Emotions play a central role in human and animal lives and relationships. As conscious humans, we label and define many of the emotions we are aware of experiencing. But emotions also operate on a subconscious level. They are evolutionarily ancient, rooted in how brains and bodies are wired for survival.
During an emotion, activity in the brain triggers responses in the body. For example, during fear, the heart may beat faster. During sadness, tears may well up in the eyes. For a long time, scientists thought individual emotions arose from specific regions of the brain: The amygdala was thought to be responsible for fear, for example. But as neuroscience techniques and insights advance, it has become clear that multiple networks of neurons and parts of the brain are active during each emotion. "We should be thinking of it more like an orchestra, not a solo act," says Lindsey Salay, Caltech postdoctoral scholar in biology and biological engineering.
How the brain produces emotions is an area of active research, and scientists have only begun to scratch the surface. Learn how neuroscientists approach the study of emotions, techniques to study emotions in the lab, and why studying these brain processes is important for mental health treatment in the video below.
