Back to ArticlesPublication: Softmind Research & Innovation Series: Weekly Research Review | October 2026 Research Areas: Affective Neuroscience, Evolutionary Psychology, Psychophysiology and Human Behaviour Abstract Human emotions are frequently understood as products of neural activity or cognitive interpretation. However, contemporary affective neuroscience increasingly recognises emotional experience as emerging through interactions among brain activity, bodily physiology, previous learning and environmental context. This brief narrative review examines evidence from interoception, allostasis and autonomic physiology to explore the embodied nature of emotion. Research suggests that bodily signals contribute to emotional experience, while physiological responses vary considerably across individuals and situations. These findings support a broader, organism-centred approach to understanding psychological distress and highlight the importance of integrating biological, developmental and environmental factors into psychological formulation. Keywords: Affective Neuroscience; Emotion; Interoception; Allostasis; Embodied Cognition; Evolutionary Psychology; Psychophysiology. 1. Introduction Human emotion is often explained through the activity of specific brain regions, neurotransmitters or cognitive processes. Although these mechanisms are important, they do not independently account for the complexity of emotional experience. The brain continuously interacts with the body and surrounding environment. Cardiovascular activity, respiration, metabolic demands, sensory information, memory and social circumstances influence how individuals experience and respond to situations. From an evolutionary perspective, emotional processes are closely associated with survival, adaptation, social cooperation and behavioural flexibility. Fear, anger, attachment and other emotional experiences are therefore not simply internal mental events; they involve coordinated changes across physiological, neural and behavioural systems. An embodied perspective recognises that emotional experience emerges within the functioning organism rather than from isolated neural activity. 2. Interoception and Emotional Experience Interoception refers to the sensing and processing of internal bodily signals, including cardiovascular, respiratory and visceral information. Barrett and Simmons (2015) proposed that interoceptive experience involves interactions between incoming bodily information and neural predictions. Within this framework, the brain does not passively receive physiological signals but actively interprets them in relation to previous experience and anticipated demands. For example, increased heart rate may occur during physical exercise, excitement, fear or anticipation. Although physiological activation may overlap, the resulting emotional experience differs according to context, learning and interpretation. This suggests that bodily sensations do not necessarily possess fixed psychological meanings. However, interoceptive theories remain an active area of scientific investigation, and the precise contribution of predictive processes to specific emotional experiences continues to be debated. 3. Allostasis and the Evolutionary Brain Allostasis describes the process through which biological systems anticipate and adjust to changing physiological demands. Unlike explanations focused exclusively on maintaining fixed internal conditions, allostatic models emphasise adaptive regulation according to expected environmental requirements. Sterling (2012) described allostasis as a framework of predictive regulation, highlighting how physiological systems adjust in anticipation of future demands. From an evolutionary perspective, such anticipatory processes are important because organisms must prepare for challenges before they fully develop. Changes in breathing, cardiovascular activity, attention and muscular readiness may occur before a demanding social or physical event. These responses are not necessarily pathological. They may represent adaptive preparation. Psychological difficulties may emerge when patterns of anticipation, physiological mobilisation and behaviour become persistent, disproportionate or poorly matched to current circumstances. Nevertheless, such difficulties cannot be attributed to allostatic mechanisms alone. 4. Do Emotions Have Distinct Physiological Signatures? The assumption that each emotion corresponds to a unique physiological pattern has been examined extensively. Siegel and colleagues (2018), in a meta-analysis of autonomic responses associated with emotional categories, identified substantial variability both within and across emotions. Their findings challenged the idea that emotions such as fear, anger and sadness can always be identified through distinct and consistent autonomic signatures. This does not mean physiological processes are irrelevant to emotion. Rather, the relationship between physiological activity and emotional experience is more variable than simple one-toone models suggest. The findings also have implications for emerging technologies that attempt to identify emotional states using physiological signals, facial expressions or other behavioural indicators. Such measurements require careful interpretation because similar biological responses may occur across different emotional and environmental circumstances. 5. Implications for Psychological Practice An embodied and evolutionary understanding of emotion supports a broader approach to psychological formulation. Rather than examining symptoms in isolation, clinical assessment may consider interactions among physiological regulation, developmental experiences, learning, relationships, behaviour and environmental demands. For example, persistent anxiety may involve anticipatory physiological activation, learned avoidance, sleep disruption, previous experiences and current social circumstances. These interacting processes may differ considerably between individuals who report similar symptoms. Evidence-based psychological therapies can address cognitive, emotional and behavioural patterns, while selected interventions involving interoceptive exposure, relaxation training or physiological biofeedback may offer additional benefits when clinically appropriate. However, physiological measurements such as heart-rate variability or EEG should not be interpreted as standalone indicators of emotional states or psychological diagnoses. The objective of neuroscience-informed psychological care should be to improve understanding of the individual rather than reduce human experience to biological measurements. 6. Limitations and Future Directions Although embodied and allostatic perspectives provide valuable theoretical frameworks, several questions remain unresolved. There is no single universally accepted theory explaining how emotions emerge from interactions among neural activity, bodily physiology and environmental conditions. Physiological responses also vary according to individual characteristics, measurement conditions and situational context. Future research should investigate how biological and psychological information can be integrated reliably into clinical assessment and whether such integration improves meaningful outcomes beyond established approaches. Particular attention is needed when evaluating technologies that claim to identify emotional states from physiological or behavioural data. 7. Conclusion Contemporary affective neuroscience increasingly supports the importance of brain–body interactions in emotional experience. Interoception highlights the contribution of internal bodily information, while allostatic models emphasise anticipatory physiological regulation. Research on autonomic variability further demonstrates that emotional categories cannot always be reduced to fixed biological patterns. Together, these perspectives encourage an integrated understanding of psychological functioning that includes neural processes, bodily conditions, learning, development and environmental context. Emotion is not merely something the brain produces in isolation. It is an experience of the living organism, shaped continuously by its biological state and relationship with the world. Such an understanding may contribute to more individualised, context-sensitive and scientifically informed psychological care.
Beyond the Brain: An Embodied and Evolutionary Understanding of Human Emotion
2026-10-09 Prasad Amore
References:1. Barrett LF
References:Simmons WK. Interoceptive predictions in the brain. Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 2015;16:419–429. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3950 2. Sterling P. Allostasis: A model of predictive regulation. Physiology & Behavior. 2012;106(1):5–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2011.06.004 3. Siegel EH
References:et al. Emotion fingerprints or emotion populations? A meta-analytic investigation of autonomic features of emotion categories. Psychological Bulletin. 2018;144(4):343–393. https://doi.org/10.1037/bul0000128