{"id":26479,"date":"2023-04-16T08:00:56","date_gmt":"2023-04-16T06:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=141568"},"modified":"2023-04-16T08:37:15","modified_gmt":"2023-04-16T06:37:15","slug":"negative-emotions-a-neuroscientist-explains-where-they-come-from-and-how-to-better-cope-with-them","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/negative-emotions-a-neuroscientist-explains-where-they-come-from-and-how-to-better-cope-with-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Negative emotions: A neuroscientist explains where they come from and how to better cope with them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sometimes you have to take the bad with the good. <\/p>

By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Sunday, 16 April 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Sadness, anger, fear \u2013 although they can be painful, negative emotions are an unavoidable part of the human experience. But why do we feel them so keenly and what is the best way to deal with them when they do arise?<\/p>\n

We speak to neuroscientist Dean Burnett<\/a>, author of Emotional Ignorance \u2013 Lost and Found\u00a0in the Science of Emotion. <\/em>He tells us about the latest research in this intriguing field, how scientists go about studying it and why we shouldn\u2019t be afraid of expressing our emotions.<\/p>\n

What do we know about where emotions come from?<\/h2>\n

The study of emotions is usually labelled affective neuroscience. Scientists have this term called \u2018affect\u2019, which is basically a way of describing the experience of having an emotion. There\u2019s a school of thought now that suggests that affect is like the raw building block of emotional experience. Our brains take this affect like a potter would clay and shape it into something which we recognise as an emotion as and when we need it.<\/p>\n

This is a constructivist view of emotions. The brain produces an emotional reaction to whatever happens to us and then uses this to say \u201cRight, in this case we need to be experiencing fear\u201d, so the brain generates a fear response. Or, in another case we experience an injustice so we need to generate an anger response.<\/p>\n

How can we study emotions?<\/h2>\n

You can study the neurological activity that\u2019s happening in the brain using brain scanners. If someone is saying they\u2019re scared, we would see activity in the amygdala, which is one of the emotional hubs in the brain that\u2019s involved in a lot of emotional processes.<\/p>\n

But if someone is experiencing disgust, by looking at disgusting sight or being told a disgusting story, they usually see increased activity in the insula cortex, which is a different part of the brain.<\/p>\n

Now, if you studied someone who was angry, you would see elevated activity in certain regions of the hypothalamus, which is to do with motivation. The anger makes us more motivated, as anyone who\u2019s been angry probably realises, so we want to do something about it. But the hypothalamus is not the part of the brain producing anger. So, is this a cause or effect?<\/p>\n

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Neuroscientists use brain scans to study how different areas of the brain are associated with different emotions.<\/span><\/figcaption> \u00a9 Getty Images<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

A lot of the most influential research was based on observing people\u2019s faces and recognising the expression they\u2019re showing. If you can recognise this in many cultures it suggests that there is a direct neurological link between what\u2019s happening in the brain, an emotion, and what\u2019s happening in your face.<\/p>\n

I think the more we study, the closer we will get to a set definition of emotions.<\/p>\n

Why do we often cry when we experience a negative emotion?<\/h2>\n

Crying is probably the most obvious example of emotions having a physical component. Everyone recognises it, babies cry, it\u2019s a very fundamental reflex. But it\u2019s way more complex than you perhaps anticipate. There are three types of tears: basal tears, which just keep your eyes wet on a day-to-day basis; reflex tears, which flush out onion vapour or dust if you get it in your eye; and psycho-emotive tears, which we experience when we have an emotional reaction to something.<\/p>\n

Psycho-emotive tears contain things like oxytocin or certain endorphins and hormones which aren\u2019t produced by the other types of tears. The emotional reaction we have causes a chemical response in our body. But what\u2019s the benefit? Why did we evolve the ability to leak water from our eyes when in an intense emotional state? There are arguments that this is actually a cue for other people around us. Because we are such a social, communicative species sharing our emotional state is a big part of our existence.<\/p>\n

So when someone is going through an intense emotional state and they start leaking water from their eyes, that\u2019s a sign for those around them to say \u201cOh, this person is in an extreme emotional state\u201d. They can then either help or join in. If they are happy tears, and you want to share that happiness, you say \u201cOh, what\u2019s going on? Why you so pleased? Can I have\u00a0 some happiness, please?\u201d. And that\u2019s a useful emotional trait. But even that doesn\u2019t really suggest why we have the chemical differences.<\/p>\n

There are some arguments that they might evaporate and then other people around us can sense emotions in the air via the oxytocin and other social hormones and become more emotionally available and then have an emotional connection to you. It\u2019s a theory. It\u2019s a tricky one to prove conclusively. But they\u2019ve done studies of people that have inhaled other people\u2019s tears and they have had different emotional responses to certain stimuli.<\/p>\n

Why do some of us deliberately seek out negative emotional experiences by listening to sad music or watching sad films?<\/h2>\n

That\u2019s something that was confusing to me too. When my father died from COVID and I was struggling with the grief and isolation because of lockdown I was exploring my own emotions and also some of the logjams I had because I wasn\u2019t an easy crier before this happened. I\u2019m far more so now because I\u2019m less emotionally ignorant.<\/p>\n

I had a head full of confused emotions so I was using sad things as a sort of emotional nicotine patch to make sure I did cry a bit. I\u2019m a big fan of Pixar films and they\u2019re very good at doing that. When you\u2019re looking for the entertainments which make you sad or make you cry, you\u2019re pretty much spoilt for choice, which objectively is sort of counterintuitive because nobody wants to be sad. It\u2019s a negative emotion. We try to avoid it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same with anger and fear: there are loads entertainments out there which are designed to produce these exact emotional states.<\/p>\n

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Watching sad films can help to prepare our brains for real-life sad experiences.<\/span><\/figcaption> \u00a9 Getty Images<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

A lot of that is because we are fixated on being happy and we do what we can to make ourselves happier, or at least we avoid stress. So, we avoid negative emotions where we can. But that\u2019s not necessarily the best approach when it comes to wellbeing. When you experience a negative emotion it\u2019s novel, which your brain likes anyway, but if it\u2019s in a safe context that means your brain gets to experience an emotion it doesn\u2019t normally experience.<\/p>\n

This allows your brain to become better at processing and handling that emotional state for later use. It\u2019s basically like taking your mind to the gym. You say \u201cRight, okay. I don\u2019t usually get to do fear. Let\u2019s watch a scary film to fire up the fear system\u201d. Then the brains goes \u201cOkay, this is how you handle fear, I got some good practice with that\u201d.<\/p>\n

If you want to you can leave the cinema or put the book down. You\u2019re in full control. You\u2019re just indulging yourself in this emotional state. People who like listen to sad music or watch sad films are better able to handle sad situations when they happen for real.<\/p>\n

Similar data, which I\u2019ve always liked, is that heavy metal fans, despite what appearances and stereotypes may suggest, tend to be the least angry people. They are the hardest to make angry, and they handle things a lot more passively and calmly because the music they listen to and they love induces anger in them on a regular basis. Their brain has the ability to go \u201cRight, this is supposed to make me angry. I know what anger is like. I\u2019m just going to file that away and not worry about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what these entertainments do for us. They give us the ability to indulge in a negative emotion at little or no risk to ourselves. So your brain gets to do the work and reap the benefits with little cost. Essential emotional states are experienced and make our brain just generally better and healthier.<\/p>\n

What are some of the key things that you have learned through researching emotions?<\/h2>\n

I think I\u2019ve learnt that emotions are really important, way more important than I ever gave them credit for. Even in most scientific fields they are oftentimes just an afterthought, but they affect so much of who we are and what we do. Everything we think, do and feel is influenced or impacted by, or even caused directly by, our emotional state.<\/p>\n

There are obviously instances where you should keep them under control or not act on them, but we should avoid bottling up, and I don\u2019t just mean the masculine stoic \u2018must not show emotions thing\u2019. Even the positivity movement that says you must be happy at all times, that you can choose to be happy too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s just another way of bottling up. You have a negative emotion but feel that that\u2019s wrong and then force yourself to have a different emotion. That\u2019s just as unhelpful as saying you must not show emotion. If anything, some research has found that showing a different emotion from the one you\u2019re feeling can be even more stressful, and may cause more damage overall, than just not showing anything.<\/p>\n

I would say what I\u2019ve learned most is not to try to suppress emotions. They are valid and they are essential. I think the idea that you have to be rational and logical at all times is not only impracticable, it\u2019s incorrect. I would also say it\u2019s impossible because emotions influence way too much of our thoughts. They are like the cement which holds the bricks of our mind together and the idea you can just suppress them and that will get rid of them is both wrong and unhelpful.<\/p>\n

About our expert, Dean Burnett<\/h4>\n

Dean is a neuroscientist, author, blogger, occasional comedian and all-round \u2018science guy\u2019. He is the author of the the popular Guardian Science blog\u00a0<\/span>Brain Flapping<\/em>\u00a0(now\u00a0<\/span>Brain Yapping<\/em> on the Cosmic Shambles Network with accompanying podcast), the bestselling books Emotional Intelligence<\/em>, <\/span>The Idiot Brain<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>The Happy Brain<\/em>, and his first book aimed at teens,\u00a0<\/span>Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up the Wall and What To Do About It<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more about psychology:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n