Objective methods can even measure subjective things – like emotions. | Image: Fred Merz

Joy, anger, fear, surprise, disgust and sadness – these are feelings we all know. But just twenty years ago, psychologists were still investigating them primarily by interviewing test subjects and monitoring their physical reactions – their heartbeat, respiratory rate and facial expressions.

Emotion research has come a long way since then. Using new methods such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), neuroscientists can now analyse what happens in the brain when they awaken different emotions in their test subjects. To this end, they might show them photographs of happy or sad faces, let them smell chocolate or play them clips of horror films. Using fMRI, they can then measure the blood flow in the brain and thereby determine which regions of the brain have been activated.

“In this way, we can now develop objective measuring methods for mechanisms that are in themselves subjective”, says David Sander, the director of the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (SCAS). “That’s one of the reasons why visualisation methods in the brain are so fascinating”. The SCAS is based at the University of Geneva and grew out of the National Centre of Competence in Research ‘Affective Sciences – Emotions in Individual Behaviour and Social Processes’ (see the box ‘Emotions from all sides now’). Of course, the researchers can’t actually look at the emotions in the brain, but they can observe how different emotional processes activate different regions of the brain in different ways. “And that’s incredibly useful”, says Sander.

The whole brain feels it

The researchers have also been scrutinising several prevailing theories in emotion research. For example, the amygdala, an almond-shaped structure in the centre of the brain, was long regarded as the seat of fear. These new studies have confirmed its role in this, but they have also shown that the amygdala is important for processing many other emotions too, both positive and negative. “We have since come to believe that the amygdala in general helps us in the subjective evaluation of how important a situation is”, says Sander. For this reason, it is a key structure for triggering and regulating emotions in general, far beyond mere fear.

It was also surprising for them to learn that emotions don’t just influence the more supposedly ‘primitive’ regions of the brain. “We used to think that reason and the emotions stood in opposition to each other”, says Sander. “But we know now that regions of the brain previously believed to be responsible only for higher cognitive functions can be greatly influenced by emotions”. This is also something positive, because emotions help us to make many personal decisions. To Sander, there is no doubt about it: “Emotions and cognition don’t in any way exist in opposition to each other”.

Emotions on the financial markets

One of these higher cognitive functions is the ability to make good decisions. Researchers in neuroeconomics are particularly interested in what happens in the brain during the decision-making process. This means that emotion research is also beginning to make societal interrelations more comprehensible.

“Economists have observed that when people make decisions entailing risk, they don’t act according to the predictions of their financial models. In other words, from a business standpoint, they act irrationally”, says Kerstin Preuschoff, a professor of neureoeconomics at the University of Geneva. “But emotion research has now proven that this behaviour isn’t so incomprehensible after all, because emotions play an important role in decision making”. Preuschoff was able to use fMRI studies to demonstrate that concepts from the world of finance, such as inherent risk and expected value, are reflected in specific regions of the brain. “Our research started on a very small scale, looking at decisions made by individuals, but now we are dealing with highly complex decision-making processes on the financial markets”, says Preuschoff.

Ultimately, the goal of neuroeconomics, she says, is to incorporate these new components into calculations for financial models. She admits that this research is still in its early stages. “But soon we will probably be able to read brain signals to determine the results of investment decisions”.

Virtual reality is more real

To get that far, the technology they use to read the brain’s emotions will have to be further improved. “Most researchers still use indirect methods to trigger emotions”, says the neuroscientist Patrik Vuilleumier of the SCAS. For example, looking at a happy face activates certain regions of the brain, but without necessarily triggering a real emotion of happiness.

This is why Vuilleumier is developing a new procedure that will use VR goggles to put his test subjects in a virtual world where they can solve tasks and survive assorted adventures. In Vuilleumier’s opinion, this immersion will enable him to trigger emotions that are almost natural. Using statistical methods and fMRI analyses, he will then be able to evaluate which factors in the virtual scenarios trigger what activity in the brain.

Psychologists are meanwhile also making use of the fact that virtual experiences can provide direct access to the world of emotions. For example, the Department of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Basel has been testing smartphone apps that use virtual or augmented reality to treat spider phobia and vertigo. The advantage of this is that the people affected are confronted realistically with their fears, but nevertheless always have their situation under control.

Controlling your own emotions

Emotion research also offers new perspectives for treating mental illness, because many disorders involve regions of the brain that help to process emotions. For example, in many depressives there is diminished feedback between cognitive brain areas and the emotion-processing amygdala. “We have recently made quite a lot of progress, and can now better understand how disruptions in emotion processing are connected to psychiatric illnesses”, says the neuroscientist Frank Scharnowski. “But translating this new knowledge into new brain-based therapies is going to be a huge leap”.

Scharnowski is investigating just such an innovative therapeutic approach – so-called neurofeedback – in research projects at the Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich and at the University of Vienna. In neurofeedback training, people learn to control quite specific areas of the brain. To this end, their brain activity is constantly monitored by means of fMRI. If test subjects succeed in regulating the desired area of the brain – such as the amygdala – then they get positive feedback. Scharnowski says that most healthy people are able to learn this method in just a few sessions, and that patients suffering from depression or anxiety disorders can benefit from it.

Scharnowski’s results prove that psychiatric patients aren’t simply at the mercy of their emotions, but that opportunities exist for them to learn to control them. In normal cases, however, this isn’t even necessary, because emotions make a valuable contribution to our thoughts and actions. Sander agrees: “Of course, emotions sometimes prevent us from making good decisions. But there are also situations where emotions are necessary for us to make the best ones”.