Which part of the brain governs our emotions?

You may think that you have full control over your emotions and understand what triggers them, whether it’s sadness from a broken heart, joy from reconnecting with an old friend, or nervousness before a big interview. However, it's actually your brain that takes the lead. So, which part of the brain governs emotions?

Interpreting emotional situations and crafting responses to them involves much more than you might realize, and your brain plays a key role in shaping how you feel and react, often without your awareness. Read on to discover how your brain shapes your emotional experiences.

5. Your Brain Interprets and Responds to Emotional Triggers

Although emotions are often viewed as internal experiences, psychologists define them as a mix of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This means that emotions involve not just how we feel, but also how we process and act upon those feelings.

To grasp this concept, it’s helpful to understand the function of emotions. In 1872, Charles Darwin published "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals," which explained that emotions play a vital evolutionary role. For a species to thrive, it must survive and pass on its genetic legacy.

Emotions like fear help protect you from threats, ensuring your survival and ability to reproduce. The 'fight or flight' response, which prepares your body to either defend itself or escape danger, is also an emotional reaction. Emotions like love and desire motivate you to reproduce.

Because of this, the brain is tasked with assessing stimuli—such as an attacking dog or an attractive person—and generating an emotional response. The brain 'decides' how to respond to a situation in ways that promote survival and reproduction, using emotions as the driving force to prompt action throughout the body.

Lacking Words for Emotions

Emotions are crucial to our experience, but what if you couldn’t recognize them? For some individuals, not being able to identify when they are feeling something is a real struggle. People with alexithymia (from the Greek for 'without words for emotions') find it difficult to recognize their own emotional states or express those emotions to others.

4. Brain Chemicals Influence Your Mood

Your brain is an intricate system that processes immense amounts of information each second. Part of this system includes neurons, which are specialized cells responsible for transmitting signals throughout the brain.

Neurons transmit signals through neurotransmitters, which are chemical messengers that either release or receive information. These chemicals facilitate communication between different regions of the brain.

The three most widely researched neurotransmitters are dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine:

Disruptions in how the brain processes these neurotransmitters can significantly impact emotional well-being. For example, when you experience something rewarding, the brain's processing areas interact with dopamine, the pleasure-related chemical.

If the brain cannot effectively process dopamine, the result can be feelings of sadness or reduced happiness, even in situations that should be enjoyable. Research on major depressive disorder (MDD) has found that those affected often have fewer serotonin receptors in their brains [source: National Institutes of Mental Health].

The Connection Between Antidepressants and Your Brain

Neurotransmitters play a crucial role in shaping your emotions, and by adjusting the balance of certain brain chemicals, antidepressants help alleviate symptoms of depression. Essentially, these medications influence the levels of specific brain chemicals to restore emotional balance.

This is achieved by inhibiting the reuptake (the process where neurotransmitters are reabsorbed by the neuron they were released from) of chemicals like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine, or a combination of them. As a result, their concentrations increase in the brain, enhancing your mood [source: Mayo Clinic and Licinio].

3. The Brain's Different Regions Handle Different Emotions

The brain consists of numerous specialized areas that collaborate to process the information it receives. Among these, the limbic system plays a central role in emotional processing, often referred to as the 'emotional brain.'

The Role of the Amygdala in Fear Responses

Located within the limbic system, the amygdala plays a key role in evaluating the emotional significance of stimuli. It is closely linked to the brain's fear responses, including the 'fight or flight' reaction. Individuals who experience seizures in the temporal lobe, where the amygdala resides, sometimes report an overwhelming sensation of fear or impending danger.

The Brain's Dopamine Center

Stretching from the ventral tegmental area in the brain's center to the nucleus accumbens at the front, this region contains a high concentration of dopamine receptors that are essential for the sensation of pleasure.

The Hypothalamus and Its Role in Emotional Regulation

The Hypothalamus and Its Role in Emotional Responses

The hippocampus plays a critical role in converting short-term memories into long-term ones and helps with the retrieval of stored memories [source: BBC]. Your memories shape how you react to the world, influencing your emotional responses.

The Brain's Different Regions Process Emotions Differently

Since different areas of the brain are responsible for processing distinct emotions in unique ways, any injury to these areas can result in alterations to your moods and emotional reactions.

The Limbic System: Is It Fear That Governs You?

The limbic system was among the earliest regions of the human brain to evolve. While the brain has developed more sophisticated capabilities, the limbic system's functions remain relatively basic, with its responses to stimuli still being simple and generalized.

As the part of the brain that controls emotions, the limbic system often leads to emotional responses that are similarly simple and generalized.

For instance, although other brain areas can recognize that only specific snakes are dangerous, the limbic system cannot distinguish between different snakes, so it may trigger fear at the sight of any snake, regardless of whether it's harmful.

2. Your Brain's Hemispheres Help Regulate Emotions

If you were to open your skull and examine the gray matter inside, you would see that the brain is divided into two equal halves. These hemispheres work together to maintain your overall function, yet each is responsible for processing different types of information.

The left hemisphere of your brain handles concrete tasks, like understanding the literal meaning of words and performing mathematical calculations, while the right hemisphere is responsible for more abstract thinking, such as interpreting symbolism and recognizing gestures.

Because the two hemispheres of your brain process information in different ways, they collaborate to help regulate your emotional responses.

Here's a simple way to explain it: The right hemisphere identifies emotions, while the left hemisphere interprets them. The right brain detects negative emotions like fear, anger, or danger, and then signals the left brain, which evaluates the situation and makes logical decisions on how to react.

This system works well, unless one hemisphere of the brain fails to do its part. Without the left brain, the right brain would be overwhelmed by negative emotions and would lack the ability to process them appropriately. Likewise, without the right brain, the left brain would struggle to accurately identify negative emotions.

When One Hemisphere Dominates the Brain

Researchers have observed firsthand what happens when the brain's hemispheric emotional balance system malfunctions. They've discovered that individuals with damage to the left hemisphere are at a higher risk of suicide due to being overwhelmed by negativity, while those with damage to the right hemisphere can become excessively optimistic because they struggle to recognize negative emotions.

1. Your Memories Influence and Shape Your Emotions

It might seem obvious: Thinking about a negative memory can put you in a bad mood, while recalling a happy memory can lift your spirits. But there's solid scientific evidence supporting this. Studies show that this effect occurs whether or not we're consciously aware of it.

So, why is this important? It turns out that memory recall can be a useful tool in regulating mood, especially for those dealing with depression. Reflecting on positive memories triggers the brain to release dopamine. So, when someone advises you to 'cheer up,' it might just be a matter of recalling happy moments [source: Gillihan].

It's no surprise that past memories shape how we emotionally respond to current situations. For instance, if you've nearly drowned before, you might feel fear when near water. Or, if a past partner was unfaithful, you may experience jealousy when your current partner interacts with someone else.

The intensity of your past experiences can influence the strength of your present emotions. For instance, a soldier with a history of intense or traumatic combat may experience heightened anxiety in the future.

Your emotional reactions can also be shaped by preconceived notions. Expectations, shaped by memories of past events, play a significant role in the intensity of how you feel [source: Frijda].

The Hippocampus and Memory

The hippocampus, a small seahorse-shaped structure within the limbic system, is primarily responsible for storing memories that influence our emotional responses.

Damage to the hippocampus would prevent you from forming new memories and might even erase some of your old ones [source: BBC]. Such damage can significantly alter your emotions and your reactions to the world around you.