More than 700 men and women from Finland and Taiwan were asked to mark on body silhouettes what physical sensation they felt in response to emotionally charged words, stories, movies, or facial expressions.  As you would probably expect, most had a similar mind-body reaction.  The results are summarized in the illustration:

“Our emotional system in the brain sends signals to the body so we can deal with our situation,” study leader Dr. Lauri Nummenmaa, assistant professor at Aalto University’s School of Science in Finland, told NPR. “Say you see a snake and you feel fear… Your nervous system increases oxygen to your muscles and raises your heart rate so you can deal with the threat. It’s an automated system. We don’t have to think about it.”

The study was published online Dec. 30. 2013 in the journal Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences.

It’s biological, without thinking…so you probably don’t need to memorize this chart for your next date!