10- Purpose, Characteristics and Structure of Emotions

Question 1

What are emotions for? (Gobet, 2016)

Answer 1

To provide the body and mind with rapid adaptation to a relevant stimulus

Question 2

When are positive emotions expected to occur?

Answer 2

Whenever there is a reward involved

Question 3

When are negative emotions expected to occur?

Answer 3

When there is a punishment involved

Question 4

What are the two ways of characterising emotion?

Answer 4

Valence and arousal

Question 5

What is valence?

Answer 5

Positive or negative

Question 6

What is arousal?

Answer 6

Intensity

Question 7

What is the emotional response?

Answer 7

Actual changes that take place inside the body and mind

Question 8

What is the emotional experience?

Answer 8

Becoming conscious of changes in mind and body

Question 9

What is mood?

Answer 9

The baseline of the emotional system

Question 10

When do we feel mood?

Answer 10

When nothing is stimulating the emotional system

Question 11

What is emotion?

Answer 11

A response to environmental stimuli

Question 12

How is a positive mood induction paradigm used?

Answer 12

To induce a specific mood state

Question 13

What does mood induction provide? (Russ, 2011)

Answer 13

A way of altering states so the effect on cognitive processes can be observed

Question 14

Who investigated emotion processing of chords?

Answer 14

Pallesen et al, 2005

Question 15

How did Pallesen et al, 2005 study emotion processing of chords?

Answer 15

An fMRI study

Question 16

What chords were heard in Pallesen et al’s study? (3 types)

Answer 16

Major chords, minor chords, dissonant chords

Question 17

Which brain structures are implicated in emotion processing of musical chords? (4)

Answer 17

• Amygdala
• Retrosplenial cortex
• Brain stem
• Cerebellum

Question 18

Which chords evoked a larger response during passive listening?

Answer 18

Minor and dissonant chords

Question 19

Which chords were rated as sadder and which chords as more unpleasant?

Answer 19

Minor chords as sadder, dissonant chords as more unpleasant

Question 20

What does Pallesen et al’s study indicate?

Answer 20

The amygdala and brain stem as part of an alarm system that may be perceiving minor/dissonant chords as potentially alarming stimuli

Question 21

How is a brain circuit mediate the effects of fear conditioning to an auditory stimulus?

Answer 21

Sound travels from medial geniculate nucleus of thalamus –> reaches amygdala –> assessed in terms of emotional significance

Question 22

How is a stimulus assessed by the amygdala?

Answer 22

Based on previous encounters with it

Question 23

What does the amygdala activate?

Answer 23

The appropriate response circuit