It is also human complexity that makes the study of emotion a true challenge. Conscious reflection gives one the option to intervene during an undesirable emotional response and choose how one wants to react in the majority of situations. The ability to reflect on emotion is considered to be one of the primary traits that set humans apart from the animal kingdom and it goes hand-in-hand with forming a mental self-image or identity. ![]() In humans, a higher rational capacity appears to have evolved in tandem with emotional depth and complexity. Emotions also contribute toward learning, memory, future behavior and decision-making by categorizing what constitutes either a negative or positive experience. For instance, an animal feeling fearful of a predator will flee as a result of experiencing the fear, and when feeling attracted to a potential mate, it will engage in reproductive behaviors. In higher order animals, feelings typically modify behavior in a way that is beneficial to the organism for survival. Emotions occur as neurochemical reactions, either toward sensory information that is received from the environment or that is generated through thought. Neurologically speaking, the above connotation of sensuality is one and the same, translating into another genre of sensory neurological information that is received and responded to by the nervous system. ![]() The meaning was later expanded to include emotion, alluding to the way in which our emotions “touch” us in spite of being abstract internal sensations. The word feeling originally referred to the physical sensation of touch. What are feelings anyway? Neuroscientists, psychologists and philosophers alike have long puzzled over this question.
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