17.4 Brain mechanisms of human emotion

Question 1

what is the current dominant approach to studying the Brian mechanisms of human emotion, and how do they tend to do this

Answer 1

cognitive neuroscience, which use functional brain imaging studies of people experiencing or imagining emotions/watching others experience them

Question 2

what are the three central findings from the study of the cognitive neuroscience of emotion

Answer 2

1. brain activity associated with each human emotion is very diffuse, and there is no brain centre for any emotion
2. almost always activity in motor and sensory cortices when a person experiences emotion or empathizes with someone experiencing an emotion
3. similar patterns of activity tend to be recorded when an individual experiences, imagines or empathizes with someone else who is experiencing and emotion

Question 3

how are the three central findings of the cognitive neuroscience of emotion shaping how researchers think about their neural mechanisms

Answer 3

example - activity observed in the sensory and motor cortex is now believed to be an important part of the mechanism by which emotions are experienced
called the embodiment of emotions
- explain our ability to empathiz

Question 4

does the amygdala only play a role in fear conditioning?

Answer 4

No, seems ti be far more general, playing a role in the performance of any task with positive or negative emotional components

Question 5

what has the important of the amygdala in all sorts of emotional processing led us to conclude

Answer 5

that the amygdalae play a role in evaluating the emotional significance of any given situation

Question 6

Explain the case of S.p

Answer 6

right amygdala and adjacent tissues removed to treat epilepsy

• left amygdala had been damaged by her disorder
• above average IQ, normal perceptual abilities, no difficult identifying faces or getting info from them
• severe post surgical deficits in recgonziong Facal expressions of fear, and less striking problems recognizing the other facial expressions
• had no difficulty specifying the emotion that would go with a sentence
• no difficulty producing requested facial expressions (ie, show us happiness)

Question 7

what are the findings of studies on patients with amygdala damage

Answer 7

the amygdala does play a specific role in fear

Question 8

what is Urbach Wiethe disease

Answer 8

genetic disorder that often results in the calcification of the amygdala and surrounding anterior medial temporal lobe structures

• can loose the ability to recognize facial expressions
• can loose the ability to describe fear inducing situations or produce fearful expressions, despite remaining function in the other emotions
• do sometimes have difficulty recognizing other complex visual stimuli

Question 9

which brain regions (3) are the sites for studying the interaction of cognition and emotion

Answer 9

the medial portions of the prefrontal lobes (including medial portions of the orbitofrontal cortex and anterior cingulate cortex)

Question 10

what are the general findings of studies on the role of medial prefrontal lobes in emotional processing

Answer 10

Functional brain imaging studies, show us activity in the mPFC when emotional reactions are being cognitively suppressed or re-evaluated

Question 11

what are suppression paradigms

Answer 11

participants escaped to inhibit their emotional reactions to unpleasant films or pictures

Question 12

what are reappraisal paradigms

Answer 12

participants are nstructed to reinterpret a picture to change their emotional reaction to its

Question 13

what do suppression and reappraisal paradigms show us about the mPFC and emotional processing

Answer 13

the mPFC is activated when these paradigms are used, and seem to exert their control over emotion through their interaction with the amygdala

Question 14

what are the theories of the functions of the mPFC in emotional regulation?

Answer 14

1. monitor the difference between outcome and expectancy
2. encode stimulus value over time
3. predict the likelihood of error
4. mediate social decision making
   - could be all of these bc the brain region is very complex

Question 15

explain the Kawasaki study on the mPFC and emotional regulation

Answer 15

micro electrodes recorded 267 neurons in the anterior cingulate cortex, which is a part of the anterior medial cortex

• assessed the activity of the neurons when the patients viewed emotional photos
• 56 of them responded strongly and consistently to negative emotional content
• confirms previous research linking mPFC with negative emotional reactions
• also shows its role is not unitary - neurons involved in emotional processing appear to be sparse and widely distributed in the medial prefrontal lobes

Question 16

explain the right-hemisphere model of emotional lateralization

Answer 16

the right hem is specialized for all aspects of emotional processing - perception, expression and experience

Question 17

explain the valence model of emotional lateralization

Answer 17

the right hem is specialized to process negative emotion, and the left is specialized for positive

Question 18

What are the main conclusions from the Wager and colleagues meta-analysis of studies of emotional lateralization?

Answer 18

current theories are too general from a neuroanatomical perspective

Question 19

what are the specific findings of the Wager and colleagues meta-analysis of studies of emotional lateralization?

Answer 19

1. overall comparisons between hemispheres revealed no differences in ammt or valence of emotional processing
2. when compared on a structure by structure basis, there is substantial evidence for lateralization

Question 20

give an example of structural emotional lateralization

Answer 20

more activity is observed in the left amygdala in response to emotion

Question 21

what is a non-brain imaging technique for studying emotional lateralization?

Answer 21

the assymytry of facial expressions

• in most ppl, facial expressions begin with the left side of the face, more pronounced there when fully expressed
• this implies right hemisphere dominance for facial expressions
• has also been documented in monkeys

Question 22

what are the four important points of the Lindquist et al (2012) study that ‘put the consensus that amygdala and mPFC play major roles in emotion into perspective’?

Answer 22

1. emotional situations produce =broad increases in cerebral activity, not just in the amygdala
2. all brain activated by emotional stimuli are also active during other psychological processes
3. no brain structure has been invariably linked to a particular emotion
4. the same emotional stimuli often activate different areas in different people