FEELING YOUR FEELINGS

An examination of the back-and-forth communications between brains and body parts that go into expressing emotions.

Kyi starts at the bottom and goes up—beginning with the claim that humans everywhere, and some animals, too, stomp their feet when angry. She also reports on experiments that have found that subjects could distinguish through their soles aggressive, tender, or neutral steps. Similarly fascinating insights accompany ensuing examinations of signals sent or expressed by kneeling or knocking knees, gut feelings, heartache, laughter and voice tones, blushes, nail biting, wrinkled noses, and more. Along the way, she explains the roles of adrenaline, dopamine, and other chemical messengers as she traces connections with nerve pathways in brains and spines that receive and carry responses to outside stimuli. The author reassuringly notes the “neuroplasticity” of these connections, and though she doesn’t mention how they adapt to autism or other neurological conditions, she does feature a revealing discussion of how spinal injuries can lead some people to feel and express emotions differently. In keeping with the narrative’s light tone, Nicholls supplies cartoon images of personified inner organs and a diverse set of young people in appropriately expressive poses.

An eye-widening overview.