September 16, 1983Science2,712 citations
Autonomic Nervous System Activity Distinguishes Among Emotions
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Abstract
Emotion-specific activity in the autonomic nervous system was generated by constructing facial prototypes of emotion muscle by muscle and by reliving past emotional experiences. The autonomic activity produced distinguished not only between positive and negative emotions, but also among negative emotions. This finding challenges emotion theories that have proposed autonomic activity to be undifferentiated or that have failed to address the implications of autonomic differentiation in emotion.
Cite This Study
Ekman et al. (1983) studied this question.