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A Finnish study (2013) looks at how changes in our bodies could shape how we experience emotions.
Witnessing two lovers reunite on screen elicits feelings of happiness. Watching someone throw up triggers feelings of disgust. It's generally accepted that these emotions are categorically distinct from one another in our minds and new research shows our bodily responses to specific emotions may also be distinct. The study was published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences.
What triggers conscious emotional feelings has long been a topic of debate among scientists. "We often get a sensation of 'I am happy now or I am sad now.' So where do these [feelings] arise from?" asks Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa, assistant professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Aalto University School of Science in Finland. Uncovering the source of physical activity is what Nummenmaa sought to accomplish.
Some scholars believe that a feeling of anger, for example, triggers changes in our body's responses and that when we become aware of these changes, that awareness actually helps us to construct conscious representations of a feeling, says Nummenmaa...
