what physiological responses create bodily sensations of emotions?
October 26, 2022 1:16 AM   Subscribe

Certain emotions seem to be strongly associated with specific bodily sensations and reactions, for example, burning with anger, butterflies in the stomach, cold feet, blushing. Are there any good guides for non-specialists that provide an overview of the physiological phenomena responsible for these sensations?

I am not so much looking for complete theories of how emotional states are constructed rather than explanations of they type "X brain area becomes activated, releasing neurotransmitter Y, which upregulates hormone Z and causes vasoconstriction in regions A, B, and C".
Would be especially interested responses related to shame and long-term fear/anxiety, like, seriously, why does the skin on my triceps feel hot and uncomfortable when I worry about my retirement savings?
posted by nanny's striped stocking to Science & Nature (9 answers total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
Some of these are relatively straightforward.

Butterflies in the stomach, and other stress/fear/excitement type feelings that affect your stomach is as a result of your sympathetic nervous system getting ready for a fight or flighr response.

When something scary, stressful or exciting happens to you, adrenaline and cortisol increase, and they both come from the adrenal glands located just above your kidneys. Both of these hormones kick your body into high alert, flood your stomach, slow your digestion, divert blood away from your digestive system as in an emergency situation, digestion is not a priority.

You can feel the effects of that in your stomach.

This is also why it's fairly common to feel particularly anxious or grumpy in the morning, as your body dumps cortisol into your bloodstream to help you wake up.
posted by Zumbador at 2:26 AM on October 26, 2022 [3 favorites]


I’m less interested in emphasising a mechanistic / physiological basis for explaining this stuff, because it seems like it doesn’t add much insight into why it should feel a certain distinctive way when there’s some kind of vasoconstriction or whatever going on. Instead - I tend to think that we’re naming a whole co-occurring complex of conscious & physiological events when we say that we’re experiencing shame or joy or anxiety or whatever. Not because one part of the complex causes another in any fundamental way - but more because they always happen at the same time in the same circumstances, so that they’re properly named under the same general heading. The emotional & the physiological are two different explanatory vocabularies, neither of which is prior to the other, and each of which might be useful in different contexts.

But since you asked for good non-specialist guides, I’ll recommend Being You by Anil Seth.
posted by Puppy McSock at 5:47 AM on October 26, 2022


For some of the physiological aspects of long-term anxiety/stress, look up 'allostatic overload' or 'allostatic load'.
posted by heatherlogan at 6:01 AM on October 26, 2022


Blushing is in itself a physiological response, not an emotional state.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 6:20 AM on October 26, 2022 [1 favorite]


Google 'heat map of emotions' to get articles like this
posted by OHenryPacey at 6:54 AM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


To learn more about the long term effects of stress / negative emotions on the body, you could look into:

Racial Weathering (although it should properly be called Racism Weathering because it's not "race" that causes it - that framing blames the victim's race - it's actually caused by racism)

Minority Stress

Social Stress Theory

Decision Fatigue which can lead to increased difficulty making healthy choices such as with diet or avoiding substance use and thus spiral into health consequences

Restraint Collapse

Masking Fatigue (in the context of autism)

The Marshmallow Test and how succeeding at it isn't actually about the person's ability to delay gratification, but rather shows that the person has a relatively low low stress level and high sense of security and predictability in their life.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 10:32 AM on October 26, 2022 [2 favorites]


Best answer: In Behave, Robert Sapolsky writes about the interplay of emotions, brain activity, hormones, etc. It's fairly technical, but interesting. His 1st year neurobiology lectures at Stanford are available online. highly recommend.
posted by theora55 at 11:33 AM on October 26, 2022


Best answer: I came back to AskMeFi just now to write how the answers to my "what does a karaoke machine DO exactly?" question didn't answer the question at all, but I came across this question first (because it's a question I have also) and now I think the insufficiency of these answers are even worse than the ones I got about karaoke.

general "stress response" is not the answer here.

I ALSO want to know why my arms burn when I'm anxious, etc. Let's say, as opposed to my head itching. The questioner is asking about the physiological specifics OF the "stress response," and it's a fine question. I've, in fact, asked numerous doctors questions about this, and, in one annoying way after another, they all say (or imply), "WE DON'T REALLY KNOW."

Okay, so that's my answer to the question.

"You could look it up, but you're not going to find much, because little is known about the SPECIFIC CONNECTIONS you're thinking about" (and if you dwell on it too much, and communicate that, you're going to wind up with a GAD diagnosis (at least).
posted by DMelanogaster at 9:22 AM on October 27, 2022 [1 favorite]




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