"The brain does not begin with a single emotion waiting to be labelled. It begins with ongoing streams of interoceptive and sensory data-signals from the body, the environment, and the relational context-that are continuously shaped by prediction. Emotional experience emerges when the brain categorises this data using learned concepts, drawing on past experience, cultural knowledge, and situational expectations. Importantly, this categorisation does not need to resolve into one definitive emotion. It can be partial, multiple, or delayed."
"Emotion labels, in this sense, are not discoveries. They are learned predictive categories the brain uses to make sense of bodily and contextual signals-useful, but not inherently final. Predictive efficiency under relational risk In environments where emotional expression carried relational risk-such as criticism, shame, or loss of harmony-the brain often had limited opportunity to remain with emotionally ambiguous or unresolved internal states. Under these conditions, predictions that favoured speed, familiarity, and relational safety became more reliable than those requiring prolonged exploration of affective data."
The brain constructs emotional experience by categorising continuous interoceptive and sensory signals using learned concepts, past experience, cultural knowledge, and situational expectations. Emotion labels serve as predictive categories that help interpret bodily and contextual signals but remain provisional rather than definitive. Under relational risk, the brain prioritises predictions that favour speed, familiarity, and relational safety, compressing affect into safer, familiar meanings. Relational safety permits delayed closure, enabling predictions to update, supporting more flexible regulation and sustained exploration of ambiguous, partial, or multiple emotional possibilities.
Read at Psychology Today
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