Chapter 11 - Quiz 4 Flashcards
11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal
What is the James-Lang theory? What is an example? Describe the steps. (3)
-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
11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal: Is physiological arousal necessary
What are two studies that support James-Lang’s theory? (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
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?
-no, but it does intensify them
-think of someone working out.
11.1: Is emotiona a useful concept
What is the limbic system?
-the forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus, critical for emotion
11.1 Emotions and autonomic arousal
In what physiological way, if any, does one type of emotion differ from another?
-No type of emotion has a unique pattern of physiological activity, either in the autonomic nervous system or in the brain.
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)
-marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal and a tendencu to approach
-frontal and temporal lobes of left hemisphere
-happinness or anger
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)
-increases attention and arousal and inhibits action
-fear and disgust
-frontal and temporal lobes of right hemisphere
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)
-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.
11.1 Emotions and moral decisions
After damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, what happens to people’s moral reasoning and concern for others?
-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.
11.1 In closing
Why do many scientists not think emotion is a natural category? (2)
-The various components of an emotion do not always occur together. -Also, apparently no emotion corresponds to activity in a single brain area.
11.1 Heredity and environment violence
What relationship did Caspi et al. (2002) report between the enzyme
MAO and antisocial behavior?
- 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.
11.2: Summary
How does testerone and cortisol affect aggressive behavior?
-testorone increases the probability of it and cortisol decreases it
11.2 Serotonin Synapses and Aggressive behavior
What is turnover?
-the amount that neurons released and replaced hormones
11.2 Serotonin Synapses and Aggressive behavior
How do researchers measure serotonin turnover?
-concentration of 5-hydoxydindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)
11.2: Testosterone, Serotonin and cortisol
What is the relationship between cortisol and aggressive behavior?
-Cortisol tends to inhibit impulsive behaviors, including aggression.
11.2: Fear and anxiety
What does the startle reflex fairly accuratly reflect?
-anxiety or fear
11.2: Role of the amygdala in rodents
What is the bed nucleus of the striaterminalis responsible for?
-long-term generalized emotional arousal, like if something bad has happened to you you will often be more fearful of things
11.2 Fear
What role does the amygdala play in the startle reflex and fear? (2)
-it is critical for increasing or decreasing the startle reflex
-mediates learned fears
11.2 Fear
What does a human’s amygdala respond strongest to: clear or unclear emotions? Which emotions? (2)
-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
11.2 Fear
What happens to people with damage to the amygdala? Why do they have trouble recognizing fear in others? (2)
-they fail to focus their atteniton on stimuli with important emotional content
-because of lack of attention to the eyes
11.2 Anxiety disorders
What evidence indicates that a smaller than average hippocampus makes people more vulnerable to PTSD? (2)
-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.
11.2 Relief from anxiety: Pharmacological reliefq
How does the most common class of anti-anxiety drugs, benzodiazepines, decrease anxiety?
-it facilitates the binding of GABA to the GABA (A) receptors
11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome
What was Hans Selye’s definition of stress?
-the nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it
11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome
What is general adaptatin syndrome?
-a generalized response to stress from any threat to the body
11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome
What was Bruce McEwen’s definition of stress?
-events that are interpreted as threatening to an individual and which elicit physiological and behavioral responses
11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome
What function does cortisol play in the initial response to stress?
-Cortisol increases blood levels of glucose and therefore makes more energy available.
11.3 Stress and the general adaptation syndrome
How does McEwen’s definition of stress differ from Selye’s?
-Selye’s definition treated favorable and unfavorable changes as equally stressful. McEwen’s definition focuses on events that an individual considers threatening.
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)
-immediately the sympathetic nervous system
-more slowly the HPA axis
11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis
WHat is the HPA axis?
-consists of the hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal cortex
11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis
What does activation of the hypothalamus cause in the stress cycle?
-it induces the anterior pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) which stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol
11.3 Stress and the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal cortex axis
What does brief stress do and prolonged stress? (2)
-brief stress enhances the immune responses and facilitates memory information
-prolonged stress drains body of resources
11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes
What are leukocytes? What do they release? What are the three kinds? (3)
-white blood cells
-they release cytokines
-B cells, T cells and natural killer cells
11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes
What do B cells do?
-they secrete antibodies that attach to particular antigens and are like a key and lock mechanism
11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes
What do T cells do?
-directly attack intruders
11.3: Immune System: Leukocytes
What do natural killer cells do?
-attack tumour cells and cells infected with viruses, they attack all intruders unlike B and T cells
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.
-immune system releases cytokines, which stimulate the hypothalamus by releasing prostaglandins, which cross the blood–brain barrier.
11.3 Immune System
How does the hypothalamus help the immune system?
-reacts by activities to combat illness including sleepiness, fever and loss of appetite and energy
11.3 Effect of stress on the immune system
How do the effects of stress mimic the effects of illness?
-Because stress causes release of cytokines, it can also lead to lethargy and other symptoms that resemble those of illness.
11.3 Effect of stress on the immune system
How does prolonged stress damage the hippocampus?
-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.
