Study Led by Professor Benjamin Becker Reveals How the Brain Constructs Emotional Experiences
Arousal – how alert or excited we feel – is a key part of our emotions, yet scientists still don’t fully understand how the brain generates this feeling or how it differs from bodily reactions like sweating or a racing heart.
Led by Professor Benjamin Becker from HKU’s Department of Psychology, a recent study used AI-driven modelling and advanced brain imaging to identify a unique brain signature that measures emotional intensity across various situations, from seeing a loved one to watching a horror movie. Importantly, the research distinguishes conscious emotional experience from automatic physiological responses.
This breakthrough not only sheds light on a long-standing debate about the connection between feelings and bodily reactions but also paves the way for advances in emotionally intelligent AI, brain-computer interfaces, and targeted treatments for emotional disorders like anxiety and depression.
In short, this research offers a better, more precise way to understand how our brains create emotional arousal, and it could help with future studies and applications in understanding emotions.
The research was recently published in Nature Communications in an article titled “A neurofunctional signature of affective arousal generalizes across valence domains and distinguishes subjective experience from autonomic reactivity”.
Link to the paper: here
Press Release: here