How differences in brain processes could lead to differences in emotional awareness.

What is it about?

Our paper describes what is known about how emotions work in the brain. One process evaluates thoughts, memories, or situations and then triggers emotional changes in the brain and body (such as changes in attention, changes in heart rate, etc.). Another process detects body changes and tries to understand what caused them (e.g., do I feel shaky because I am scared or because I am sick?). A third process determines if you pay attention to your emotions or not. After describing these processes, our paper describes how each one could work differently in different people, and lead some people to be more aware of their emotions than other people. We also discuss how experiences/learning in childhood could lead these processes to work differently in different people, and how training programs might increase awareness of emotions.

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Why is it important?

It is important because people with psychological disorders often have low emotional awareness. Psychotherapy also tries to improve emotional awareness. So understanding the underlying brain processes could help us better understand and treat psychological disorders.

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