A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Maps of subjective feelings
Authors: Nummenmaa L., Hari R., Hietanen J., Glerean E.
Publisher: National Academy of Sciences
Publication year: 2018
Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Journal name in source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Volume: 115
Issue: 37
First page : 9198
Last page: 9203
Number of pages: 6
ISSN: 0027-8424
eISSN: 1091-6490
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1807390115
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/35835042
Subjective feelings are a central feature of human life. We defined the organization and determinants of a feeling space involving 100 core feelings that ranged from cognitive and affective processes to somatic sensations and common illnesses. The feeling space was determined by a combination of basic dimension rating, similarity mapping, bodily sensation mapping, and neuroimaging meta-analysis. A total of 1,026 participants took part in online surveys where we assessed (i) for each feeling, the intensity of four hypothesized basic dimensions (mental experience, bodily sensation, emotion, and controllability), (ii) subjectively experienced similarity of the 100 feelings, and (iii) topography of bodily sensations associated with each feeling. Neural similarity between a subset of the feeling states was derived from the NeuroSynth meta-analysis database based on the data from 9,821 brain-imaging studies. All feelings were emotionally valenced and the saliency of bodily sensations correlated with the saliency of mental experiences associated with each feeling. Nonlinear dimensionality reduction revealed five feeling clusters: positive emotions, negative emotions, cognitive processes, somatic states and illnesses, and homeostatic states. Organization of the feeling space was best explained by basic dimensions of emotional valence, mental experiences, and bodily sensations. Subjectively felt similarity of feelings was associated with basic feeling dimensions and the topography of the corresponding bodily sensations. These findings reveal a map of subjective feelings that are categorical, emotional, and embodied.
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |