How to Understand Emotions | Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett

In this episode, my guest is Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, Ph.D., a Distinguished Professor of Psychology at Northeastern University who is a world expert in the science of emotions. She explains what emotions are and how the brain represents and integrates signals from our body and the environment around us to create our unique emotional states. We discuss the relationship between emotions and language, how our specificity of language impacts our emotional processing, the role of facial expressions in emotions, and how emotions relate to sleep, movement, nutrition and the building and reinforcement of social bonds. We also discuss actionable tools for how to regulate feelings of uncertainty and tools to better understand the emotional states of others. This episode ought to be of interest to anyone curious about the neuroscience and psychology underlying emotions and for those who seek to better understand themselves and relate to others and the world in richer, more adaptive ways. For show notes, including referenced articles and additional resources, please visit hubermanlab.com. Use Ask Huberman Lab, our new AI-powered platform, for a summary, clips, and insights from this episode. Thank you to our sponsors AG1: https://drinkag1.com/huberman LMNT: https://drinklmnt.com/hubermanlab Waking Up: https://wakingup.com/huberman Momentous: https://livemomentous.com/huberman Timestamps (00:00:00) Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett (00:03:18) Sponsors: LMNT & Waking Up (00:05:46) Core Components of Emotions (00:10:42) Facial Movement & Interpretation, Emotion (00:19:33) Facial Expressions & Emotion, Individualization (00:31:03) Emotion Categories, Culture & Child Development (00:37:10) Sponsor: AG1 (00:37:50) Legal System, ‘Universal’ Emotions & Caution (00:41:07) Language Descriptions, Differences & Emotion (00:48:18) Questions & Assumptions; Language, Emotions & Nervous System (00:53:40) Brain, Uncertainty & Categories (01:03:57) Brain & Summaries; Emotions as “Multimodal Summaries” (01:14:45) Emotional Granularity, Library Analogy (01:19:40) Brain & Compression, Planning (01:29:04) Labels & Generalization (01:34:29) Movement, Sensation, Prediction & Learning (01:42:44) Feelings of Discomfort & Action (01:50:32) Tool: Feelings of Uncertainty, Emotion, “Affect” (02:01:18) Tool: Experience Dimensions & Attention; Individualization (02:08:36) Affect, Allostasis & Body Budget Analogy (02:15:41) Depression, “Emotional Flu” (02:20:20) Tool: Positively Shift Affect; Alcohol & Drugs; SSRIs (02:27:40) Relationships: Savings or Taxes, Kindness (02:36:50) Zero-Cost Support, Spotify & Apple Reviews, Sponsors, YouTube Feedback, Momentous, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter Disclaimer Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Om Podcasten

The Huberman Lab podcast is hosted by Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., a neuroscientist and tenured professor in the department of neurobiology, and by courtesy, psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford School of Medicine. The podcast discusses neuroscience and science-based tools, including how our brain and its connections with the organs of our body control our perceptions, our behaviors, and our health, as well as existing and emerging tools for measuring and changing how our nervous system works. Huberman has made numerous significant contributions to the fields of brain development, brain function, and neural plasticity, which is the ability of our nervous system to rewire and learn new behaviors, skills, and cognitive functioning. He is a McKnight Foundation and Pew Foundation Fellow and was awarded the Cogan Award, given to the scientist making the most significant discoveries in the study of vision, in 2017.  Work from the Huberman Laboratory at Stanford School of Medicine has been published in top journals, including Nature, Science, and Cell, and has been featured in TIME, BBC, Scientific American, Discover, and other top media outlets. In 2021, Dr. Huberman launched the Huberman Lab podcast. The podcast is frequently ranked in the top 10 of all podcasts globally and is often ranked #1 in the categories of Science, Education, and Health & Fitness.