Chapter 11 Flashcards
By definition emotions include components of
cognitions (This is a dangerous situation)
feelings (I feel frightened)
and actions (Run away now)
sympathetic nervous system stimulates certain organs, such as ___, while inhibiting others, such as ____
the heart
the stomach and intestines
James-Lange theory
the autonomic arousal and skeletal actions come before the emotion - You feel afraid because you run away.
Arousal lead to emotions, they lead to the feeling aspect of an emotion
Event -> Appraisal -> Action -> Emotion
pure autonomic failure
output from the autonomic nervous system to the body fails, they do not react to stressful experiences with changes in heart rate etc
Common sense theory of emotions
First you experience an emotion, then you get aroused, your sympathetic system reacts
Do people with pure automatic failure feel emotions? E.g. frightened in dangerous situations?
Yeah, same emotion, however they say they feel their emotions much less intensely than before.
Experience an emotion, but feel weak
Möbius syndrome
People that cannot move their facial muscles to make a smile - experience happiness and amusement, but have trouble making friends
Which part of the brain hase been regarded critical for emotion?
Limbic system - forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus
Also cerebral cortex reacts
What is the relevance of pure autonomic failure to the
study of emotions?
People with pure autonomic failure do not react to
events with changes in heart rate or other autonomic
functions. They report still having emotional experienc-
es but they do not feel them as strongly.
How did researchers get people to smile or frown without
using those words?
They got
people to smile by telling them to hold a pen between
their teeth. They got people to frown by attaching golf
tees to their eyebrows and then telling them to keep
the two tees touching each other.
According to Lisa Barrett Feldman, why is it difficult to
develop a scientific consensus about any theory of emotion?
Emotion is a
socially constructed category that people find useful,
but it does not correspond to any category that exists
in nature.
behavioral activation system (BAS)
marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal and a tendency to approach, could characterize happiness or anger
-> activity in the left hemisphere, frontal and temporal lobes
behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
increase attention and arousal, inhibits action, and stimulates emotions such as fear and disgust
-> increased activity of the frontal and temporal lobe in the right hemisphere
Difference between hemispheres relates to personality.. what is meant by that?
people with greater activity in the frontal
cortex of the left hemisphere tend to be happier, more outgo-
ing, and more fun-loving. People with greater right-hemisphere
activity tend to be socially withdrawn, less satisfied with life,
and prone to unpleasant emotions
What evidence challenges the idea that we identify
people’s emotions by their facial expressions?
Given a photo of a spontaneous facial expression,
people usually see more than one emotion and often
don’t see the emotion described by the person whose
face was shown. Also, in everyday life we identify
someone’s emotion by a combination of cues, includ-
ing posture, context, gestures, and tone of voice.
Rank the following dilemmata according to how many people were willing to sacrifice one human: Lifeboat Dilemma, Trolley Dilemma, Hospital Dilemma, Footbridge Dilemma
- Most people would pull the swithc in the trolley dilemma
- Fewer in the footbridge and lifeboat dilemmas
- Almost no one endorses killing in the hospital dilemma
Which brain areas were active in the footbridge or lifeboat dilemma
prefrontal cortex, and cingulate gyrus, known to respond to emotions
Which people are more willing to sacrifice people: people with weak or strong autonomic arousal?
Those with strong
People with prefrontal damage, that often make impulsive decisions. Do they sacrifice people in the dilemmata more or less often
More often. Quickly and calm.
After damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, people show
inconsistent preferences, as if they arent sure what they want or like.
And are dicks in the Dictator and Trustee game (show less concern for others)
If brain damage impairs someone’s emotions, what
happens to the person’s decision making?
After brain damage that impairs emotion, people
make impulsive decisions, evidently because they do
not quickly imagine how bad a poor decision might
make them feel.
What neurotransmitters play a role in aggression?
Ratio between testosterone (increases) and cortisol (inhibits), serotonin (inhibits violent impulses)
Effects of testosterone on woman in an experiment?
Look longer at angry faces, cannot make as good judgements about pairs of humans, tend to collaborate less
What is one reason why testosterone levels correlate only
weakly with human aggression levels?
Aggression depends on the ratio of testosterone to
cortisol, not to testosterone alone.
Turnover (measurement technique for serotonine)
You check the serotonin metabolites in body fluids to gauge the turnover, the amount that neurons released and replaced
5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)
Seratonin’s main metabolite in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)
Donkeys with the lowest quartile for 5-HIAA
were the most aggressive and die young
If we want to know how much serotonin the brain has
been releasing, what should we measure?
We can measure the concentration of 5-HIAA, a se-
rotonin metabolite, in the cerebrospinal fluid or other
body fluids. The more 5-HIAA, the more serotonin has
been released and presumably resynthesized.
Given that monkeys with low serotonin turnover pick many
fights and in most cases die young, what keeps natural
selection from eliminating the genes for low serotonin
turnover?
Although most monkeys with low serotonin turnover
die young, many of the survivors achieve a dominant
status that enables them to get more of the food
and to reproduce more frequently. Monkeys with high
serotonin turnover survive, but at the cost of accepting
a low status.
People with low autonomic arousal tend to be less or more aggressive?
More aggressive
What relationship did Caspi et al. (2002) report between
the enzyme MAO A and antisocial behavior?
Overall, people with genes for high or low produc-
tion of MAO A do not differ significantly in their prob-
ability of antisocial behavior. However, among those
who suffered serious maltreatment during childhood,
people with lower levels of the enzyme showed higher
rates of antisocial behavior.
startle reflex
Auditory information goes first to the cochlear
nucleus in the medulla and from there directly to an area in the
pons that commands tensing the muscles, especially the neck
muscles.
Which brain region enhances the startle reflex?
The amygdala
Some important functions in fear of the amygdala
Change in breathing, controls avoidance of potentially unsafe pleaces, controls learning which places are safest, responsible for “freezing”
bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
long-term,
generalized emotional arousal depends on this brain area
What brain mechanism enables the startle reflex to be
so fast?
Loud noises activate a path from the cochlea
to cells in the pons that trigger a tensing of neck
muscles.
How could a researcher use the startle reflex to
determine whether some stimulus causes fear?
Present the stimulus before giving a
loud noise. If the stimulus increases the startle
reflex beyond its usual level, then the stimulus
produced fear.
Klüver-Bucy
syndrome/ Urbach-Wiethe disease
amygdala damage in monkeys. Pick up matches etc. impaired social behaviour, don’t learn what to fear
Urbach-Wiethe: The same in humans
What explanatin that amygdala reacts more to fearful emotion directed to you than looking somewhere else? (ambiguous emotion)
Harder to interpret, has harder to work
Which part of the brain inhibits activity of the amygdala
the prefrontal cortex
What evidence indicates that amygdala activity
corresponds to the effort needed for interpreting
emotional information?
The amygdala responds more strongly to a fearful
face directed at the viewer, rather than a similar face
looking to the side. People usually find it easier to un-
derstand a fearful face looking to the side.
What can we predict about someone if we know the
strength of that person’s amygdala responses to
upsetting pictures or loud noises?
People
with a highly reactive amygdala are likely to report
many negative emotional experiences during a day, to
show strong responses to stressful experiences, and
to favor strong reliance on military and police power.
Why do people with amygdala damage have trouble
recognizing expressions of fear?
They focus their vision on the nose and mouth.
Expressions of fear depend almost entirely on the eyes.
Panic disorder is associated with decreased activity of
the neurotransmitter
GABA and increased levels of orexin
How does benzodiazepines work?
increase activity of transmitter GABA that inhibits anxiety: better to say bind to the GABA receptor and modify sensitvity of the GABA site
What would be the effect of benzodiazepines on
someone who had no GABA?
Benzodiazepines facilitate the effects of GABA,
so a person without GABA would have no response to
benzodiazepines.
Consolidation of a learned fear
Occurs after time has passed, Learned fear becomes stronger
reconsolidation of traumatic experiences
A memory reawakened by a reminder becomes labile, cnageable or vulnerable. If you couple it again with a similar experience it is reconsolidated
Why is extinction more effective a few minutes after a
brief reminder of the original learning?
The reminder brings the representation of the
learning into a labile state from which it can be recon-
solidated or extinguished.
general adaptation syndrome
Any threat to the body, in addition to its specific effects, activates a generalized response to stress -> many activity of the adrenal glands
activity general adaptation syndrome: alarm stage
alarm stage: secretion of epinephrine from the adrenal glands
also cortisol, which increases blood glucose, providing extra energy
adesterone, to maintain blood salt and blood volume
activity general adaptation syndrome: resistance stage
sympathetic response declines, but the adrenal glands continue secreting
cortisol and other hormones that enable the body to maintain prolonged alertness. Body adapts to prolonged cold or heat, low oxygen, etc.
activity general adaptation syndrome: exhaustion
Individual is tired, inactive, vulnerable, because the nervous system and immune systems no longer have energy to sustain their respones
Name three hormones that the adrenal glands release
in the alarm stage of the body’s response to stress.
Epinephrine, cortisol, and aldosterone.
Stress activates two body systems. Which?
sympathetic nervous system and HPA axis
HPA axis
hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal cortex
Process of HPA axis while stressed
pituitary gland secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) -> stimulates adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol (enhances metabolic activity, elevates blood levels of sugar, increases alertness)
autoimmune disease
immune system attacks normal cells
leukocytes
white blood cells, important part of immune system
Different kinds of leukocytes
B cells, T cells, Natural killer cells
antigens
antibodygenerator molecules kind of the bodys unique fingerprint
leukocytes: B cells
mature in the bone marrow, secrete antibodys -> attack unfamilliar antigens - deffends against viruses and bacteria, but causes sometime rejection of organ transplants
leukocytes: T cells
mature in the thymus gland - attack intruders directly (do not secrete antibodies) and some help other T cells or B cells multiply
leukocytes: Natural killer cells
attack tumor cells and cells infected with virus
-> not just particular kind of foreign cells, but fuck over every motherfucker. Sick fucks.
cytokines
get released in response to an infecton from leukocytes and other cells and combat infections. Stimulate vagus nerve and trigger release of prostaglandins
prostaglandins
prostaglandins cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the hypothalamus and produce fever, sleepiness, lack of energy, lack of appetite and, and loss of sex drive
How does Aspirin and ibuprofen decrease fever and other signs of illness?
By inhibiting prostaglandins
What kind of cell releases cytokines?
Leukocytes, which are part of the immune system,
release cytokines.
What changes do prostaglandins stimulate?
Prostaglandins stimulate the
hypothalamus to produce fever, decreased hunger,
decreased sex drive, and increased sleepiness.
psychoneuroimmunology
deals with the ways
experiences alter the immune system and how the immune
system in turn influences the central nervous system.
How do the effects of stress mimic the effects of
illness?
Stress increases release of cytokines, which com-
municate with the hypothalamus via the vagus nerve
and prostaglandins. The hypothalamus reacts with the
same responses it uses to combat illness, such as in-
activity and loss of appetite.
How does prolonged stress damage the hippocampus?
Stress increases the
release of cortisol, which enhances metabolic activity
throughout the body. When neurons in the hippocam-
pus have high metabolic activity, they become more
vulnerable to damage by toxins or overstimulation.
What biologically and social effects accounts for resilience?
genes that influence the amygdala and the vigor of the sympathetic nervous system,
Social support, physical health, previous stressful experiences
