Researchers found that the most
common emotions trigger strong bodily sensations, and the bodily maps of these
sensations were topographically different for different emotions. The sensation
patterns were, however, consistent across different West European and East
Asian cultures, highlighting that emotions and their corresponding bodily
sensation patterns have a biological basis.
The research was carried out on
line, and over 700 individuals from Finland, Sweden and Taiwan took part in the
study. The researchers induced different emotional states in their Finnish and
Taiwanese participants. Subsequently the participants were shown with pictures
of human bodies on a computer, and asked to colour the bodily regions whose
activity they felt increasing or decreasing.
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