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By XANTHA LEATHAM, EXECUTIVE SCIENCE EDITOR
Published: 10:58 GMT, 11 March 2026 | Updated: 16:04 GMT, 11 March 2026
An incredible new map could help explain why anger feels similar to fear, and why being in love makes you feel warmhearted.
Researchers have used AI to analyse brain imaging data, revealing how we process different emotions.
They created an artificial 'mental map', with pleasantness along one axis and bodily reactions along the other, and charted how the brain responded while watching clips from films.
The results revealed clear groupings in the way that our brains represent emotion – with guilt, anger and disgust in one corner and happiness, satisfaction and pride in the other.
The findings could help explain why fear, anxiety and anger all elicit the same bodily response – rapid breathing and a beating heart – and all carry a similar level of unpleasantness.
Meanwhile love, pride and warmheartedness are all mapped closely together, showing how these emotions are also comparable.
'People's emotional experiences are subjective,' first author Yumeng Ma, from Emory University in the US, said.
'We're using technology to understand the mechanisms underlying emotions in an objective, scientific way.'
The results revealed clear groupings in the way that our brains represent emotion – with guilt, anger and disgust in one corner and happiness, satisfaction and pride in the other
For their study, the team asked 30 participants to watch short, emotionally evocative film clips while rating their emotions.
These ratings were compared to brain MRI scans taken while they were viewing the movies.
The team discovered links between self-reported emotional experiences and MRI patterns in the brain.
Analysis revealed brains 'embed' emotions in a map-like way.
'For example, occurrences of anger and fear are often closer together compared to those of happiness and excitement,' Ms Ma said.
The researchers hope to build on their findings by studying how this mental map may differ among those with mental health issues.
'Research has shown that individuals with depression and anxiety represent emotions in a more compressed, less differentiated way,' Philip Kragel, senior author, said.
'And that people who represent emotion with more granularity and differentiation tend to have better health outcomes.'
The 'mental map' involved charting how pleasant or unpleasant an emotion was, along with how it prompted bodily reactions
The researchers used their 'brain map' to analyse how participants felt while watching film clips
They also want to explore how this mental map for emotions develops over time.
Anger, Disgust, Guilt, Anxiety, Surprise, Fear, Sadness
Satisfaction, Happiness, Pride, Warmheartedness, Love, Regard
