Understanding Emotions

Your brain is constantly processing outside stimuli, and your emotions are a response to that input. Ever heard of fight, flight, or freeze? This response is thanks to your amygdala, the brain’s emotional detector.

So, how does processing an emotion work? Well, our emotions are a lot less complex than we might think.

First, you may hear, feel, see, touch, or even smell something. This information is sent to the thalamus, the brain’s relay center. The thalamus sends the signal two ways: Directly to the amygdala for a fast, automatic response, or to the prefrontal cortex for a more detailed and conscious understanding.

As your brain processes this new information, the insula helps you become aware of your internal state. This is why you are able to identify your feelings.

Finally, once you’ve felt the emotion, what happens next? The information is sent to the hippocampus, where records are made of your emotional experience.

This is why we tend to remember moments that involve strong emotions. These strong emotions are then stored deeply, helping us respond more adequately in similar situations in the future.

Citation: Šimić, G., Tkalčić, M., Vukić, V., Mulc, D., Španić, E., Šagud, M., Olucha-Bordonau, F. E., Vukšić, M., & Hof, P. R. (2021).

Understanding Emotions: Origins and roles of the amygdala. Biomolecules, 11(6), 823. https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11060823