How Your Emotions Are Born and How They Work

Emotions are not inborn, as we once believed. Neuroscientists introduce a new theory, offering a more objective explanation for the creation of emotions. Here's a simple breakdown...

Dec 03, 2023

The brain is the emotions maker. — Photo Created by DALL-E 4

Hello friend! I hope your week went well. Welcome to a new edition of "Books Mixture." In this mixture, we will explore emotions—the multitude of derivatives that our brains construct, perhaps even thousands of variations every day, maybe even every hour.

Emotions play a significant role in our daily lives, influencing decisions and shaping our perceptions of others and the world around us. Therefore, it is vital to comprehend how they work and dispel any myths rooted in classical views of emotions or societal dictates about what emotions are and how they are formed.

Scientists have conducted extensive research on emotions, specifically focusing on the brain. Today, science has uncovered much more evidence than in the past regarding how our brain generates emotions, debunking many previously held beliefs.

This story will exclusively be based on "How Emotions are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain" by Lisa Feldman Barrett — a neuroscientist and psychologist.

I am thoroughly enjoying this book, as it dispels numerous misconceptions I had about emotions. It is already helping me understand my emotions better and encouraging me to empathize more with the emotions of those around me.

I hope you find value in it as well! So, let’s dive in...

Emotions Are Constructed

According to the emotion construction theory proposed by Barrett and a larger group of scientists, they assert, based on scientific evidence, that the brain constructs emotions on the fly instead of reacting to stimuli with predetermined responses to the world around you.

Here are the details of how this process unfolds:

Your brain creates simulations all the time

Let's pose a question: Have you ever seen an X-ray of your own or someone else's organs before? If you're a doctor, you may have encountered one, but let's recall the first time you saw it. Did your brain immediately make sense of it? Most likely not, as it appeared as a dark image with some light spots forming a figure. Initially, it probably didn't make much sense because your brain lacked past experiences to interpret what the X-ray meant.

Suppose the doctor explaining the X-ray provided additional context or showed you a colored, lifelike image of the organ in question. Upon revisiting the X-ray, your brain would likely make sense of it, connecting the dots in the figure that previously seemed unclear.

What your brain engages in after seeing the colorful image is a simulation. Simulations can manifest visually or through other sensory inputs, such as the persistent song playing in your head—a form of audio simulation.

Barrett shares a story of hosting a "gross food" birthday party for her 12-year-old daughter, where vegetables were manipulated to resemble vomit, apple drinks were served in urine cups, and certain foods were altered to resemble baby poo.

As one can imagine, despite the awareness that it was all a trick, people generally felt disgusted, and some even gagged at the visuals they encountered.

In every waking moment, you’re faced with ambiguous, noisy information from your eyes, ears, nose, and other sensory organs. Your brain uses your past experiences to construct a hypothesis — the simulation — and compares it to the cacophony arriving from your senses. In this manner, simulation lets your brain impose meaning on the noise, selecting what’s relevant and ignoring the rest.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 27).

Barret and another large group of scientists suggest that simulation is the default mode for our brains when they try to make sense of the world around us. And, that it is the key to understanding how emotions are made.

What’s a “concept“?

To understand what a concept is, Barrett describes this example. Let’s imagine you see a bee bouncing around flowers, searching for pollen. If you have been stung by a bee before, you will most likely feel fear or the urge to run away or make sudden movements. If you love bees or the image of flowers and nature, then you will create a poetic view in your head, feeling good about it. Both feelings will likely have physical changes in your body, like lower blood pressure, a fast heartbeat, or activated sweat glands.

Every time your brain makes a simulation, there are physical changes attached to that.

Now, your bee-related simulations are coming from your concept of what a “Bee“ is. Is it a monster that is there to sting you, or a lovely creature moving between flowers?

A concept is a tool that your brain uses to create meaning or a translation of things around you. Without a concept, every sensory input around you will seem like noise—exactly like the X-ray example described above.

With concepts, your brain simulates so invisibly and automatically that vision, hearing, and your other senses seem like reflexes rather than constructions.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 29).

Concepts also create meaning for the tastes and smells we encounter. For example, you most likely assume that pink ice creams are strawberry-flavored, based on your past experience. If you taste it and find out that it tastes like salmon, you’d probably be disgusted and most likely wouldn’t eat it. If, however, it is labeled as having a salmon taste, then you will eat it fine, and you can even enjoy it (assuming you like salmon).

To understand it even more, let’s take this last example: if you are sitting in a dinner waiting for food and experience stomachache, you will assume this is hunger. If someone you love enters the room and your stomach starts aching, you will assume this is longing. If the flu season is around, you’ll think it’s the flu, and so on.

In all of the above emotional cases—hunger, longing, and sickness—the concept derived in your brain is an emotion concept.

In every waking moment, your brain uses past experience, organized as concepts, to guide your actions and give your sensations meaning. When the concepts involved are emotion concepts, your brain constructs instances of emotion.

Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 31).

Debunking Myths About Emotions

In the classical theory of emotions, Darwin and other scientists assumed that emotions are inborn and triggered and that anyone can anticipate which emotion they should feel in certain situations.

Additionally, it assumes that facial expressions are universal and predictable and that all humans on Earth should exhibit the same facial expression for different emotions like fear, sadness, joy, etc.

The theory had numerous gaps that research and experiments have proven over the years. Neuroscience has demystified most of the myths around emotions, except for the "emotion construction" theory.

Here are some of the myths from the classical view of emotions.

Myth #1 — Emotions are triggered

Emotions are not reactions to the world. You are not a passive receiver of sensory input but an active constructor of your emotions. From sensory input and past experience, your brain constructs meaning and prescribes action.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 31).

Research has shown that there is no such thing as emotions triggering. In different situations, humans construct various types of emotions. Barrett draws a kitchen analogy to explain this, stating that the brain is the kitchen with all the ingredients, and emotions are like cookies. Cookies come in different shapes, flavors, and textures, and even within every category of cookies (e.g., chocolate cookies), there can be different variations (white, almond, dark chocolate, etc.).

Emotions are created by your brain on the fly; whenever you experience something, your brain attempts to make sense of it rapidly, drawing from your past experiences, culture, identity, and your worldview.

We all perceive the world through perspectives that, while practical, may not be universally true in an absolute, objective sense. Concerning emotions, social construction theories explore how our social roles or beliefs shape our feelings and perceptions.

Myth #2 — Emotions have fingerprints

Emotions are made, not triggered; emotions are highly variable, without fingerprints; and emotions are not, in principle, distinct from cognitions and perceptions.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 34).

When you assume that something has a fingerprint, you have to assume that it resides somewhere. Scientists have not been able to locate any dedicated place in the brain where emotions live.

My anger doesn’t necessarily have to look like your anger. The physical changes that happen to my body when I am angry can be utterly and completely different from what happens in yours. Yes, if we come from the same environment, there might be certain overlaps, and our emotional and physical changes won’t differ greatly.

Specific notions such as "Anger" and "Disgust" are not inherently programmed in our genes. Your usual emotional concepts are ingrained solely due to your upbringing in a specific social environment where these emotions hold significance and utility. Your brain automatically employs them, often without your awareness, to construct your perceptions.

While changes in heart rate are inevitable, the emotional interpretation attached to them is not fixed. Different cultures can assign varied meanings to the same sensory input.

Myth #3 Emotions are predicted from facial expressions

We don’t recognize emotions or identify emotions: we construct our own emotional experiences, and our perceptions of others’ emotions, on the spot, as needed, through a complex interplay of systems.
Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 40).

Emotions can’t be “recognized” or “detected” based on the facial expressions of others because they simply don’t have a fingerprint that is waiting to be found.

In the emotion construction mindset, emotions are perceived. Perception is a complex mental process that doesn’t mean recognizing a neural fingerprint behind the emotion shaping, such as facial expression, heart rate, or blood pressure. It is much more complex than that.

Emotion perception has social meaning. Every person translates an emotion in another person based solely on their own perception of what anger, fear, love, or joy means. This means that there is no such thing as “accurate” emotion prediction.

So, How Are Emotions Made?

The theory of constructed emotion weaves together insights from three distinct construction perspectives, each shedding light on the intricate nature of emotional experiences.

#1 Social Construction

This aspect is about the impact of social values and cultural context on our perceptions and behaviors. For instance, the debate about Pluto's planetary status illustrates how cultural decisions, not astrophysical realities, shape our understanding. In the realm of emotions, social construction theories explore how our social roles and beliefs influence our feelings and perceptions. Notably, these theories tend to sideline biology, emphasizing the role of social roles in triggering emotions.

#2 Psychological Construction

This perspective shifts the focus inward, proposing that perceptions, thoughts, and feelings are detailed constructions emerging from more fundamental elements. It views emotions as constructed from basic components, challenging the classical view of dedicated brain mechanisms for each emotion.

#3 Neuroconstruction

This perspective extends the construction framework to the physical architecture of the brain. It recognizes that the brain's macro structure is predetermined, but the micro-level wiring is shaped by experience.

The concept of plasticity highlights how genes can be influenced by experience, leading to the formation of synapses through interactions and stimuli. Neuroconstruction explains developmental phenomena, such as an infant's ability to recognize faces shortly after birth, influenced by early cultural experiences and interactions with caregivers.

The theory of constructed emotion incorporates elements of all three flavors of construction. From social construction, it acknowledges the importance of culture and concepts. From psychological construction, it considers emotions to be constructed by core systems in the brain and body. And from neuroconstruction, it adopts the idea that experience wires the brain.

Barrett, Lisa Feldman. How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain (p. 35).

Closing Thoughts

Human beings aren't beholden to mythical emotion circuits hidden deep within the primitive parts of our highly developed brains; instead, we are the architects of our own experiences. Despite this, our everyday encounters contradict these notions, as emotions appear to surface suddenly, disrupting our thoughts or actions like unexpected bombs.

Similarly, observing the facial expressions and body language of others seemingly reveals their emotions effortlessly, even when they may be unaware of it themselves. The same goes for our interactions with animals, such as growling dogs and purring cats, where we intuitively sense their emotions. However, these personal encounters, while persuasive, do not unveil how the brain constructs emotions any more than our observation of the sun's apparent movement implies that it revolves around the Earth.

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