Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: How to Understand Emotions

Emotions are complex and multidimensional experiences that involve coordinated responses in our physical state, brain, and facial expressions. While there is ongoing debate among scientists about the precise definition of emotions, it is clear that they are not exclusive to certain moments in life but are intricately woven into our daily experiences. Emotions are not separate entities but rather interconnected with other aspects of our lives, such as motivation, consciousness, and affect. Understanding the neural circuits and psychological underpinnings of emotions can provide practical tools for effectively regulating our emotions and interpreting the emotional states of others. Additionally, recognizing the powerful relationship between emotions and the movement of our body can enhance our understanding and navigation of emotional states. Overall, this discussion emphasizes the importance of comprehensive understanding and practical application of emotions in our everyday lives.

Emotions cannot be easily defined by specific diagnostic patterns or facial expressions. The traditional belief that fear, for example, is associated with increased heart rate, a tendency to run away or freeze, and a wide-eyed, gasping facial expression is not universally true. Different cultures may interpret facial movements differently, and there is not a single set of physical markers that can distinguish between different emotional states. Furthermore, facial movements do not always indicate internal emotional states but can simply be movements without meaning. When observing someone's emotional state, it is important to consider the entire sensory array and the context in which those signals occur.

Our brains constantly interpret facial expressions in context and make inferences about the emotional meaning based on a combination of signals. It's not as simple as just reading emotions from facial movements alone. The brain and body have a constant conversation, with the brain sending motor commands and the body sending sensory signals back to the brain. This means that if the face is influencing the brain, it's doing so in a way that works for other parts of the body too. Smiling, for example, is part of a larger ensemble of signals, and the brain predicts what happens next based on learned patterns. So, the idea that simply changing your facial expression can directly change your emotional state isn't supported by scientific evidence.

The debate surrounding facial expressions and their universality has been ongoing for decades in psychology. Lisa Feldman Barrett, along with a group of senior scientists, was tasked with writing a consensus paper on the topic. The goal was to analyze the research and establish whether there is a one-to-one correspondence between specific facial configurations and emotional states. Throughout a two-and-a-half-year process, the panel of experts engaged in vigorous discussions, even when some scientists refused to participate due to fear of losing funding. Despite varying initial hypotheses, the focus was on reaching a consensus based on the available data. The key takeaway is that scientific debates require open-mindedness, willingness to collaborate, and a commitment to the evidence rather than personal opinions.

There is no evidence for Facial Expressions of Emotion being Universal. Instead, facial expressions vary highly depending on the situation and individuals. For instance, studies show that scowling is one expression of anger, but it is not the dominant one. People also express anger by smiling, crying, or sitting quietly and plotting. Furthermore, the specificity of facial expressions is also not significantly higher than chance, as scowling can be related to other factors like concentration or physical discomfort. This variability applies primarily to Western cultures, while remote cultures with less exposure to Western practices may not even associate facial movements with emotions.

Our ability to recognize and interpret facial expressions is not solely determined by genetics. While there is a hardwired aspect to it, the wiring of our brain to understand faces is heavily influenced by early learning and cultural inheritance. From the moment we are born, we begin to learn and develop an understanding of faces through interactions with our caregivers. Smiles, for example, become a cue for happiness because we have learned to associate them with positive experiences. This has broader implications beyond personal interactions, as our cultural belief in the ability to read mental states through facial expressions can have serious consequences in areas such as the legal system. It highlights the importance of considering the complexities and nuances of facial recognition in our society.

There are no universal expressions that can accurately read each other's emotions. While we may have facial movements or actions that can give hints about our emotions to those who know us well, there is no set template that applies to everyone. This challenges the common belief that there are universal emotional expressions. Instead, our brains are pattern learners, and individual experiences and cultural backgrounds shape how we express and interpret emotions. Language alone is also insufficient in capturing the complexity of emotions, as there are emotional states that may not have adequate words to describe them. Understanding emotions requires a broader understanding that goes beyond language and acknowledges cultural diversity.

Language plays a significant role in how we understand and experience emotions. While some cultures have specific words to describe unique emotional states, English lacks comprehensive vocabulary in this regard. This can lead to misunderstandings and the assumption that emotions are fixed and universal entities that can be easily labeled. However, Lisa Feldman Barrett highlights that emotions are not pre-existing categories waiting to be identified and named. Instead, they are complex and dynamic processes influenced by various factors. It is important to recognize that our questions about emotions are often based on assumptions that may not accurately reflect the true nature of emotional experiences. Understanding this can help us approach emotions with greater nuance and open-mindedness.

Our understanding of emotions and brain function should not be limited by our preconceived categories or experiences. Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges the conventional approach taken by psychologists and neuroscientists, who often start with common sense experiences and then search for their physical basis in the brain. She argues that this approach is problematic because not everyone experiences emotions or processes information in the same way. Instead, she advocates for starting with a study of the nervous system and understanding how it evolved and is structured. By focusing on anatomy and the body's sensory surfaces, we can gain a more comprehensive understanding of how the brain processes information and generates emotions. This shift in perspective allows for new discoveries and reevaluation of existing theories.

Our brains are constantly working to reduce uncertainty. The brain receives signals from our sensory surfaces, but it doesn't know the causes of those signals. It has to guess and create motor plans based on past experiences. The brain constructs categories of possible futures, outcomes, and motor plans to navigate the world. It narrows down possibilities to reduce uncertainty. Uncertainty is expensive and can be terrifying if everything is unknown. Our brains strive to reduce uncertainty to make planning and decision-making possible. This understanding of how the brain works is important in understanding emotions, which I will explain further. But overall, the brain is a continuous category constructor, aiming to minimize uncertainty for optimal functioning.

The brain is constantly evolving and processing signals over time. It's not just a static system, but rather a dynamic one that is continuously changing. When it comes to making decisions about similarity or understanding stimuli, the brain considers context and relies on both external signals and internal signals. The brain is constantly sorting out and narrowing down possibilities, with selection mechanisms helping it to make better guesses. Additionally, our brains are constantly making distinctions between signal and noise, learning from cues and queuing each other. This ability to distinguish between what is worth paying attention to and what can be ignored is crucial in our interactions and learning processes. Ultimately, our brains are signal processors, constantly analyzing information and making sense of the world around us.

The brain assembles a set of features from sensory inputs, starting with low-level details like lines or tones and gradually compressing them into higher-level abstractions. This dimensionality reduction allows for more efficient representation of the physical world. As the information is passed along the neural axis, there is convergence onto a smaller number of larger neurons, resulting in summaries of summaries of summaries of mental features. At the front of the brain, these summaries become more multimodal and abstract, encompassing concepts like threat, reward, and pleasure. It's important to recognize that these summaries can have different patterns associated with them, and the brain treats them as equivalent. This understanding sheds light on how emotions like anger are represented in the brain, where words like anger are just phonemes corresponding to various patterns of sensory motor features.

Emotions, such as anger, are not fixed and universal experiences. They vary depending on individual, situational, and cultural factors. Emotions are multimodal summaries of sensory and motor features, shaped by developmental and cultural experiences. This challenges the idea of a singular emotional state and emphasizes the need for emotional granularity. Emotional granularity refers to the ability to distinguish between different emotions and their subtle variations. The brain constructs categories of emotions that are more fine-grained than broad labels like "threat" or "anger," but not overly specific. These categories influence how the brain predicts and responds to future situations. Understanding this process can enhance emotional intelligence and empower individuals to work with their emotions effectively.

Our understanding of emotions and the way we express them is becoming increasingly simplified and reduced to a limited set of categories, such as emojis. This oversimplification fails to capture the complexity and richness of our emotional experiences. In our fast-paced, sensory-stimulating world, we are bombarded with high-dimensional sensory information, but we tend to assign simple, one-dimensional labels to our emotions. This reduction of complexity can be seen in authoritarian thinking, where complex situations are simplified into black and white judgments. Our nervous system, however, is capable of perceiving and responding to a wide range of emotional states, and it is important to recognize and embrace this complexity rather than regressing to a limited set of responses. Additionally, our brain's compression process, while efficient, results in loss of information, leading to the brain's guesswork in interpreting sensory signals.

The brain is constantly guessing and making decisions based on past experiences and present circumstances. It goes from a general representation of emotions like anger to specific instances of anger, considering the details and potential adaptive steps that might be taken. The ultimate choice the brain has to make is whether to move, which direction to move, and how fast to move. This applies not only to physical movement, but also to internal actions like coordinating the heart and lungs. The brain categorizes and creates categories based on similarity to the present, planning actions and giving rise to our experiences of the world. These categories can change and new ones can be added, allowing for a nuanced understanding of emotions and experiences.

Words serve as efficient tools to communicate a multitude of sensory and motor features. By using words, we can convey a complex set of details with just a few syllables, making communication more streamlined. Additionally, words can also be used to learn abstract categories, where the focus is on the function or goal rather than specific sensory or motor features. Even babies as young as three months old can grasp this concept, using words to categorize objects based on their shared function. Furthermore, emotions are closely intertwined with movement, as the brain's guesses about the external world start as motor plans and can influence our internal feelings. Our movements and emotions have a reciprocal relationship, where one can impact the other. This understanding of the relationship between words, movement, and emotions can lead to a deeper comprehension of how the brain works.

Our experience is not simply a reaction to stimuli, but rather a complex interplay between our brain's predictions and sensory signals. The brain first prepares for action, generating motor plans that anticipate sensations. These predictions can be so powerful that we may hear things that aren't there or feel sensations that don't exist. When sensory signals from our body confirm these predictions, they don't need to travel further into the brain. However, if there are errors in prediction, these signals become important for learning and adaptation. This dynamic nature of our nervous system makes it challenging to study and understand our real experiences, which are far more nuanced than what can be captured with questionnaires or functional scans.

Our experiences and understandings of emotions can vary greatly from person to person. Some individuals may feel emotions as bodily states first, while others may experience them as verbal labels in their minds. This highlights the diverse ways in which we encode and interpret the world around us. The question then arises: how do we establish anchor points for our understanding of emotions? Additionally, there is conflicting information in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, and mental health regarding whether we should fully embrace and amplify our emotions or use cognitive control to regulate them. It's important to recognize that flexibility is key in navigating emotions, and our bodies serve as scorecards for our experiences, with our brains being the central hub of our emotions and perceptions.

Our brains play a crucial role in how we experience emotions and physical sensations. Emotions are not separate from our bodies, but rather a result of the brain's interpretation of sensory signals. Sometimes it is helpful to use language to express our emotions, while other times physical activities like running can be beneficial. It is important to recognize that feeling discomfort doesn't always mean something is wrong; it can simply indicate that we are facing a challenge. Just as I deliberately experienced pain after my back surgery to help with healing, there are times when it is instructive to feel discomfort to understand its purpose. Our brains are constantly regulating our bodies, but we are not always aware of the sensory changes happening within us. Instead, the brain creates a general summary of our body's state which we experience as feelings. It's essential to understand that these feelings are not emotions themselves but subjective interpretations of our bodily sensations.

Affect is always present in our experiences, whether in the foreground or background. It is a summary of physical sensations and can be influenced by external factors like medication or physical activity. Emotions, on the other hand, are the brain's interpretation of the sensory signals and the story it tells about their causes. In our culture, we tend to pathologize purely physical sensations and prioritize experiencing emotions. However, there are times when it is productive and beneficial to simply experience bodily sensations without constructing an emotion around them. Understanding the distinction between arousal caused by uncertainty and anxiety, for example, can help us respond appropriately by seeking information rather than freezing or running away. By changing the meaning and interpretation of our affective feelings, we can gain wisdom and exercise more control over our emotions.

Knowledge about emotions and the brain is incredibly powerful. It's not just about following specific protocols or using certain tools, but rather understanding how emotions work and having the ability to work with them. By expanding our vocabulary for different emotional states, we can change our perspective and approach. Just like a painter breaks down a cup into pieces of light to capture its true essence, we can break down our sensory experiences and focus on specific details to heighten our emotional awareness. We have the power to shift our attention and increase the dimensionality of our emotional experiences. By embracing this knowledge, we can navigate unpleasant feelings and create a more vibrant emotional landscape. Just as Oliver Sacks explored different sensory experiences to understand human emotions, we too can expand our own understanding and embrace the full range of our emotional selves.

Our experience of reality is not solely based on the external world or our internal thoughts, but rather the interaction between the two. Just like animals that have different sensory surfaces than us experience a different reality, our perception of the world is shaped by the signals in our brain and the signals in the world. This understanding should lead to empathy and appreciation for the fact that everyone experiences the world differently. It also highlights the importance of taking care of our physical and mental well-being, as factors like sleep and exposure to sunlight can greatly impact our emotions and overall experience of reality. By understanding and managing our affect, we can create more adaptive and fulfilling experiences.

Our brains are responsible for coordinating and regulating the systems within our bodies, such as our heart, lungs, and gut. This regulation is essential for our survival and well-being. However, we don't directly feel the sensory signals from these organs and tissues. Instead, we experience affective feelings, which are simple physical sensations that our brain elaborates on. These feelings can become intense and turn into emotions. To understand this regulation process, a useful metaphor is to think of the brain as running a budget for our body. Just like a financial budget, our brain "budgets" resources like glucose, salt, and oxygen to keep us alive and well. Additionally, stress can have a direct impact on the efficiency of our metabolism, burning more energy and potentially leading to weight gain. Therefore, our affective state is a reflection of our body's budget, and understanding this connection can help us manage our emotions more effectively.

Our bodies and emotions are intricately connected. Lisa Feldman Barrett's daughter experienced a significant improvement in her mood after taking ibuprofen and getting enough sleep. This highlights the role of physical well-being in our emotional state. Sometimes, our negative emotions may not necessarily reflect a problem in the world, but rather a result of fatigue, lack of sleep, or other bodily discomforts. It is essential to pay attention to our body budget and engage in self-care activities such as getting enough sleep, engaging in movement, and nourishing ourselves with proper nutrition. Alcohol and drugs may provide temporary relief, but they ultimately deplete our body budget. Addressing physical well-being can have a positive impact on our emotional well-being.

The use of drugs of abuse and SSRIs can have short-term effects that may lead to long-term adjustments in the nervous system. SSRIs, in particular, may deplete the neural systems that enhance mood over time, causing some people to become unresponsive to the drugs. It is important to recognize that depression is a metabolic problem, not necessarily caused by external factors. Addressing the affective problem by dealing with the physical state, such as getting enough sleep, eating healthfully, and exercising regularly, can greatly contribute to mental and physical health. These basic factors of sleep, exercise, food, sunlight, and social connection are essential for overall well-being, and although they may seem simple, they require effort and flexibility in various situations. Additionally, the importance of relationships should not be overlooked in maintaining mental health.

Our interactions with others have a significant impact on our nervous systems. We regulate each other's nervous systems, either providing a deposit or a tax. The ideal situation is being around people who make us feel good and contribute to our well-being. Research shows that social isolation and loneliness have negative effects on our nervous systems, while positive interactions and synchrony can lead to physiological and emotional resonance. It is crucial to be mindful of the kind of person we choose to be and the impact we have on others. Being a savings, someone who provides support and trust, can create a positive environment for growth and creativity, both in personal relationships and in the workplace.

Kindness not only benefits others but also has a positive impact on our own well-being. Random acts of kindness, such as treating a friend to lunch or baking bread for a neighbor, result in a body budgeting benefit. These acts create a double hit of kindness, where both parties experience the joy of giving and receiving. Kindness should be valued more in our culture, as it has been proven to have numerous benefits. Lisa Feldman Barrett emphasizes the underrated nature of kindness and the need for more conversations around it. Engaging in acts of kindness not only brings happiness to others but also fosters meaningful relationships and mutual help. The feeling of making someone's day better is indescribable and adds a certain "juice" to life.