Dopamine and emotion (Chris) Flashcards
How did Cools et al (2001) investigate the role of D1 in Parkinson’s?
Had Ps switch trials between identifying a letter and a number - Parkinson’s patients slower than controls on switch trials, showing a deficit in switching tasks .
Also found that D1 dopamine receptors were more prevalent in the PFC and D2 in striatum.
What is the role of dopamine in Parkinson’s?
Might achieve a balance of stability and flexibility by exerting different effects on stratal and PFC activation.
How did Dodds et al (2008) investigate feedback in switching tasks?
Compared switching and non-switching trials, concluding that methylphenidate has an effect on switching activity in the brain - a drug that affects dopamine switch relation in the striatum
What role does methylphenidate play in switch function?
Works with activity for switch function in the striatum. Suggests that within the PFC, dopamine related to cognitive stability, whereas it has a different function in the striatum.
How does bromocriptine affect switching behaviour?
Cools et al examined the effects of bromocriptine (a D2 receptor antagonist) on switching behaviour + neural activation in the striatum
Found in high impulse patients, leads to massive reduction in switch costs but less effect of the drug in low impulsive patients.
What evidence is there that switch costs can be reduced by the striatum?
Relate behavioural effects of drugs to the activation in the striatum modulated by bromocriptine
What parts of the brain allow flexible switching to take place in the PFC?
The basal ganglia and the striatum
What are LeDoux’s 2 emotion systems in the brain?
One for conscious feeling (slower and learned through experience)
One for emotional responses (evolutionary)
How did Feinstein et al (2013) demonstrate the impacts of the amygdala on emotion?
Investigated bilateral amygdala lesions. Ps inhaled CO2 to induce panic responses. Found all Ps with lesions reported panic attacks.
How is the amygdala related to fear?
Involved in the translational of external threats into a fearful response - found amygdala lesions in rats mean that rats don’t learn a fearful response to a tone
What was the aim of Bechara et al’s (1995) investigation on fear and the amygdala?
To see whether this fearful learning in the amygdala is conscious or unconscious.
What was Bechara et al’s (1995) methodology?
Measured skin conductance response + asked Ps if they had any explicit knowledge about which stimuli was associated with the noise.
Found Ps with hippocampus damage showed normal skin conductance but eradicated explicit knowledge.
However, those with amygdala damage showed much reduced - hippocampus plays a role in fear instead.
What part of the brain does subjective emotion come from?
The insular cortex - sits inside the temporal cortex.
How did Critchley et al (2004) measure this subjective emotion in the insula?
Had Ps attend to their heartbeat whilst hearing notes/attend to them + decide if their heartbeat was synchronous.
Found much greater activity in the insula when subjects had to attend to their heartbeat/internal bodily state + activity correlated with trait anxiety.
What other role of emotion does the insula play?
Link between insula and disgust.
