10- Purpose, Characteristics and Structure of Emotions Flashcards
What are emotions for? (Gobet, 2016)
To provide the body and mind with rapid adaptation to a relevant stimulus
When are positive emotions expected to occur?
Whenever there is a reward involved
When are negative emotions expected to occur?
When there is a punishment involved
What are the two ways of characterising emotion?
Valence and arousal
What is valence?
Positive or negative
What is arousal?
Intensity
What is the emotional response?
Actual changes that take place inside the body and mind
What is the emotional experience?
Becoming conscious of changes in mind and body
What is mood?
The baseline of the emotional system
When do we feel mood?
When nothing is stimulating the emotional system
What is emotion?
A response to environmental stimuli
How is a positive mood induction paradigm used?
To induce a specific mood state
What does mood induction provide? (Russ, 2011)
A way of altering states so the effect on cognitive processes can be observed
Who investigated emotion processing of chords?
Pallesen et al, 2005
How did Pallesen et al, 2005 study emotion processing of chords?
An fMRI study
What chords were heard in Pallesen et al’s study? (3 types)
Major chords, minor chords, dissonant chords
Which brain structures are implicated in emotion processing of musical chords? (4)
- Amygdala
- Retrosplenial cortex
- Brain stem
- Cerebellum
Which chords evoked a larger response during passive listening?
Minor and dissonant chords
Which chords were rated as sadder and which chords as more unpleasant?
Minor chords as sadder, dissonant chords as more unpleasant
What does Pallesen et al’s study indicate?
The amygdala and brain stem as part of an alarm system that may be perceiving minor/dissonant chords as potentially alarming stimuli
How is a brain circuit mediate the effects of fear conditioning to an auditory stimulus?
Sound travels from medial geniculate nucleus of thalamus –> reaches amygdala –> assessed in terms of emotional significance
How is a stimulus assessed by the amygdala?
Based on previous encounters with it
What does the amygdala activate?
The appropriate response circuit
