Where is emotional feeling felt in the body? An integrative review

Abstract

Contemporary research on “embodied emotion” emphasizes the role of the body in emotional feeling. The evidence base on interoception, arguably the most prominent strand of embodied emotion research, places emphasis on the cardiac, respiratory and gastrointestinal systems. In turn, interoception has evidence-based links with improved emotion regulation. Despite the focus on separate bodily systems, it is unclear whether particular interoceptive locations play a greater role in emotional feeling and emotion regulation. Further, according to Gross’ “process model”, the sooner that regulation of an emotion occurs, the better; hence, it is additionally important to identify the first body areas to activate. These issues are investigated in a two-stage integrative review. The first stage was preliminary, giving an overview of the evidence base to highlight the distribution of measured body areas. This indicated that 86% of publications (n = 88) measured cardiac activity, 26% measured the respiratory system, and six percent the gastrointestinal system. Given the emphasis placed on all three systems in interoception theory and research on emotion, this suggests a dearth of comprehensive findings pertaining to feeling locations. The second stage investigated the core issues of where emotional feelings are felt in the body and time-related implications for regulation. This was based on ten texts, which together suggested that the head, throat and chest are the most consistently detected locations across and within numerous emotional contexts. Caution is required, however, since–among other reasons discussed–measurement was not time-restricted in these latter publications, and direct physiological measurement was found in only a minority of cases.

Age‐related positive emotional reactivity decline associated with the anterior insula based resting‐state functional connectivity

“…Our research emphasizes the crucial role of the AI in age‐related cognitive functions, particularly emotional reactivity. Previous research has suggested that IS serves as a physiological basis for emotional processes, has a significant positive correlation with emotional reactions (MacCormack et al, 2020), and diminishes with age (Davey et al, 2021; Dunn et al, 2010; Lautenbacher et al, 2017; Schandry, 1981). Our study builds upon this foundation by revealing a concurrent decrease in emotional reactivity with age.…”

The Temporal Aspect of Bodily Experiences of Emotions: Where do You Feel The First Sensation?

“…Other research focusing on the throat/neck region conducted has being conducted by our group but was halted due to Covid-19 pandemic. As the review by Davey et al (2021) points out, this is one of the three regions (along with the head and chest) that appears to be consistently associated with increased perceived activity across all emotions. Although in the current study the head/face and the chest were the most mentioned, these areas have already been explored extensively.…”

“…Finally, it should be noted that while this manuscript was being finalized, an integrative review was published by Davey, Halberstadt & Bell (2021) that emphasizes the importance of observing the first sensation of the emotion in the body in relation to dealing with emotions, as discussed above. The authors also propose a methodology similar to ours.…”

Theory Based Modelling of the Relationship Between Emotional States and Bodily Activity Using Machine Learning

“…There are several common methods of measuring physiological activity, with the three most common being the heart, the skin, and the eyes/face/head, though this differs across areas of research (Davey et al, 2021;Moon et al, 2021). The current study specifically includes measures of Heart Rate (HR), Raw Electrocardiogram (ECG) activity, Galvanic Skin Conductance (GSR), Skin Temperature (SKT) and Chest Expansion as measures of internal ANS activity.…”

“…Two reviews looking at measures of embodied emotion by Davey et al (2021) and Moon et al (2021) do not include movements as a measure of embodied emotion. Other previous research contests this as a person's movements can be used as a measure of emotion because people move differently depending on the emotion they are feeling (Behnke et al, 2021).…”