13a. emotion II

Question 1

what are some consequences of orbitofrontal/ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage?

Answer 1

• emotional disregulation
• disturbed social behavior
• poor decision making
• impulsivity
• normal fear conditioning

Question 2

what is the OFC/VM prefrontal cortex a trigger for?

Answer 2

emotional states from secondary inducers

Question 3

what is the result of VM lesions?

Answer 3

-interfere with generation of an emotional response from recall/imagery of emotional event

Question 4

what is akinetic mutism

Answer 4

• patient makes no effort to communicate verbally or by gesture
• movements limited to eyes + arm/body movements related to necessary daily action
• speech is sparse (linguistically correct)

Question 5

what is the insular cortex important for?

Answer 5

• holding representations of emotional states
• “feelings”, “what it feels like”
• valuation

Question 6

what is anosognosia?

Answer 6

• denial of illness, failure to recognize illness

- apathy + placidity

Question 7

what is pseudobulbar affect?

Answer 7

• pathalogic laughing + crying

- disinhibition/loss of control of effector structures in the brainstem

Question 8

what can cause pseudobulbar affect

Answer 8

-strokes, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple scerosis

Question 9

what are psychomotor seizures?

Answer 9

• rage resulting in harming family members

- right medial temporal lobe (amygdala)

Question 10

what is an example of a rage reaction with no visible seizure?

Answer 10

• sociopaths + serial murderers

- abnormalities in amygdala + prefrontal cortex

Question 11

what is a an example of a acute/chrnonic neurologic disease causing rage reactions?

Answer 11

• herpes simplex ecephalitis,

- slow growing tumor of anteromeidal poriton of temporal lobe

Question 12

3 types/causes of rage reactions/ violent behaviors/ agressivity

Answer 12

1. psychomotor seizures
2. no visible seizure
3. acute/chronic neurologic disease

Question 13

how are the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala related?

Answer 13

cognitive/social prefrontal cortex system controls (inhibits) innate/primitive amygdala system

Question 14

what was the cause of Spyder’s violent murder of his wife?

Answer 14

-an arachnoid cyst occupying majority of left middle fossa (temporal region, amygdala)

Question 15

what is acquired sociopathy?

Answer 15

• personality + decision making distrubances

- OFC/VM prefrontal cortex damage

Question 16

sociopathy features

Answer 16

• shallow affect
• irresponsibility
• vocational instability
• lack of empathy
• poor behavioral control

Question 17

how are VMPC patients different from psychopaths?

Answer 17

• problem usually begins in adulthood (when lesion occured) not developmental
• do not cause physical harm to others

Question 18

what is the difference between childhood orbiotofrontal damage + acquired sociopathy in adults?

Answer 18

-rules of moral behavior are never learned in children