rate so you can deal with the threat.
The experiment asked volunteers to look at 14 different emotions. Two blank silhouettes are presented and participants are asked to paint the first in areas that feel stimulated by that emotion and the second areas where the body can become deactivated during that emotion.
The experiment was quite fun, and really had me thinking about each emotion as well as noticing areas of similarity between them. I think it is really interesting that out of 700 volunteers not everybody painted each emotion in the same way. When the team averaged the maps together, signature patterns emerged for each emotion.
It has also been noted that when you change your own body language you can alter your mind. Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, who was not involved in this study, says he’s “delighted” by Nummenmaa’s findings because they offer more support for what he’s been suggesting for years: Each emotion activates a distinct set of body parts, he thinks, and the mind’s recognition of those patterns helps us consciously identify that emotion.
“People look at emotions as something in relation to other people,” Damasio, who is a professor at the University of Southern California, says. “But emotions also have to do with how we deal with the environment — threats and opportunities.” For those, Damasio says, you need your body as well as your mind.
