Why do you feel emotion in your heart?

Question

I suppose emotions such as fear and stress would be a chemical kind of thing with adrenaline, but what about attraction? Or happiness? If your brain controls emotion, I think it makes more sense if you got headaches or high instead.. any ideas?

Answer 1

What you don't understand is that while the brain triggers emotion and records the sensation of it, emotion itself is a body response. The thalamus (with input from the prefrontal lobes) and the amydala in the limbic system are two areas that send signals to the hypothalamus, which is the center for sparking hormonal responses. These hormones race through the body, triggering galvanic skin response, tightening of muscles, quickening of breath, pupil contraction, dry mouth, rapid heart rate, visceral contractions and other bodily responses...which we experience globally as EMOTION. So while the heart is involved, actually other parts of the body are too. And when the emotions are registered on the somatosensory strip on the cortex, they associate with the cognitive areas to combine with thoughts, producing a more complex phenomenon - FEELINGS.

So while we like to say thoughts happen in the brain and feelings happen in the heart, that's just a poetic simplification, a metaphor. It's not what really happens. Feelings are a total brain-body orchestration...truly amazing!

Probably more information than you asked for...but it's the real answer.

Answer 2

If you mean head or mind is for thoughts and heart is for emotions, this is just a figure of speech. If you are meaning the organ that pumps blood, it is just one organ out of many that effected by emotions.

For all the study on human emotions, they are not understood very well at all. What is understood, is that emotions are spontaneous. They usually are expressed by the body. In expression they become associated with thoughts or memories as feelings. This happens in the brain. Chemical control of emotions is really control of the feelings.

Human emotions are experienced throughout the body. They seem to affect almost all tissues which respond faster than any model based upon hormones pumped by blood or traveling through the limbic system can justify. They are individualistic. Two humans can be subjected to the same stimuli and have totally different emotions. For example, two men talking in public and a young girl walks by. One man is almost unaffected. The other turns into a quivering mass of gelatin.

Emotions which are not expressed tend to be unresolved and tend to build on an unconscious level. For example, a couple who claim not to be interested in each other, but argue constantly just to be able to interact.

Answer 3

Happiness and attraction both also set off your chemistry, causing a rush of adrenalin and other chemicals that set your heart pumping faster in response to excitement of any kind. When you fall in love, other chemicals, similar to those found in chocolate, also kick in, causing a type of euphoria. When the passion fades, many -- including yours truly -- head for the chocolates and coffee to make up for that lost feeling excitement, arousal and comfort.

Not all cultures considered the emotions to be centered in the heart. The ancient Greeks thought the kidneys were the center of emotion. I don't think it was related to our current term to be p****d off when one's emotions have taken a bruising, but perhaps there was some kind of physiological reaction they noted that we normally don't.

Thanks for your time!

Answer 4

When you have emotions your brain triggers responses which makes the heart pump more blood, the reason why your heart reacts.