Is there such a thing as a “default” human emotion, and if so do we all have the same one, or is it based on the individual?
In: Biology
It does not map to a particular emotion per se, but the closest I think we are going to get to answering this question based on what I know is referring to what neuroscience calls the Default Mode Network, which is a collection of brain regions/patterns of activity that are basically on whenever you ask subjects to just relax for a bit.
It overlaps with other things/activities, and a good overview can be found here: [https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00189/full](https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00189/full)
Edit: to expand a bit, DMN last I checked was heavily involved in “self” related processing and in certain pathologies (functional disorders like IBS when I was doing research years ago) has been demonstrated to be over-expressed relative to healthy (and the opposite in other pathologies like Alzeheimer). So one’s experience of the DMN may be self-related processing. Who am I? Remember that time when…? What should I do next?
Latest Answers