In the latest Pixar movie, Inside out 2, complex feelings such as envy and shame join the cast of characters. Nostalgia, however, rushes out the door amid cries of “too soon!” when she appears.
If animators want to give nostalgia more consideration in a future film, new data from researchers at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences could guide them in determining how to animate this type of “mixed emotion.”
What’s new: In a recent study, neuroscientists at USC Dornsife found that brains show different neural activity when experiencing emotions such as the taste of bittersweet.
- The breakthrough could help resolve a long-standing scientific debate: whether “mixed emotions” arise from a unique activity in the brain, or whether we are simply oscillating between positive and negative feelings.
Because it is important: Mixed emotions are a common experience, but they have not been scientifically studied for several reasons.
- It is often thought that emotions exist only on a spectrum from negative to positive.
- It is easier to study one feeling at a time.
In his words: “It is difficult to evoke these complex emotions realistically within the laboratory,” says Jonas Kaplan, associate (research) professor of psychology and co-author of the study, published in the journal Cerebral cortex in April.
Key results:
- The mixed feelings triggered unique neural activity in the amygdala and nucleus accumbens areas of the brain.
- This activity was different from the brain activity observed when a subject reported a purely positive or negative emotion.
What other thing? The researchers were able to predict when someone was going to change their emotion.
- Particular regions of the brain, such as the insular cortex, showed significant changes when subjects reported an emotional transition.
“Not only did we find that brain activity correlated with mixed emotions, but we found that it remained stable over time,” says Anthony Vaccaro, lead author of the study and postdoctoral researcher in the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology of Social Bonds at the USC Dornsife. Vaccaro recently completed his doctorate in psychology at USC Dornsife. “You’re not playing between the negative and the positive. It’s a unique, mixed emotion over a long period.”
The graphs show consistent brain activity during positive, negative, and mixed emotions, showing that mixed emotions are different from other feelings. (Image: Jonas Kaplan.)
how they did it: While study subjects watched a moving animated short film, researchers monitored their brain activity using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. · The researchers chose one small step by TAIKO Studios for its ability to evoke simultaneous feelings of happiness and sadness. · After the first viewing, participants watched the video again without MRI and indicated when they experienced positive, negative, or mixed emotions. The researchers then compared these reports with the results of the MRI scans.
Chance: The study lays a practical foundation for future scientific research into this understudied phenomenon, research that Kaplan said would also be beneficial for understanding human psychology.
- “It takes a certain sophistication to sit with a mixed emotion and allow yourself to feel positive and negative at the same time. Investigating that further, exploring the benefits of being able to accept the positive and the negative at the same time within yourself, is something we think is worth it.” worth studying,” he says.
Whats Next: Kaplan and Vaccaro will next discuss how emotional reactions fluctuate in group settings, such as watching a movie together at the theater.