Incredible map reveals how the brain processes different emotions

"They created an artificial 'mental map', with pleasantness along one axis and bodily reactions along the other, and charted how the brain responded while watching clips from films. The results revealed clear groupings in the way that our brains represent emotion - with guilt, anger and disgust in one corner and happiness, satisfaction and pride in the other."

"The findings could help explain why fear, anxiety and anger all elicit the same bodily response - rapid breathing and a beating heart - and all carry a similar level of unpleasantness. Meanwhile love, pride and warmheartedness are all mapped closely together, showing how these emotions are also comparable."

"Research has shown that individuals with depression and anxiety represent emotions in a more compressed, less differentiated way. And that people who represent emotion with more granularity and differentiation..."

Researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze brain imaging data from 30 participants watching emotionally evocative film clips, creating a mental map that charts how the brain processes different emotions. The map uses pleasantness and bodily reactions as its axes, revealing clear emotional groupings: guilt, anger, and disgust cluster together, while happiness, satisfaction, and pride occupy another region. Fear, anxiety, and anger produce similar bodily responses like rapid breathing and elevated heart rate, explaining their neurological similarity. Love, pride, and warmheartedness map closely together, demonstrating comparable emotional experiences. The findings suggest brains embed emotions in organized, map-like patterns. Researchers plan to investigate how this mental map differs in individuals with mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

Read at Mail Online