Neuroscientist and Psychologist Dr. Richard J. Davidson joins WIRED to answer the internet's burning questions about our emotions. Are men truly less emotional than women? Can stress cause your brain to shrink? What are chemical imbalances and what do they do to our emotions? Why do we have emotions at all? Dr. Davidson answers these questions and more on Emotion Support.Dr. Richard J. Davidson is the founder of Healthy Minds Innovations and The Center For Healthy Minds.Director: Lisandro Perez-ReyDirector of Photography: Christopher EustacheEditor: Richard TrammellExpert: Dr. Richard J. DavidsonCreative Producer: Justin WolfsonLine Producer: Joseph BuscemiAssociate Producer: Brandon WhiteProduction Manager: Peter BrunetteProduction Coordinator: Rhyan LarkTalent Booker: Nicholas SawyerCamera Operator: Caleb WeissSound Mixer: Sean PaulsenProduction Assistant: Sonia ButtPost Production Supervisor: Christian OlguinPost Production Coordinator: Ian BryantSupervising Editor: Doug LarsenAdditional Editor: Jason MaliziaAssistant Editor: Justin Symonds
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00:00I'm neuroscientist and psychologist Richard Davidson.
00:03Let's answer your questions from the internet.
00:05This is Emotions Support.
00:12At Polaro asks,
00:14Stress will shrink your brain? Really?
00:17Yes, really.
00:18The data here are quite clear.
00:20Stress does have effects on the brain and it can shrink the brain
00:24and it shrinks the area that grows new brain cells, the hippocampus.
00:29Wendy Stella 06 asks,
00:32Are women really more sensitive and emotional than men in general?
00:35If you take thousands of men and thousands of women and you compare them,
00:39you will find these slight differences where
00:42women may be more sensitive to emotional cues than men.
00:45In certain contexts, they may be more expressive of emotion than men,
00:50but the variation within gender far exceeds the variation between gender.
00:55And so in my view, focusing on these gender differences is really a little bit misplaced.
01:03At Riri Yuri,
01:05Why do we even have feelings?
01:07Feelings and emotions are found throughout evolutionary history.
01:12They're not just found in humans.
01:15In the case of an animal who may be confronted by a predator,
01:19the experience of fear will motivate the animal to run or to fight.
01:24We have feelings to navigate important life decisions.
01:29They are really critical in enabling us to make important decisions.
01:34For example, should we be with a significant other?
01:38Should we take one job versus another job?
01:40Those are not decisions that we make based on a simple, cold, cognitive calculus.
01:47We use our emotions, our feelings to decide.
01:52At Alpaca Aurelius,
01:54Holy crap!
01:55Botox impairs your ability to process other people's emotions
01:59because it prevents your face from mirroring someone's reaction.
02:02Botox is truly soul-sucking.
02:05Botox does effectively paralyze your facial muscles.
02:09And one of the things that we've learned over the last 20 years in research on emotion
02:15is that not only does the brain control the face to produce emotional expressions,
02:21but emotional expressions feed back information to the brain
02:25to help the brain modulate its activity.
02:28When we are interacting with another person,
02:32we often engage in contagious emotional expressions.
02:36So we are simulating the emotions that another person may experience.
02:40This is part of empathy.
02:41And if we can't do that because of Botox,
02:44we are literally deprived of a major mechanism
02:49through which we can make inferences about both our own emotion
02:53as well as another person's emotion.
02:55At Adam Fair in 1996 says,
02:58Chemical imbalance is a myth, but is it really?
03:02Studies done have shown that a serotonin imbalance
03:05may not be the real cause of depression, but that's just one chemical.
03:10The body is made up of chemicals.
03:12So unless you've researched them all, you can't make that initial statement.
03:16It is true that serotonin is just one chemical.
03:20And even though drugs to treat depression primarily act on serotonin,
03:26it doesn't mean that serotonin is the cause,
03:29nor does it mean that it's the most important chemical involved in depression.
03:34In fact, it's likely that the serotonin just triggers a whole chemical cascade
03:40unleashed by taking this drug.
03:43And so the cause of the depression and the cause of the improvement in depression
03:48goes way beyond serotonin.
03:51We are still discovering many new chemicals in the brain and the body.
03:56We are living in this chemical soup that is highly complex.
04:01The idea that there is going to be a single molecule
04:04associated with a specific disease or specific emotion is absolutely a myth.
04:11Andrea Libuti MD asks,
04:13are autistic individuals hypersensitive to emotions?
04:17It depends because autism is not a homogeneous category.
04:21It's quite heterogeneous.
04:23There are different subtypes of autism,
04:25and there are some subgroups of autism that are hypersensitive in general.
04:30This would include being hypersensitive to emotion.
04:33One of the things that we see in a subgroup of autistic individuals
04:38is that they show gaze aversion.
04:39They don't look directly at a person's face because they're so sensitive to emotion,
04:44and it's so arousing for them to watch another person's face
04:48that they have to actually turn away.
04:51And this gaze aversion starts very early in life.
04:54It's one of the first symptoms of autism that expresses itself.
04:58At no kizzy Kathleen,
05:00you ever get that sad feeling in your tummy?
05:03Like you're okay, but your tummy is like, no, you're really not.
05:07There are 200 million neurons in the gut.
05:10Stuff that goes on in the brain is communicated to the tummy,
05:14and stuff that goes on in the tummy is fed back to the brain.
05:17So our gut feelings are real,
05:20and there's information that occurs there that's going to be modulating activity in the brain.
05:25And this is all part of the mandala of emotion.
05:28It's important that we consider emotions to be embodied
05:34and to involve all of these different bodily systems.
05:38At Ariasaurus says,
05:40I need my brain chemistry literally altered.
05:42Like, is there drugs that can be ingested
05:45so that our brain physically can't process emotions?
05:48We know that there are medications available to change the brain.
05:54These medications are used to treat people with various kinds of emotional disorders,
05:58like depression and anxiety.
06:00So there are these drugs which do affect brain chemistry,
06:04and they are sometimes really important to use if they're used judiciously.
06:10However, in my view, we are medicating people too readily in our society.
06:17We have too low a threshold for administering these medications.
06:21They often have lots of side effects.
06:23And we know that there are ways to change the brain that don't require medication.
06:29We can actually change our brains by intentionally cultivating our minds.
06:34Meditation is one such way, but there are others.
06:36For example, we know from hard-nosed scientific research
06:40that cognitive therapy can change the brain.
06:42Cognitive therapy is an empirically well-validated strategy
06:46to treat depression and anxiety,
06:48and it involves teaching people to think differently about their thoughts.
06:53We should at least try these non-invasive methods first
06:57before we try the more invasive methods of medication.
07:02Atkirt J. Gray asked,
07:03does the internet make us more empathic and emotionally intelligent or less?
07:08I would say that the preponderance of the evidence suggests
07:11that the internet makes us less emotionally empathic,
07:15particularly for members of the outgroup.
07:17Because one of the things that we find in the internet
07:20is that we're fed information that is consistent with our ideology and with our beliefs.
07:26And this is leading us to become more polarized.
07:29And this may make us empathic for our in-group,
07:33but it's certainly not making us more empathic for members of our outgroup.
07:38When we interact with people virtually and are deprived of the immediate feedback
07:44of their physical presence, their facial expression,
07:47we often will be less inhibited,
07:50less constrained because we don't have that feedback.
07:54So I think there is some danger in becoming overly expressive
08:00in perhaps inappropriate ways interacting with people online.
08:04At Emily Aku asks,
08:07is cringe an emotion?
08:08Cringe is an expression, a facial expression.
08:12It may be a vocal expression,
08:14and it probably has several different emotions that are melded together.
08:19It may be a little bit of disgust, a little bit of contempt,
08:23a little bit of anger, a little bit of sadness.
08:25It could be a conglomeration of these negative emotions.
08:30It's a complex emotion.
08:32We can think of it in that way.
08:33But the actual cringe itself is an expression
08:37displayed in response to someone, for example,
08:41making a terrible and inappropriate joke in the wrong setting.
08:45At Paul Ekman, who's a very famous emotion scientist,
08:49a very dear friend of mine and a collaborator,
08:51asks, how many emotions are there?
08:53We have here a scheme developed by another well-known scientist of emotion,
09:00Robert Plutchik.
09:02And Plutchik argues that there are a number of primary emotions
09:06such as joy, trust, fear, surprise,
09:10and there are opposites that are sadness, disgust, anger, anticipation.
09:15We have this circumflex.
09:17And the outer ring are emotions that are less arousing.
09:23And as we get closer and closer to the center, the emotions are more arousing.
09:28We begin with serenity, maybe thought of as a low-arousal positive emotion,
09:33then joy, and then ecstasy.
09:35Ecstasy would be a higher-arousal positive emotion.
09:39And similarly, we can go from apprehension, in this case, to fear, to terror.
09:45According to this scheme, there are emotions that are opposite to one another.
09:50For example, joy and sadness are opposite to one another.
09:54According to other scientists, however, emotions may be less dichotomous in that way,
10:00less binary.
10:01As someone who has spent quite a bit of time with the Dalai Lama
10:05in research that we've done, the Dalai Lama, I know,
10:09has expressed serenity along with sadness simultaneously.
10:14And so the idea that these are always opposite in this way, I think, is a little too simplistic.
10:21These are all Western conceptions of emotion.
10:24In non-Western cultures, the framework for emotion is likely to be quite different.
10:30And so it's important that we not consider this a final say on how emotions should be parsed.
10:38In some non-Western cultures, a major division is made between emotions that are wholesome,
10:44that are conducive to our well-being, and emotions that are unwholesome.
10:49So for example, anger is an emotion that would be considered an unwholesome emotion
10:55in these other frameworks.
10:56Curiouserncuriouser asks, why is smiling contagious?
11:01Smiling is contagious, and it really invites the question about
11:05emotions being contagious more generally.
11:07Research has been done, starting in neonates,
11:10just after they're born when they're in the nursing unit in a hospital.
11:15When one baby begins to cry, the other babies start to cry too.
11:20That is a form of emotional contagion.
11:23It begins that early, when really when we're first born.
11:26And so we are wired to respond to the emotions of others.
11:31This is a very helpful insight because there are times when we may want to change the mood
11:39in a meeting or in a room by laughing, for example, or smiling,
11:44we can have it spread to the other members of this group.
11:48At iWigdol, how does meditation rewire the brain?
11:52When we cultivate wholesome habits of mind through meditation,
11:57it turns out that our brains literally change.
12:00Meditation changes two major systems in the brain.
12:04It changes our capacity to pay attention.
12:07The prefrontal cortex is majorly involved because this is the area of self-regulation,
12:13and this area is strengthened by meditation.
12:16The second change that occurs in the brain with meditation is focused on emotion.
12:22And meditation improves our ability to regulate our emotions,
12:26particularly in changing the connectivity among different networks in the brain.
12:32Most of the time, our self-related thinking, our beliefs about ourselves,
12:37really hijack our perception of reality.
12:40And what meditation does is it alters that.
12:43It shifts our connectivity so that we can see that our thoughts about ourselves,
12:49our beliefs, our expectations are there, but we can appreciate them for what they are.
12:54So this is how meditation affects the wiring in our brain.
12:59At Elonconomy asks, I need to get smarter.
13:02Anyone have any hacks for IQ or any activities they can do to increase neuroplasticity?
13:08The single best way that's non-pharmacological and safe
13:12is something that may be surprising to viewers, and that is aerobic exercise.
13:17Neuroplasticity is a word we use to refer to the fact that the brain can change in response
13:23to experience or to training, and it includes many different mechanisms,
13:28forming new connections, decreasing connections, kind of sculpting the brain.
13:32There are also new neurons that actually can grow, a process that we call neurogenesis.
13:38The real question is, how can we combine an increase in neuroplasticity
13:43with training the mind to improve our emotions?
13:48And there I think a combination of physical exercise and meditation
13:53is perhaps an ideal combination.
13:56Let me introduce something that I think is really totally new,
13:59the possibility of contemplative aerobics.
14:03Please try it.
14:04At thegirlz asks, where are my emotions?
14:08Why can't I feel anything?
14:10I want to feel.
14:11People sometimes report that they don't feel their emotions,
14:14and that can be due to many different reasons.
14:17They may be having emotions that they're not experiencing consciously.
14:21It also may be that they're simply not having those emotions.
14:24The former we refer to as alexithymia, where a person is having difficulty
14:31labeling or naming or becoming aware of emotions that they have.
14:36The latter case is more like psychopathy.
14:38There are big differences among people in the extent to which they feel their emotions.
14:44We talked about the fact that when we have emotions,
14:46we don't always consciously feel them.
14:49One thing that you can try is to simply sit quietly.
14:54When you have an emotion, bring your awareness into your body.
14:58And you can scan your body, starting at the head and going down
15:02through all the different parts of your body,
15:04going into the face, into your neck, into your shoulders, into your torso,
15:09and simply bring awareness to these different parts of the body
15:13on a regular basis.
15:15And see if that can help to connect you to the emotions that you feel.
15:20At Reformer, Elluciam asks a series of questions.
15:23What is emotional maturity?
15:25How can it be measured?
15:27Is emotional maturity connected to age?
15:30What age can we be emotionally matured?
15:32How is it objective?
15:34And what makes it beyond a mere opinion?
15:37Emotional maturity is probably most akin to showing high levels of emotional intelligence.
15:42And emotional intelligence includes the capacity
15:45to effectively regulate our emotions, and also the capacity
15:50to be aware of our own emotions, to be self-aware.
15:54There are simple forms of meditation that we
15:57know can improve a person's emotional maturity
16:01or their emotional intelligence.
16:03There are ways to measure this, including really hard-nosed ways
16:07in the brain that involve looking at the interaction
16:10between the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala,
16:13as well as behaviorally to see how this is expressed
16:17in the real world in our everyday behavior.
16:21At gmonster7000 asks, wait, what goes on in our brains when we laugh?
16:26Are our neurons laughing too?
16:28Laughing might serve as a kind of emotional reset.
16:31It's a big change that can occur and in a very quick way reset our neural circuits.
16:40There are some cool insights that we've gleaned about laughter
16:44from the study of neuroscience, and in particular,
16:48from the study of patients who've had damage to one part of their brain or another.
16:53It turns out that people who've had damage to their right hemisphere,
16:58where their left hemisphere is preserved, are more likely to laugh.
17:02So the area of the brain that is preserved is the one that's laughing.
17:07And so when the right side is damaged, it may disinhibit the left side of the brain
17:12so it becomes more active.
17:14That's been called in the scientific literature pathological laughter.
17:19They laugh at things that most of us would probably not laugh at.
17:24And this has given us some insight that the left hemisphere of the brain,
17:28particularly the left frontal region of the brain,
17:30may be associated with certain kinds of positive emotion
17:35that laughter is associated with.
17:38At X, Y, S hearts wants to know, why am I so mad?
17:41Madness or anger is typically triggered by something outside of us,
17:46a systemic injustice, our goals being thwarted.
17:50That is perceived in the brain.
17:54If we are really mad and we're trying to regulate that madness,
17:59the prefrontal cortex, which is here, is definitely going to be involved.
18:04It is involved in self-regulation, including the regulation of emotion.
18:08It is larger in humans than it is in any other species.
18:12And this is likely associated with the fact that humans can self-regulate
18:19in ways that are far more sophisticated than in any other species.
18:24But there's one downside to that.
18:26In addition to the capacity to self-regulate,
18:29the prefrontal cortex also confers the possibility of dysregulation.
18:34Psychiatric problems are far more prevalent in humans
18:38than they are in any other species.
18:40And that is because of the prefrontal cortex.
18:43At CarSopples asks, I always wonder what love actually is.
18:48Is love a gesture? Is it a feeling? Is it an emotion?
18:51Is it a combination of all three?
18:53Many years ago, when I first met the Dalai Lama in 1992,
18:57I made a commitment to him that I would put compassion
19:01on the scientific map as best I could.
19:03And I think over the last 20 years,
19:06the field has really been quite successful in that.
19:09I would now like to do the same thing for love.
19:12There is very little serious research on love.
19:16We do know that love includes areas of the brain
19:20that we typically think of as being involved in emotion.
19:23Clearly, love involves going beyond oneself,
19:28a dissolution, at least in part, of self-other boundaries.
19:33Exactly how this occurs in a scientific or biological framework
19:38is very difficult to specify at this point in time.
19:42It's going to involve changes in connectivity
19:45between the default mode of the brain and other circuits,
19:49particularly circuits involved in positive emotion.
19:52So those are all the questions for today.
19:55Really great questions.
19:56Thank you so much.
19:57And thank you for watching Emotion Support.