Emotional Map of the Brain: Why We Feel Shame in the Temporal Lobes and Fear in the Amygdala
Where do human emotions come from? We know that our brain is responsible for them, but which areas generate specific feelings? Let’s explore the “emotional map of the brain” to understand how we experience emotions, why anger can resemble happiness, and why humans can’t live without gentle touch.
Guilt and Shame: The Temporal Lobes
It’s easy to understand how memory or calculation are brain processes. But with emotions, things get trickier—partly because we use phrases like “broken heart” for sadness or “blushing” for shame. Still, emotions are a matter of neurophysiology: processes that occur in the tissues of our nervous system’s main organ. Today, we can partially observe this thanks to neuroimaging technology.
In a recent study, Petra Michl and colleagues from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich conducted a series of MRI scans to find the brain regions responsible for feelings of guilt and shame. They discovered that shame and guilt are “neighbors” in the brain, though each has its own anatomical area.
Participants were asked to imagine feeling guilt or shame, and in both cases, the temporal lobes were activated. Shame specifically involved the anterior cingulate cortex, which monitors the environment and signals errors, and the parahippocampal gyrus, which helps recall past scenes. Guilt, on the other hand, activated the lateral occipitotemporal gyrus and the middle temporal gyrus—centers for vestibular processing. Additionally, people feeling shame showed activity in the anterior and middle frontal gyri, while those feeling guilt had activation in the amygdala and insular cortex. These last two areas are part of the limbic system, which regulates basic “fight or flight” emotions, internal organ function, blood pressure, and more.
Comparing MRI scans of men and women, researchers found that in women, guilt only affected the temporal lobes, while in men, the frontal and occipital lobes and the amygdala were also involved. The amygdala is one of the brain’s oldest structures, responsible for fear, anger, panic, and pleasure.
Fear and Anger: The Amygdala
During fetal development, the limbic system forms right after the brainstem, which organizes reflexes and connects the brain to the spinal cord. The limbic system is responsible for emotions and actions necessary for species survival. The amygdala, a key part of this system, is located near the hypothalamus inside the temporal lobes and is activated when we see food, sexual partners, rivals, crying children, and so on. Bodily reactions to fear—like a racing heart when you think someone is following you at night—are thanks to the amygdala. Several independent studies have shown that even artificial stimulation of this area can trigger a sense of impending danger.
Anger is also largely a function of the amygdala, but it’s strikingly different from fear, sadness, and other negative emotions. Human anger is unique in that it resembles happiness: like joy and pleasure, it propels us forward, while fear or grief make us withdraw. Like other emotions, anger, rage, and fury involve many brain regions, since the brain must assess the situation, draw on memory and experience, regulate hormone production, and more to act on these impulses.
Tenderness and Comfort: The Somatosensory Cortex
In many cultures, it’s customary to hide sadness and distress. For example, in British English, the idiom “keep a stiff upper lip” means not showing your feelings. However, neurobiologists say that, physiologically, humans need the involvement of others. “Clinical experiments show that loneliness causes more stress than any other factor,” says German scientist and author of “The Science of Happiness,” Stefan Klein. “Loneliness is a burden for the brain and body. It leads to anxiety, mental and emotional turmoil (due to stress hormones), and a weakened immune system. In isolation, people become sad and sick.”
Study after study shows that social interaction is physically and mentally beneficial. It extends life and improves its quality. “A single touch from someone you trust and care about can ease sadness,” says Stefan. “This is due to neurotransmitters—oxytocin and opioids—released during moments of tenderness.”
Recently, British researchers confirmed the benefits of affectionate touch using CT scans. They found that being touched by others causes strong activity in the somatosensory cortex, which constantly monitors all our tactile sensations. The researchers concluded that the impulses generated when someone gently touches us during tough times help us filter out critical stimuli that can change everything for us. They also noted that participants coped with grief more easily when held by a stranger, and even more so when touched by a loved one.
Joy and Laughter: The Prefrontal Cortex and Hippocampus
When we feel joy, happiness, laugh, or smile, many different brain regions “light up.” The creation and processing of positive emotions involve the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and the anterior insular cortex, so joy, like anger, sadness, or fear, engages the whole brain.
During happy moments, the right amygdala is much more active than the left. It’s commonly believed that the left hemisphere is responsible for logic and the right for creativity, but recent research shows that most brain functions require both sides, though there is some asymmetry. For example, major language centers are on the left, while processing intonation and accents is more on the right.
The prefrontal cortex consists of several areas in the frontal lobes, located at the front of the hemispheres just behind the forehead. It’s connected to the limbic system and is responsible for setting goals, making plans, achieving results, changing course, and improvising. Studies show that in happy moments, the left prefrontal cortex is more active in women than the right.
The hippocampus, deep in the temporal lobes, works with the amygdala to help us separate important emotional events from trivial ones, so the former can be stored in long-term memory and the latter discarded. In other words, the hippocampus evaluates happy events for their archival significance. The anterior insular cortex helps with this process, is also connected to the limbic system, and is most active when recalling pleasant or sad events.
Lust and Love: Not Emotions?
Today, thousands of neurobiologists around the world study the human brain. Yet science still hasn’t precisely defined what an emotion or feeling is. We know that many feelings originate in the limbic system—one of the brain’s oldest parts. However, not everything we traditionally call an emotion may actually be one. For example, from a physiological perspective, lust is not like fear or joy. Its impulses are formed not in the amygdala, but in the ventral striatum, also known as the “reward center.” This area is also activated during orgasm or eating delicious food. Some scientists even question whether lust is a feeling at all.
Lust also differs from love, which activates the dorsal striatum. Interestingly, this same area is involved when a person uses drugs and becomes addicted. Still, during periods of being in love, we definitely experience happiness, fear, anger, and sadness more often than during calm times—which suggests that love may be a sum of emotions, desires, and impulses.