ESCIO, FHAIZA G.

NCM 105 A
November 18, 2014

Seat of Emotion: Brain or Heart

According to ancient times the seat of emotion was the liver then later on the heart. But
in the modern times, they consider the brain as the seat of emotion, the idea that I adhere to.
For me, it is really the brain that is the seat of emotion and not the heart which contradicts the
societal view as it is the heart that is the center of all emotions. They say it is the heart which is
responsible for all sorts of feelings like love, anger, despair and sorrow, but really, it is the brain.
If we are going to look into the anatomy and physiology of the human body, the primary
function of the heart is to pump and supply blood into the rest of the parts of the body while in
the brain, it is the limbic system which is the center of emotions, drives, and basic survival
functions.
So basically, it is in the brain where the seat of emotion is. As what Dr. Daniel Amen
have said, the limbic system, sets the minds emotional tone, filters external events through
internal states (creates emotional coloring), tags events as internally important, stores highly
charged emotional memories, modulates motivation, controls appetite and sleep cycles,
promotes bonding and directly processes the sense of smell and modulates libido, it is our
neurons that transmit impulses to the heart that keeps it beating fast when we are actually
attracted to someone or when there is a certain stimuli that is regulated from a desirable
experience.
Emotions are imprinted in our body through memory. It travels in the body and bind to
neuropeptide receptors on the outside of the cells. Accordingly, the more senses involved in an

experience, the more the brain remembers, and the more deeply the memory is imprinted onto
our emotional network.
Ever wondered why when a person gets amnesia, that person also forgets who he or
she loves? It is because amnesia affects the brain which is simply the site where all our emotion
is processed. The memory of the person gets affected when a person has amnesia and so the
memories triggered by experience are no longer there, which means, the emotional familiarity
of that person to the one he/she loves is not in existence anymore since that person
experienced amnesia.
Emotional development is merely a process in which there is a significant experience
that involved a series of senses which is stored into memory. And as the brain remembers, it is
the impulses in our emotional network that manifests into our physiological being that makes
us feel the kind of emotion that we may be feeling.
Therefore, the heart is only seen as the symbolic figure of love and all kinds of emotion
but in reality, it is really in the brain where the seat of emotion lies.