A new study showed that most common emotions trigger strong bodily sensations. For example, falling in love may bring a warm and pleasurable feeling all over the body while anxiety may be experienced as a pain in the chest.
The research was conducted on over 700 individuals from Finland, Sweden and Taiwan. It highlighted that emotions along with their corresponding bodily sensation patterns actually have a biological basis. These sensations are an important feature of our emotional experiences, according to the new study.
The researchers tried to trigger different emotional states in each and every participant. They were shown pictures of human bodies on a computer, and were then asked to color the bodily regions of whose activity they felt was decreasing and increasing. The researchers found the results to be very encouraging in the end.
Apparently, most common emotions trigger strong bodily sensations, and the bodily map of these sensations was different for different emotions.
"Emotions adjust not only our mental, but also our bodily states. This way the prepare us to react swiftly to the dangers, but also to the opportunities such as pleasurable social interactions present in the environment. Awareness of the corresponding bodily changes may subsequently trigger the conscious emotional sensations, such as the feeling of happiness," said assistant professor Lauri Nummenmaa from Aalto University.
"The findings have major implications for our understanding of the functions of emotions and their bodily basis. On the other hand, the results help us to understand different emotional disorders and provide novel tools for their diagnosis," the professor went on to add.
The findings are important as they not only present the bodily basis of the function of our emotions, but may also help us to understand different emotional disorders and provide the right tools for their diagnosis in the future.
We could also see this being used to help people with mental disorders or even those with a past of extreme anger. Though time will tell if it will work, when it comes to science, it's worth a try.
