情绪的身体感觉：基于身体感觉地图(BSM)与主观报告

There has been controversy about whether different emotions correspond to different physiological responses. Nummenmaa et al. (2014) used the emBODY tool and found that each emotion has its unique bodily sensation map (BSM). They believed that BSMs may simultaneously reflect changes in skeletomuscular, visceral sensations as well as the autonomic nervous system, but traditional psychophysiological techniques could not reveal the connection between BSMs and physiological changes. This study aimed to explore this question further, using the emBODY tool and qualitative interview. Four emotions were included in the current study: happiness, love, fear, and anxiety. Ninety-eight Chinese college students participated in the studyand were asked to draw their bodily sensation of each emotion on an iPad. After completing the drawings, 94 participants voluntarily participated in the follow-up interview and verbally reported the bodily sensations reflected in the BSMs. Resutls showed that: (1) The results of BSMs in this study were similar to the previous research to a large extent, but there were still some differences. In this study, the activity of lower abdomen of males just slightly increased, which however, was particularly evident in the previous research. According to the interview, it represented sexual arousal. However, most of Chinese participants did not show this in the drawing. This may be due to the cultural constraint. Moreover, drawing method (online or offline) may also influence the results. (2) According to the interview, BSMs reflected a variety of bodily sensations. Specifically, the activation of head in BSMs mainly reflected changes in facial expressions, the excitement of the brain, increased thoughts, blushing and so on. The activation of chest in BSMs mainly reflected the rapid heartbeat, warmth, or discomfort. The activation of limbs, hands and feet in BSMs mainly reflected an increase in behavioral tendency or an increase in body temperature, while the deactivation of limbs, hands and feet mainly reflected feelings of stiffness and coldness. Qualitative data analysis divided the participants’ descriptions of bodily sensations into 12 categories, which could be further classified into four dimensions, including cognition, feeling, physiological response, and behavioral tendency. That is to say, the bodily sensations reflected in BSMs are not limited to physiological responses. If the other aspects of bodily sensations, such as cognitive, feeling and behavioral tendency, were considered in the future, it may be possible to distinguish different emotions. (3) Based on the interview, we found that BSMs have some limitations as a research tool, which has not been paid enough attention in previous studies. First, the participants may have different understandings of “activation” and “deactivation”. Many participants reported the feeling of pain of the lower abdomen when they experienced the emotion of fear. But some participants thought that pain represented an activation, while others regarded it as a deactivation, resulting in no change in the BSMs. Besides, in the existing research using BSMs, there was only one side of body, which made it hard to show the feelings of the back. Future research needs to take these issues into consideration.