Emotions Are Not Chemicals: A TM–BM Resonance Model of Meaning-Driven Emotional Experience

This work proposes a theoretical framework challenging neurochemical reductionism in the study of emotions. Contrary to the dominant view that emotions are caused by neurochemicals such as dopamine or serotonin, this paper argues that emotions originate as meaning-states computed through resonance between Temporary Memory (TM), representing the present moment, and Bold Memory (BM), representing survival-weighted past experience. In the proposed TM–BM Resonance Model, neurochemicals do not generate emotion but function as downstream activation signatures that amplify, timestamp, and enable bodily expression once emotional resonance has already occurred. This framework explains subjectivity, memory-driven emotions, imagination-induced feelings, the limits of antidepressant treatments, and the persistence of grief. The model further offers implications for affective computing and artificial intelligence, suggesting a shift from reward-penalty systems toward continuity- and meaning-based emotional architectures. This work contributes to ongoing debates in neuroscience, psychology, and philosophy of mind by repositioning emotion as a continuity-based computational process rather than a purely biochemical event.