Who else wants to know about emotions?

Some situations make us happy and some make us sad, but have you ever questioned yourself what’s going inside your body at this time? Is it good or bad?

What are emotions?

Emotions are the responses to a situation. Some scientists believe that there are thousands of emotions but Paul Eckan proposed that there are six main emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, disgust and anger. Other emotions are a mixture of these six emotions.

let’s know what happens in your body when you feel certain emotion

Your brain is the region that causes you to feel the way you feel at certain moments. Your brain has parts that work together to make you feel the way you do. For activating these parts you have your 6 senses that will tell your brain parts when to activate.

The names of these parts are:

• Hypothalamus
• Hippocampus
• Amygdala
• Limbic cortex
• Prefrontal cortex
• Precuneus
• Occipital lobe
• Frontal cortex
• Gyrus
• Insular cortex

Quite complex names! But don’t worry you’ll pass through them.

To know more about these parts click here https://cooldata.science.blog/2022/09/02/brain-parts/

How do you get afraid?

When you see something dangerous, your hypothalamus (a part deep in your brain) and amygdala(a structure of cells in the middle of the brain) become active and work together as good friends and make you feel scared. I saw a snake!

How do you get angry?

Amygdala and hypothalamus control anger but they need another friend that is called the prefrontal cortex(a part that is at the front of the brain). These three work together and make you feel angry. How dare you slap me!

How do you get happy?

You become happy when your limbic cortex(an area inside the brain that plays a key role in emotional regulation)becomes active. Your brain also has a part called precuneus that makes you happy. Let’s say you had a gathering; you enjoyed it a lot and when you think about it you become happy. The part that helps you get those memories back is called precuneus. Hurrey, we won the match!

How do you become sad?

The hippocampus is the part that causes your sadness because it makes memories. you’ll feel sad whenever you think about that bad memory. That’s not just it. Your sadness is also the result of the activity of your right occipital(brain has for lobes and occipital is one of them and it’s located at the back of your head), the left thalamus(egg shaped structure in the middle of the brain) and amygdala. I am worthless!

How do you feel disgusted?

Activation and connection of the left amygdala, frontal cortex and insular cortex (a region inside the brain that is not visible from the surface view) causes the feeling of disgust. Yuck, that worm is so ugly!

How do you become surprised?

Feeling surprised is due to the activation of gyrus(raised lines on the surface of the brain) and hippocampus. Wow, what a cute puppy!

Do your hormones also play a role in emotions?

Yes, your hormones(body’s chemical messengers) play a role in emotions. They are released by your brain in response to certain conditions like: when you hug someone important to you, your brain releases a chemical called oxytocin and as a result you become happy.

How do hormones work?

Let’s understand this with an example. Imagine you have seen a lion and it’s coming towards you and he hasn’t eaten anything for one week. Then what will happen? Your heart beats and blood pressure will increase. Your digestion will inhibit. Your breathing rate will increase and you’ll run faster than you usually do.

Why will this happen? because in fear and anger, your brain releases adrenaline.

When these hormones are released, they travel through blood and reach targeted cells that will perform action like running fast.

Do genes play any role in your emotions?

Yes, studies have shown that the sensitivity of emotions in a person is due to genes. The sensitive person experiences emotions more intensely than a usual person does.

Negative emotions are not negative!

You may think that being scared, angry, sad and disgusted is a bad thing. But no these are not bad things. These are good. How? Let’s say, you are going in front of an audience and you are so scared and questions are coming to your mind: what if I said anything wrong? What if they’ll laugh at me? Thinking this is not a bad thing because your brain is just helping you to prepare yourself for facing the audience. It’s informing you there are people out there who want to listen to you so be careful and show them how capable you are.