Why does one really seem to feel the emotional response known colloquially as a in the middle of one鈥檚 chest; indeed actually in the region of the heart?
A metaphor offers a clue: the Japanese emphasise the stomach rather than the heart. Also, in English we speak of 鈥渘ot having the stomach鈥� for something. In healthy people it is the muscular viscera that draw attention to themselves, particularly those of the heart, oesophagus and stomach. Though they are under involuntary nervous and hormonal control, their physical reactions give dramatic feedback.
The heart reflects emotions by the intensity and rhythm of its actions, for example in shock it leaps and pounds. Anxiety can cause actual stomach aches and 鈥渓ump-in-throat鈥� oesophageal spasms.
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Helplessness causes diastolic flaccidity 鈥� a drastic reduction in blood pressure 鈥� which may explain deaths in those who believe they are the subject of a voodoo curse. It could also explain the physical heartache of grief, loss or betrayal. In addition, it reduces circulation and causes cardiac irregularity or palpitations, with frightening symptoms such as faintness and tingling in the face and extremities.
Conversely, surges of adrenalin cause the pulse to race, which increases blood pressure for emergency exertion but can cause paralysing panic when one does not know what to do.
Compare this to the less muscular vital organs which cannot give such immediate feedback 鈥� it takes time to interpret what the liver or kidneys have to say.
Jon Richfield, Somerset West, South Africa