Decoding Emotion: How is Emotion Processed in our Brain?

What is Emotion?

Excitement, anxiety, anger, exhilaration. These are all emotions that we experience with sport participation. But what are emotions, and how do we regulate them? Emotion is linked to our historical fight or flight response and comes from signals sent to the control center in our brain. Emotion and mood are often described as going hand in hand, but they are in fact two different things. Emotion is a more transient experience, whereas mood is a feeling or state of mind that is pervasive and long-lasting. Everyone experiences emotions, but high-level athletes have learned better skills of emotional regulation. Regulating our emotions comes from learning to slow down our ‘reactivity’ to emotions, and having more mastery over the reactions of our central nervous system to certain stimuli.

Emotion in our Brain:

Our brain has several distinct structures that are linked to emotion regulation. Together, these are called the limbic system. The limbic system is comprised of areas deep within our brain that are responsible for emotional and behavioral responses. Within the limbic system, the structures include the hippocampus, the hypothalamus, the amygdala, and the limbic cortex.

The hippocampus plays a role in how you perceive spacial environment, but it also helps to retrieve and preserve memories. The hypothalamus helps to control emotional responses and is involved in hormone release. The amygdala plays an important role in the experience of anger and fear, and it helps coordinate responses that trigger emotions. The amygdala also plays a role in fear learning, which is a developed association between certain situations and the experience of fear. Finally, the limbic cortex is important for mood, judgement and motivation.

The amygdala is the structure in our brain which is primarily responsible for processing strong emotions, like those that we experience when we are participating in sport and competition. With the emotion of fear, for example, the amygdala, will send a signal to the hypothalamus, which then initiates a fight or flight response. The hypothalamus will then send a signal to the adrenal gland to produce hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol. Among other things, these hormones cause our heart rate to rise, our pupils to dilate, and our body to begin perspiring. When we are nervous or too excited, our ‘flight’ response kicks in, and our movements become more rigid and less coordinated. If you have ever experienced going into the competition ring and your body not doing what you were asking it to do, this is a result of signals from your hypothalamus. Another common nervous system response is for our minds to go blank.

Emotion and Perspective:

We don't always have control over our emotions, but through our executive functioning in the cerebral cortex, we do have control over how we think. One of the most important strategies to develop better emotional regulation is cognitive reappraisal. In cognitive reappraisal, we change the way we think about how we experience something. We look at it with new eyes. With strong personal emotion, like those experienced in sport settings, one important perspective to consider is that emotions are coming from a biological pathway that is thousands of years old. Often, people think of emotions as good or bad, but in fact, every emotion has a place. In viewing different emotions as a normal and necessary part of sport, rather than trying to categorize them, it can often help an athlete feel more comfortable as they experience them. Emotions are like clouds in the sky. They will come and they will go, but the sky will remain blue!

Further Resources:

Looking at your Three Emotion Regulation Systems:

https://mi-psych.com.au/your-brains-3-emotion-regulation-systems/

Understanding your Window of Tolerance:

https://mi-psych.com.au/understanding-your-window-of-tolerance/