Even the researchers were stunned: this is how our brain organizes emotions

A new study reveals that the human brain may organize emotions using a geometric pattern resembling a honeycomb. Researchers from Emory University identified a brain activity pattern similar to that used for spatial orientation, in an area associated with emotional processing. The study was published in the journal PLOS Biology.

A new study published in the journal PLOS Biology reveals that the human brain may organize emotions using a geometric pattern resembling a honeycomb. The researchers, Yumeng Ma and Philip Kragel from Emory University in the United States, recruited 18 participants and examined their brain activity using functional MRI. During the scan, participants were shown facial expressions that gradually changed from one emotion to another, as well as sequences of emotionally meaningful sentences. The main result was obtained in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, where a pattern of activity that repeated in six directions was identified, similar to the hexagonal pattern known from the spatial orientation system. The researchers found a link between brain activity and how participants assessed changes between emotional states. However, the study was conducted with only 18 participants, and the researchers did not prove that the hexagonal pattern is the mechanism that allows us to understand emotions, but rather found brain activity consistent with this possibility.