I’m always interested in new research findings and recently came across an intriguing research study that I thought I would share with you. This research into emotions, and where we experience them in the body, was conducted by Aalto University in five separate experiments with over 700 participants from two very different cultures. The results were recently published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (US).
This picture presents the bodily topography of basic and more complex emotions associated with words. The body maps show regions whose activation increased (warm colors) or decreased (cool colors) when feeling each emotion.
The study concluded that emotional feelings are associated with discrete, but partially overlapping (maps of) bodily sensations, which could be at the core of the emotional experience. Unraveling of the subjective bodily sensations associated with human emotions may help us to better understand emotional processing, including emotional disorders.
Definitely interesting findings. You can read the entire report of the study here (the pdf takes a while to load).
TINY LESSONS BLOG 
Very interesting!
I thought so too!
I am not sure about color for depression. Would be blue if immobilized by depression, red if deeply pained ?
I am not an expert, but after reading the whole study, I’d interpret the blue color to mean that people who experienced depression had a decreased level of bodily sensations. Red color in this study would represent increased sensations due to an emotion. I think we need to remember that this study did not measure pain as such.
what a wonderful blog sharing a very interesting survey !!!!! many tks
I’m happy you liked it Paolo. I think the results are indeed very interesting.
You know how much I love this stuff! I am so glad that science is finding ways to document and analyze this.
Amen to that Cyndi!
Fascinating stuff! Thanks for sharing.
You’re welcome!
this is fascinating … more so to me as I work with a form of yoga nidra which involves body sensing, and specifically feeling where and how emotions and thoughts affect the body … thanks tiny 🙂
Then this study is right in your alley 🙂
absolutely … I have printed the image and read the study, a useful tool when I am teaching 🙂
Great 🙂
So interesting!
It is! I’m still pondering the maps…
Most definitely good ‘stuff.” 🙂
Yes, it is and it can be useful in many different situations.
The State of Happiness looks the best to me; glowing all over!
Happiness “glows” the head like a halo …and love is another good one 🙂
Yes.
It’s interesting to see how well the observed physiology matches up to our own sensory information. Depression–you’re just cold and numb and the scan shows that in the depressed temperatures at the body extremities. Anger–you’re hot and flushed in the upper body (“hot headed”) and so on. I particularly appreciated happiness 🙂
Me too! Happiness is illuminating! I’ve been looking at these body maps carefully and they really match well the sensations I too experience.
Love how closely Happiness & Love resemble each other! 🙂
yes, I noticed that too. Lots of emotional activity 🙂
Of the best kind!
Right! Let’s just keep it to those two and not try the other ones.
Cool….
Cool … or warm. Have a warm colored weekend David.
Indeed. Very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Love’s sensation to the lower extremities may explain the phrase “my legs gave out”?
Thanks Tahira. I think you’re onto something there!
Fascinating, happiness and love are definitely the ones to work toward. ~ Dennis
I think so too. There is quite a bit to ponder in these maps.