Paula M. Niedenthal - Embodying Emotions

Embodying Emotions

Niedenthal focuses a large portion of research towards the embodiment of emotions. Embodiment refers both to actual bodily states and to simulations of experience in the brain’s modality-specific systems for perception, action, and introspection. One such study conducted by Niedenthal focuses primarily on the central sense of embodiment, referring to the brain’s modality-specific systems which include the sensory systems that underlie perception of a current situation, the motor systems that underlie action, and the introspective systems that underlie conscious experiences of emotion, motivation and cognitive operations. Niedenthal employs the use of several theories of embodied cognition to explain how certain phenomena can be based specifically in such systems and bodily states. The main idea underlying theories of embodied cognition is that cognitive representations and operations are fundamentally grounded in their physical context, while cognition relies heavily on the brain’s modality-specific systems and actual bodily states. Niedenthal believes that it is becoming increasingly essential to demonstrate the casual rules of embodiment in higher cognition. Niedenthal has suggested that embodiment plays a large role in information processing of emotions through the use of Wilsons’ idea of ‘’online’’ and ‘’offline’’ embodiment in that embodiment is present when individuals respond to real emotion objects as well as when individuals represent the meanings of emotional symbols (e.g., words).