Yesterday I learned about Nudge – a startup based in SF founded by Fred Ehrsam – whose on a mission to improve daily life by developing the best brain-computer interface technology. Open nudge.com

It's exciting to see new startups (with a very experienced team) jump into this field and develop technology to help address some of the worse kinds of human suffering – addiction, chronic pain, and anxiety.

Today, I started reading Brené Brown's book, Atlas of the Heart. I chose to read this book because it maps the range of human emotions and experiences in an approachable, easy-to-read way.

What is my experiment? To capture EEG data, facial data, and heart rate data while I watch a movie or video. I will then export the data and try to 'footprints' or signature brain activity patterns for specific emotions.

But what emotion should I try to identify first? What even is an emotion?

That's where Brené's book comes in.

I thought of it this morning while having coffee with Ema.

And Brené's book is a great map of human emotions. The book, Atlas of the Heart, explores 87 emotions and experiences. They are thoughtfully organized into groups that allow Brené to better explain what each emotion is in context of related emotions (for example hopelessness, hope, despair, sadness, and grief are part of the the "Hurting" group).

The book lists 87 emotions. These emotions come from an emotional analysis she made in 2013-2014 of 550,000 comments from 66,000+ participants that took one of her online courses. The comments were analyzed based on how often the emotion / experience appeared and how easy / hard it was to label the emotion.

She arrived at a list of 150 emotions and experiences, and from that list, Brené invited a group of diverse and experienced therapists to help her further narrow her list.

The list of emotions Brené covers in The Atlas of the Heart is very thoroughly researched and communally drafted.

What I find interesting is that Brené acknowledges that there is a lot of ambiguity about what emotions even are. She even makes a joke in the introduction of her book that there are as many theories of emotion as emotional theorists.

The one thing that most "emotion experts" do agree on? That there are universal voice and face expressions of emotion.

Okay. So, back to my experiment.

What emotion should I try to recreate in myself to see if I can find some form of signature pattern in my data?

Honestly, it's kind of hard to pick one! As I read through Brené's list of emotions – stress, fear, regret, sadness, joy, anger, contempt, disgust – I'm picturing myself sitting down and trying to watch a video or movie clip that may elicit a specific emotion repeatedly.

Maybe disgust? Or anger? Or sadness?

I could watch a movie and play a scene where a son is seeing their mother die in a hospital. Those really hit me. But not sure if it will hit me all wired up?

You know what noticed in Brené's list? I noticed that there is no group of feelings or experiences related to sex or procreation.

I know it's an uncomfortable topic. But. The desire to procreate is, in my opinion and without any form of data to backup my statement, one of the strongest instigators of action. And not only that, but in males, there's a clear physical sign of arousal. Sorry if this is uncomfortable to read.

I'm trying to find an emotion to test against in my experiment. And now that I think about it, ideally, this emotion comes with a clear physical indicator.

That's a relevant tangent. But, for context, I'm going to stick to an emotion listed in Brené's book.

And if I fail to make any progress with one of those emotions. I'll explore more widely and re-define my criteria for selecting a good emotion candidate.

For now, I'll continue reading. And my gut tells me that sadness or disgust are 2 good candidates.

Oh... random thought. I wonder how much easier it would be to recreate fear if I watch movies or videos that make me deeply afraid?

As a kid I was terrified of spirits and demons. The idea of going to hell kept me up at night. And the idea of being possessed? Even more so.

I could watch The Exorcist (have never watched it before) late one night. Alone in my apartment? Maybe that could help?

Anyway... will keep reading. But I'd like to have a draft of my experiment and plan published on my blog by Saturday. That way, I can start setting up this crazy movie setup.