Emotional Brain

Most of us experience a range of emotions as we go about our daily lives, from happiness and contentment to fear and anger. Music and films also manipulate our emotions, from the joyous rush of a dance track to a weepy movie. But people also experience emotions when their minds are just aimlessly drifting, and scientists are now able to spy on these feelings using a brain-scanning technique called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Researchers have found that different emotions evoke distinct patterns of activity in the brain, highlighted in these images. Contentment is shown in red (top left), amusement is yellow (bottom left), fear is teal (top middle), surprise is green (bottom middle), anger is blue (top right) and sadness is dark blue (bottom right). This kind of research could help to reveal the feelings of people with conditions that mean they struggle to understand or communicate their emotions.

Written by Kat Arney

Kat Arney

Writer

Dr Kat Arney is an award-winning science writer, broadcaster and public speaker, and is the founder and Creative Director of First Create The Media.

Website

• Image from work by Philip A. Kragel and colleagues
• Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
• Image originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Biology, September 2016