The Alchemy of Emotions
Emotional responses are a fundamental aspect of the human condition, shaping our perceptions, beliefs, and behaviours. Recently, I was reminded of this truth while revisiting the exquisite multi-generational narrative of One Hundred Years of Solitude by the acclaimed Gabriel García Márquez, and its equally compelling Netflix adaptation. The story vividly illustrates how a fictional community, isolated in the jungles of 19th-century Colombia, interprets the unknown through supernatural and magical lenses, allowing their emotions to reshape their collective reality. The mysterious alchemy of life—whether expressed through the arrival of yellow butterflies, the haunting echoes of ancestral guilt, or the inexplicable plagues of insomnia—is suffused with emotional depth, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary. This uniquely human tendency to emotionally contextualise the unknown underscores the profound influence emotions have on shaping both individual experiences and collective narratives.
Reflecting on these characters’ reactions has led me to consider the profound role emotions play in shaping our understanding of our perceived unknown and, by extension, our unique creative endeavours, deepening my ongoing curious research into neuroplasticity and creativity.
Our brain’s remarkable ability to adapt and restructure, especially in response to emotional stimuli, appears intricately linked to the processes through which we create and express ourselves artistically.
This exploration led me to the field of affective neuroscience—the study of how emotions are generated, regulated, and experienced within the brain. Delving into this science reveals the intricate mechanisms behind our emotional experiences and their profound potential to inspire creativity. I approach this study with humility, fully aware of its depth, but with unwavering dedication to integrating its insights into my own creative and intellectual pursuits.
The Theory of Constructed Emotion
In her transformative work, How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain, Lisa Feldman Barrett challenges the traditional view of emotions as innate, universal reactions to stimuli. Instead, Barrett’s research reveals that emotions are not, in fact, hardwired but actively constructed by the brain through a dynamic process of prediction and interpretation. This groundbreaking theory emphasises that emotions are not things we have but things we make.
Barrett explains that the brain is a predictive machine, constantly analysing bodily sensations and environmental signals to anticipate and make sense of the world. This process, known as interoception, allows the brain to interpret signals such as a racing heart or tense muscles, contextualising them to construct emotions. These emotions are not universal truths ingrained in our biological circuitary, but are shaped by learned concepts, language, and culture—an intricate mosaic of past experiences influencing the present.
This understanding redefines emotions as flexible and adaptive tools, rather than fixed responses. What we emotionally feel are not mere reactions to the world but deliberate, creative constructions of our personal agency. Barrett’s insights open new avenues for understanding the role of emotions in artistic processes, where they act as both raw material and inspiration.
Brain Evolution and Emotional Complexity
To truly appreciate the complexity of how emotions are constructed, we must dig into the profound interplay between human biology and the evolutionary development of the brain. Over millennia, the human brain has evolved as a remarkable organ of adaptability, designed to ensure survival and foster social cohesion. The limbic system, one of the brain’s most ancient regions, laid the groundwork for basic emotional responses, ensuring swift reactions to threats and opportunities. But as our ancestors faced increasingly intricate challenges, both environmental and social, the brain’s architecture transformed. The expansion of the prefrontal cortex, a gradual process occurring between 400,000 and 35,000 years ago, was a defining time in human evolution, granting our species the capacity for abstract reasoning, emotional regulation, and symbolic thought.
As social structures became more complex, culture and language emerged as powerful forces that began shaping emotional experiences. Emotions evolved beyond immediate, instinctual reactions to rewards or dangers; they became intertwined with the human capacity for storytelling, symbolism, and shared meaning. This evolutionary backdrop reveals that emotions are not just functional survival tools but deeply creative mechanisms, reflecting both our biological heritage and the cultural narratives that define our lives.
This evolutionary timeline, spanning hundreds of thousands of years, is remarkably brief when compared to the millions of years over which all species have evolved. This unique and relatively rapid development represents a significant fork in the evolutionary road, setting humans on a unique trajectory. The biological outcomes of this evolutionary path have culminated in the cognitive and emotional capabilities that underpin modern society, allowing for complex social structures, technological innovation, and the rich tapestry of human culture we see today.
Applications in the Arts
The interplay between affective neuroscience and creativity offers profound insights into how emotions can be intentionally accessed and utilised in the process of ideating and artmaking. Given the nature of emotions as creative mechanisms, I’ve become increasingly fascinated by how this knowledge can inform deliberate creative choices. For example, within the art of musical composition, music—a universal language of emotion—has an unparalleled ability to transcend barriers and evoke profound feelings.
Composers and musicians who understand the science of how emotions are constructed intentionally sculpt emotional landscapes through the careful arrangement of melody, harmony, and rhythm. By tapping into the brain’s predictive emotional mechanisms and its processing of sound, they can evoke nostalgia, joy, or tension with precision, transforming musical passages into curated emotional journeys.
In the digital design industry, affective neuroscience offers profound strategies for crafting user experiences that resonate emotionally with users. Understanding how emotions are neurally created enables designers to anticipate and align with users’ emotional states, transforming digital experiences into deeply intuitive and impactful journeys.
Consider Spotify as a primary case study, which not only offers seamless access to music, but more affectively curates personalised playlists that evoke nostalgia, motivation, or excitement based on listening habits. Beyond Spotify, apps like Headspace exemplify the deliberate use of design to elicit specific emotional responses—their calming visuals, guided meditations, and thoughtful user flows foster relaxation and focus. These examples demonstrate how digital design, informed by the science of emotion construction, moves beyond functionality to create meaningful connections. This reflective integration of emotional science and design highlights the potential for innovation at the intersection of empathy, creativity, and technology.
Beyond these examples, the applications of affective neuroscience extend even further, offering transformative insights into storytelling, visual arts, and therapeutic practices. Filmmakers often harness the principles of emotion construction to craft scenes that resonate powerfully with audiences. For example, in The Grand Budapest Hotel, director Wes Anderson employs meticulous pacing, a vivid colour palette, and a whimsical yet poignant musical score to evoke a complex blend of nostalgia, humour, and melancholy. Similarly, in visual arts, Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night demonstrates how texture, swirling motion, and dramatic contrasts tap into shared emotional concepts, creating a universal sense of wonder and introspection.
Examining emotions through the lens of affective neuroscience reveals that they are not fixed neural reactions but dynamic and plastic constructions, deeply tied to our biology, culture, agency and imagination. This understanding provides a fascinating meta-aspect: the act of using affective neuroscience to inspire and inform creative processes itself inspires and informs the emotional responses of others. By deliberately crafting experiences that resonate emotionally, creators set in motion a cyclical process—one where emotional intelligence flows between artist and audience, designer and user, reinforcing and amplifying emotional connections throughout culture and society. In this interwoven neural tapestry, each act of creation becomes part of a larger cultural dialogue, contributing to a shared emotional and imaginative evolution. The more we understand, regulate, and leverage these emotional responses, the more authentically and purposefully we can apply this intelligence to our work and lives, unlocking boundless possibilities for innovation, self-expression, and connection.