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Behavioral Neuroscience > Chapter #15: Emotions, Aggression, and Stress > Flashcards

Chapter #15: Emotions, Aggression, and Stress Flashcards

1
Q

Emotion

A

subjective mental state
-distinctive behaviors
-feelings
-involuntary physiological changes (ex. rapid heartbeat, tears, blush = caused by autonomic nervous system)

facilitate social contact and learning

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2
Q

Range of human emotions

A

-core set of emotions (6-8) (degrees of intensity)
-Emotion is communicated through verbal
communication (words, tone of voice) and
non-verbal communications (body language,
facial expressions)

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3
Q

Universal facial expressions of emotion

A

-Facial expressions provide emphasis and context for verbal communication to your audience
-ex. anger, sadness, happiness, fear, disgust, surprise, contempt, embarassment

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4
Q

Human emotions - biological and cultural influences

A

-Agreement about meaning of most facial expressions
-Happiness is most agreed upon
-Non-literate groups had less agreement with disgust and surprise

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5
Q

Individual variability

A
  1. reactivity (measured in 4 month old infants)
    -Low reactivity (~40% infants)
    -High reactivity (~20% infants)
  2. High reactive children are biased to become
    -Timid, shy, cautious in unfamiliar situations (risk averse)
    -Greater risk for anxiety disorders
    -Exaggerated amygdala response
  3. Low reactive children are biased towards being
    -outgoing, spontaneous, and fearless
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6
Q

Circuit #1: Medial forebrain bundle

A

Intra-cranial self stimulation
-Operant conditioning
-Stimulation of brain region may be reinforcing or aversive
-Reinforcement may, or may not, correlate with subjective pleasure

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7
Q

Circuit #2: Papez Circuit - Limbic System

A

-Negative emotion elicited by stimulating limbic system

-Lesion overactive amygdala:
o increased social affiliation
o decreased anxiety
o increased confidence

-Central amygdala = hub for
anxiety, stress, fear, addiction

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8
Q

Kluver-Bucy Syndrome and the Medial Temporal Lobe

A

-Dramatically lessened fear and aggression
-Blunted affect
-Hyperorality
-Hypersexuality
-Visual agnosia
-Monkey lost its fear of snakes → early signs that the amygdala is involved in these responses

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9
Q

Amygdala - A part of the Medial Temporal Lobe

A

Patient S.M.
-Developed fearlessness in childhood
-Outgoing, but few good friends
-Confronts risk
-Normal nervous system responses
-brain scan reveals calcium deposits that have destroyed cells in her amygdala

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10
Q

Patient S.M. examples

A

-Fearless in risky social situations
-Unafraid of spiders/snakes
-No (or very low) normal sympathetic nervous system response to normally fear-evoking stimuli
-Has little social fear or sense of personal space
-Can, however, exhibit panic in physiological challenges (panic attacks) (external threats and internal threats)

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11
Q

External Threats

A

can be detected by the amygdala (patient S.M
cannot detect these)

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12
Q

Internal Threats

A

detected by brainstem

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13
Q

Amygdala Crucial to unlearned fear

A

-Low road allows for immediate responses
-High road allows for higher level cognitive
processing (PFC allows for observational fear
learning)

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14
Q

Different emotions activate

A

different brain regions

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15
Q

Brain regions activated by sadness

A

-anterior cingulate cortex
-posterior cingulate cortex
-insula
-dorsal pons

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16
Q

Brain regions activated by happiness

A

-right posterior cingulate cortex
-left insula
-left anterior cingulate cortex

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17
Q

Brain regions activated by fear

A

-midbrain
-orbitofrontal region of prefrontal cortex

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18
Q

Brain regions activated by anger

A

-pons
-left anterior cingulate cortex

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19
Q

Stress response

A

-initial response to stress

-sympathetic nervous system
1. norepinephrine released from adrenal medulla (direct input from hypothalamus)
2. fast

-Hypothalamus Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis
1. Cortisol released from adrenal cortex
2. Slow

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20
Q

Autonomic Nervous System

A

Sympathetic (fight or flight)
→ Norepinephrine

Parasympathetic (relax)
→ Acetylcholine

** Sympathetic and Parasympathetic
nervous systems often oppose each
other **

21
Q

HPA Axis - A stress responsive system

A

HPA = Hypothalamus – Pituitary – Adrenal

The adrenal cortex/adrenal gland secretes
steroids, including glucocorticoids

Cortisol is a glucocorticoid hormone that
prepares the body to deal with stress
→ Increases blood glucose
→ Promotes metabolism
→ Suppresses inflammation

22
Q

Individual Differences

A

Early stressful experiences can
allow for later resilience
→ Stress immunization

More significant early life stress
→ Greater stress responses
→ Learning deficits
→ Long-lasting changes in brain steroid receptor expression (epigenetic regulation)

23
Q

Negative Affect

A

experiences world in negative terms
-Higher levels of distress, anxiety, dissatisfaction
-Low subjective sense of well-being

24
Q

Genetic risk

A

many genes contribute to susceptibility to negative affect disorders

25
Q

chronic, lower grade stressors increase risk for

A

anxiety disorders or depression

26
Q

General Adaptation to Stress Theory Steps

A
  1. Alarm
  2. Resistance
  3. Exhaustion
27
Q

Alarm

A

body mobilizes to confront threat

28
Q

Resistance

A

body actively copes with threat

29
Q

Exhaustion

A

if threat continues the body’s resources become depleted

30
Q

General Adaptation to Stress Theory

A

-Chronic stress produces excess alarm and resistance
-Contribute to development of negative affective
disorders

31
Q

Anxiety Disorders

A
  1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  2. Obsessive-compulsive Disorder
  3. Panic Disorder
  4. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
  5. Social Anxiety Disorder
32
Q

Generalized Anxiety Disorder

A

chronic anxiety, exaggerated tension

33
Q

Obsessive-compulsive Disorder

A

recurrent unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and/or repetitive behaviors (compulsions)

34
Q

Panic Disorder

A

unexpected, repeated episodes of intense fear and physical symptoms

35
Q

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

A

memories of unpleasant event produce same intense visceral arousal

36
Q

Social Anxiety Disorder

A

overwhelming anxiety and excessive self-consciousness in everyday social situations

37
Q

PTSD involves

A

-hippocampus atrophy
-PTSD patients have smaller hippocampi (HPC)
→ Does stress shrink HPC to produce PTSD?
→ Are smaller HPC a risk for developing PTSD?

38
Q

What kind of fear does PTSD involve?

A

learned fear

39
Q

Fear Conditioning

A

-Tone is associated with mild electrical shock
-Eventually tone alone elicits “freezing” response
-If tone has a regular pattern, animal will habituate
-Chronic, unpredictable stressor (tone) will continue to elicit “freezing”

40
Q

Original Trauma Activates

A
  1. alarm stress systems
    -Subsequent stressors produce heightened alarm stress response
  2. amygdala
41
Q

Acute neurochemical responses to PTSD

A

-Locus Coeruleus (norepinephrine)
-Ventral tegmental area (dopamine)
-Endogenous opioids
-Corticotropin-releasing hormone

42
Q

How is the amygdala activated during trauma?

A

-reciprocal interactions may facilitate encoding and retrieval of traumatic memories
-triggers traumatic memory via the amygdala

43
Q

What happens over time with traumatic memories?

A

Over time, traumatic memory associations and
physiological response are strengthened

44
Q

What is depression?

A

Unhappy mood, loss of interests, energy and appetite, difficulties with concentration, restless
agitation

45
Q

Brain changes - Depression

A

→ Greater brain activity in PFC and amygdala
- Persists after depression period is over
- Electroconvulsive therapy

→ Smaller hippocampus
→ Reduced monoamine transmitter activity
- Serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine
- Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)

46
Q

Co-morbidity

A

when two disease traits co-occur at a frequency that is higher than expected based upon the base rates of the two, alone

47
Q

Therapeutics for depression and anxiety

A

-Also, SNRIs (Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors:- Cymbalta, Effexor, Pristiq)
-ElectroConvulsive therapy
-Ketamine – NMDA receptor antagonist
-Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

48
Q

Criticisms of medical treatments of depression and anxiety

A

-Non medical treatments (CBT) work
-Placebo effects
-Medications are not effective in some people

Behavioral Neuroscience (10 decks)

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