REAL FEELINGS?
Are Somatic Markers real feelings ?
Somatic markers are not the real feelings, but special time-capsules of feelings coming from ‘secondary emotions‘. These are emotions filtered through memories that have taken the form of judgments, beliefs, opinions, and fears.
Somatic markers connect to a potential future outcome which is based on the memory of a past experience. When a negative somatic marker is projected onto a possible outcome, it functions as an alarm bell, but a positive marker is as an incentive.
This internal system is biased to avoid pain and to seek pleasure based on data from the working memory and the amount of attention paid to the bodily signals.
An image or sight of an aggressive looking man provokes actions in the sympathetic nervous system. This affects the internal milieu of the body through actions on hormonal levels and in the muscles.
This change in bodily state then leads to patterns of nerve cell activities in the brain.
