chapter twoOur Brain and Emotion
‘The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.’
HELEN KELLERWorld-famous deaf–blind speaker and author (1880–1968)
ABOUT THIS CHAPTER
Emotions drive our behaviour and shape our responses to what is happening around us. They enable us to take action, make decisions, connect and communicate with other people and build meaningful relationships. Emotions can be short-lived or can last a lifetime.
Emotions have played a valuable role in our survival as a species. Being able to understand emotional displays in others informs us how to adapt our behaviour appropriately.
This chapter explains why our brain is wired to produce a spectrum of emotions, how we read emotions in others, why emotion and memory are closely linked and the impact of emotions on our day-to-day experiences.
Part 1: The science explained
Our brain's emotional circuitry
The emotional circuitry (see Figure 2.1) in our brain is commonly known as the limbic system, which is situated predominantly in the temporal lobe. The name comes from limbus, the Latin word for ‘border’, and the word's usage has been attributed to a scientist named Paul Broca, who discovered the area around 150 years ago.
FIGURE 2.1: Our emotional circuitry
The main structures comprising the limbic system surround and interact with the ...
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