9 - Emotional Behaviours

Question 1

What are emotions?

Answer 1

Emotion is used to describe a range of phenomena
Psychologists typically define emotion in terms of three components:
Cognition
Action
Feeling

Question 2

James-Lange theory of emotion

Answer 2

Stimulus is followed by cognitive interpretation, which causes a physiological response, resulting in a subjective feeling
(See knife, interprets as bad, starts to run away, feels scared)

Question 3

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

Answer 3

Stimulus is followed by cognitive interpretation, which causes a simultaneous physiological response and subjective feeling (run away AND feel scared)

Question 4

Cognitive attribution model of emotion

Answer 4

Physiological responses to a stimulus are interpreted according to social, physical and psychological state (consistent physiological response, attribute a meaning to it. E.g. feel same when scared and see a loved one)

Question 5

Emotions and autonomic arousal

Answer 5

Sufferers of paralysis report feeling emotion to the same degree as prior to their injury.
Memory of emotional events is also unaffected.
Pure autonomic failure:
People with this condition report feeling same emotions, but less intensely.

Question 6

Physiological arousal and emotions

Answer 6

Creating certain body actions may also slightly influence emotion
Smiling slightly increases happiness
Indicting a frown leads to the rating of stimuli as slightly less pleasant
Indicated that perception of the body’s actions do contribute to emotional feeling

Question 7

Number of emotions

Answer 7

Plutchik suggests that eight basic emotions exists, grouped into 4 pairs:
Anger/fear
Joy/sadness
Affection/disgust
Expectation/surprise
Facial expressions are used to determine number of basically emotions:
2 or more emotions can be present in a single facial expression
Context and gestures important
Cross cultural differences

Question 8

The functions of emotion

Answer 8

Emotion has adaptive value
Darwin wrote of emotions from an evolutionary viewpoint:
Fear leads to escape, anger leads to attack, emotional responses help deal with danger
Emotions help communicate needs to other, and understand others’ needs

Not much is known about emotions

Question 9

Emotions and the brain

Answer 9

Several methods have been utilised to assess the brain regions involved in emotion.
Electrical stimulation: septum nuclei, DLPFC and emotional control
Brain lesions: decorticate rage (sham rage), emotional recognition and stroke
Neuroimaging: no single ‘emotion centre’, meta-analyses have shown multiple areas responsible for different emotional states

Question 10

Fear

Answer 10

Several methods used to investigate fear responses
Startle reflex:
Auditory input transmits to the pons via the medulla to tense the neck muscles (to protect the brain)
Levels of anxiety influence the magnitude of the startle reflex
Is a valid behavioural measure of fear/anxiety.

Fear conditioning:
Paring of a light or sound with an aversive stimulus (eg electric shock)

Question 11

Fear - Amygdala

Answer 11

Shown to be an important region in the mediation of fear.
Positioned in the anterior medial portion of the temporal lobe.

The lateral nucleus stimulates the central nucleus of the amygdala
Information then transmits to several other brain regions:
Periaqueductal gray: emotional behaviours
Lateral hypothalamus: autonomic responses
Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: hormone response

Question 12

Extinction of learned fear

Answer 12

Extinction of learned fears occurs after many unpaired trials.
Optogenetic silencing of segments of the prefrontal cortex inhibits the extinction of learned fears in mice
Extinction of learned fears is delayed in mice lacking endocannabinoid receptors: suggests that cannabinoid drugs may be effective in treating phobias

Question 13

Aggression

Answer 13

Aggression can have many different meanings:
Thoughts/feelings of hatred
Overt aggressive behaviours (eg physical violence)
In non-human species, variations in aggression map into variations in testosterone levels, relationship less clear in humans.

Question 14

Aggression and serotonin

Answer 14

Impulsiveness and aggressive behaviour has been linked to low serotonin release
Serotonin turnover:
Low serotonin turnover found in people with a history of violent behaviour
Relationship between serotonin and aggression is small

Question 15

Love

Answer 15

Love appears to be a unique emotional state characterised by distinct neurobiological and perceptual qualities
Bartels and Zeki recruited participants who reported being ‘truly, deeply, madly in love’
Compared neural activity in response to love vs. friendship:
Increased activity in the insula, anterior cingulate, caudate nucleus and putamen
Decreases activity in the posterior cingulate, amygdala and right prefrontal cortex

Question 16

High and low roads: fear

Answer 16

Sensory information enters the thalamus and projects via two paths to the lateral nucleus of the amygdala:
High road - indirect pathway to the amygdala via the somatosensory cortex and hippocampus (learned fears, observational fears)
Low road - direct pathway to the amygdala (immediate fear response)