Chapter 11 - Quiz 4

Question 1

11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal

What is the James-Lang theory? What is an example? Describe the steps. (3)

Answer 1

-is a theory that says our emotions are our brain recognizing a group of physical/physiological experiences
-example: your heart rate increases, you’re sweating and you interpret this one way
-event -> appraisal (cognitive aspect) -> action -> emotional feeling

-if this is true, people with weak autonomic or skeletal respnses should feel less emotion and causing or increasing someone’s responses should enhance an emotion

Question 2

11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal: Is physiological arousal necessary

What are two studies that support James-Lang’s theory? (2)

Answer 2

-people with pure autonomic failure report feeling their emotions much less intensely than before
-people with facial botox report weaker than normal emotional responses

-pure autonomic failure is when output from the autonomic nervous system to the body fails, either completely or almost completely

Question 3

11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal: Is physiological arousal sufficient

Is physiological arousal sufficient to produce emotional feelings?

-like can physiological arousal alone produce feelings?

Answer 3

-no, but it does intensify them

-think of someone working out.

Question 4

11.1: Is emotiona a useful concept

What is the limbic system?

Answer 4

-the forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus, critical for emotion

Question 5

11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal

In what physiological way, if any, does one type of emotion differ from another?

Answer 5

-No type of emotion has a unique pattern of physiological activity, either in the autonomic nervous system or in the brain.

Question 6

11.1: Do people have a few basic emotions

What is the behavioral activation system marked by? What areas of the brain are involved? What could this mean? (3)

Answer 6

-marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal and a tendencu to approach
-frontal and temporal lobes of left hemisphere
-happinness or anger

Question 7

11.1: Do people have a few basic emotions

What is the behavioral inhibition system marked by? What emotions? What areas of the brain? (3)

Answer 7

-increases attention and arousal and inhibits action
-fear and disgust
-frontal and temporal lobes of right hemisphere

Question 8

11.1: Do people have a few basic emotions

What evidence challenges the idea that we identify people’s emotions by their facial expressions? (3)

Answer 8

-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.
-People recognize expressions from their own culture better than those from other cultures.
-Also, in everyday life we identify someone’s emotion by a combination of cues, including posture, context, gestures, and tone of voice.

Question 9

11.1 Emotions and moral decisions

After damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, what happens to people’s moral reasoning and concern for others?

Answer 9

-Such people become more likely to endorse the utilitarian option, even in situations where most people would find it emotionally unacceptable. They show decreased concern for others.

Question 10

11.1 In closing

Why do many scientists not think emotion is a natural category? (2)

Answer 10

-The various components of an emotion do not always occur together. -Also, apparently no emotion corresponds to activity in a single brain area.

Question 11

11.1 Heredity and environment violence

What relationship did Caspi et al. (2002) report between the enzyme
MAO and antisocial behavior?

Answer 11

• Overall, people with genes for high or low production of
  MAO do not differ significantly in their probability 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.

Question 12

11.2: Summary

How does testerone and cortisol affect aggressive behavior?

Answer 12

-testorone increases the probability of it and cortisol decreases it

Question 13

11.2 Serotonin Synapses and Aggressive behavior

What is turnover?

Answer 13

-the amount that neurons released and replaced hormones

Question 14

11.2 Serotonin Synapses and Aggressive behavior

How do researchers measure serotonin turnover?

Answer 14

-concentration of 5-hydoxydindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)

Question 15

11.2: Testosterone, Serotonin and cortisol

What is the relationship between cortisol and aggressive behavior?

Answer 15

-Cortisol tends to inhibit impulsive behaviors, including aggression.

Question 16

11.2: Fear and anxiety

What does the startle reflex fairly accuratly reflect?

Answer 16

-anxiety or fear

Question 17

11.2: Role of the amygdala in rodents

What is the bed nucleus of the striaterminalis responsible for?

Answer 17

-long-term generalized emotional arousal, like if something bad has happened to you you will often be more fearful of things

Question 18

11.2 Fear

What role does the amygdala play in the startle reflex and fear? (2)

Answer 18

-it is critical for increasing or decreasing the startle reflex
-mediates learned fears

Question 19

11.2 Fear

What does a human’s amygdala respond strongest to: clear or unclear emotions? Which emotions? (2)

Answer 19

-unclear emotions, the more work to decipher the emotion the more it reacts
-it responds strongly to fear stimuli and other stimuli that evoke strong emotional processing

Question 20

11.2 Fear

What happens to people with damage to the amygdala? Why do they have trouble recognizing fear in others? (2)

Answer 20

-they fail to focus their atteniton on stimuli with important emotional content
-because of lack of attention to the eyes

Question 21

11.2 Anxiety disorders

What evidence indicates that a smaller than average hippocampus makes people more vulnerable to PTSD? (2)

Answer 21

-For victims of PTSD who have a monozygotic twin, the twin also has a smaller than average hippocampus, even if they do not have PTSD.
-Also, people with a smaller hippocampus are less likely to recover easily from PTSD.

Question 22

11.2 Relief from anxiety: Pharmacological reliefq

How does the most common class of anti-anxiety drugs, benzodiazepines, decrease anxiety?

Answer 22

-it facilitates the binding of GABA to the GABA (A) receptors

Question 23

11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome

What was Hans Selye’s definition of stress?

Answer 23

-the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it

Question 24

11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome

What is general adaptatin syndrome?

Answer 24

-a generalized response to stress from any threat to the body

Question 25

11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome

What was Bruce McEwen’s definition of stress?

Answer 25

-events that are interpreted as threatening to an individual and which elicit physiological and behavioral responses

Question 26

11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome

What function does cortisol play in the initial response to stress?

Answer 26

-Cortisol increases blood levels of glucose and therefore makes more energy available.

Question 27

11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome

How does McEwen’s definition of stress differ from Selye’s?

Answer 27

-Selye’s definition treated favorable and unfavorable changes as equally stressful. McEwen’s definition focuses on events that an individual considers threatening.

Question 28

11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis

Which system does stress immediately excite and which system does it excite more slowly? (2)

Answer 28

-immediately the sympathetic nervous system
-more slowly the HPA axis

Question 29

11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis

WHat is the HPA axis?

Answer 29

-consists of the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal cortex

Question 30

11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis

What does activation of the hypothalamus cause in the stress cycle?

Answer 30

-it induces the anterior pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) which stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol

Question 31

11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis

What does brief stress do and prolonged stress? (2)

Answer 31

-brief stress enhances the immune responses and facilitates memory information
-prolonged stress drains body of resources

Question 32

11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes

What are leukocytes? What do they release? What are the three kinds? (3)

Answer 32

-white blood cells
-they release cytokines
-B cells, T cells and natural killer cells

Question 33

11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes

What do B cells do?

Answer 33

-they secrete antibodies that attach to particular antigens and are like a key and lock mechanism

Question 34

11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes

What do T cells do?

Answer 34

-directly attack intruders

Question 35

11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes

What do natural killer cells do?

Answer 35

-attack tumour cells and cells infected with viruses, they attack all intruders unlike B and T cells

Question 36

11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes

Describe the steps of the immune system following a virus or bacteria invading it. Start with the release of cytokines.

Answer 36

-immune system releases cytokines, which stimulate the hypothalamus by releasing prostaglandins, which cross the blood–brain barrier.

Question 37

11.3 Immune System

How does the hypothalamus help the immune system?

Answer 37

-reacts by activities to combat illness including sleepiness, fever and loss of appetite and energy

Question 38

11.3 Effect of stress on the immune system

How do the effects of stress mimic the effects of illness?

Answer 38

-Because stress causes release of cytokines, it can also lead to lethargy and other symptoms that resemble those of illness.

Question 39

11.3 Effect of stress on the immune system

How does prolonged stress damage the hippocampus?

Answer 39

-Stress increases the release of cortisol, which enhances metabolic activity throughout the body. When neurons in the hippocampus have high metabolic activity, they become more vulnerable to damage by toxins or overstimulation.