Where different emotions are located in the body

Summary of how emotions are mapped in the body by Aalto University




Aalto university did research about where the most common feelings are located in the body. Over 700 participants from Finland, Sweden and Taiwan were part of this study. All the body sensations were the same in different cultures. The people who were part of this research were "shown pictures of human bodies and colored" the part of the body where they felt something "increasing or decreasing" during that emotion. Results of this study can help doctors understand emotional disorders and give them the right treatment for their diagnosis (Aalto University, 2013).




I think it's really cool that they have been able to locate where the emotions are in the body. Another thing I thought was interesting was that all the good feeling (happiness, love, pride), they are all felt in the heart while the sad ones like depression, shame and envy is felt in the arms, leg and the brain. I wonder why happiness is felt in the heart but not depression and also why the heart is on the happy scale in the emotion sadness. I had a hard time figuring out how the scale worked with the pictures of the different emotions, like what the difference between 15 and -15 was.




Aalto University. (2013, December 31). How emotions are mapped in the body. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 11, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/12/131231094353.htm