Somatic Markers or Emotional Signals

Somatic markers (or emotion signals) are physical sensations associated with emotions — rapid heartbeat with anxiety or nausea with disgust. Somatic marker hypothesis suggests our overt/covert decision-making is influenced by past emotional experiences encoded as somatic states in the body — the reason for our “gut feelings” about something. According to the hypothesis, we attach value to given options and scenarios, “marking” them as having potential positive/negative consequences in the future. Also see Somatic State