Emotion 1

Question 1

What three components does an emotional response consist of?

Answer 1

• Behavioural – muscle movements appropriate for the situation
• Autonomic – facilitates behaviours by providing quick mobilisation of energy for vigorous movement
• Hormonal - reinforce autonomic responses

Question 2

What is the role of the amygdala in fear?

Answer 2

• The amygdala plays a key role in integrating the different components of a fear response
• When threatening stimuli are perceived, neurons in the central nucleus become activated
• This then sends projections out into the hypothalamus, pons and midbrain

Question 3

What happens with monkeys with damage to the central nucleus?

Answer 3

• After the central nucleus has been destroyed, animals no longer show fear to stimuli that have been paired with aversive events
• They act more tamely when handled by humans, show lower levels of cortisol and are less likely to incur stress related illnesses

Question 4

What does animal stimulation of the central nucleus show?

Answer 4

• Stimulation of the CN results in the animal demonstrating physiological and behavioural fear responses
• Long term stimulation of the CN results in stress induced illnesses such as gastric ulcers

Question 5

What is an automatic emotional response?

Answer 5

A few stimuli result in automatic activation of the central nucleus of the amygdala – loud noises, large animals, heights

Question 6

What is a conditioned emotional response?

Answer 6

• learn that a particular stimulus or situation is dangerous or threatening
• Conditioned emotional response – a classically conditioned response that occurs when a neutral stimulus is followed by an aversive stimulus
• Conditioned emotional responses evolved to increase an animal’s chance of survival in dangerous situations

Question 7

In which way are conditioned emotional responses likely to be acquired in humans?

Answer 7

• Socially: e.g. a child may become afraid of dogs by observing someone else’s phobia of dogs
• Through instruction: e.g. if you are told a fire alarm will go off in the event of a fire, it is likely that you experience a fear response upon hearing a fire alarm

Question 8

What is the amygdala is responsible for establishing a conditioned emotional response?

Answer 8

Physical changes responsible for establishing a conditioned emotional response occur in the Lateral nucleus of the amygdala

Question 9

What is Extinction of conditioned emotional responses?

Answer 9

• Rather than forgetting the associated, the animal learns that the conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by an aversive stimulus
• The conditioned response is inhibited rather than forgotten

Question 10

What plays a role in inhibiting conditioned emotional responses and how do we know this?

Answer 10

• The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) plays a role in inhibiting these responses
   Lesions to vmPFC impair extinction
   Stimulation of vmPFC inhibits conditioned emotional responses
   Extinction training activated vmPFC neurons

Question 11

What are aggressive behaviours in animals often related to?

Answer 11

Reproduction and Self defence

Question 12

What does it mean that neuronal control of aggressive behaviour is hierarchal?

Answer 12

• We perceive the threat through our sensory systems and this relays information to the hypothalamus and the amygdala
• The hypothalamus and amygdala control the activity of the circuits in the brain stem
• The particular movements that an animal makes when attacking or defending itself are controlled by neural circuits in the brain stem

Question 13

What is a metabolite of serotonin and what do higher levels of it indicate?

Answer 13

5-HIAA is a metabolite of serotonin (5HT). Increased levels of 5-HIAA in cerebrospinal fluid indicates a higher level of serotonergic activity

Question 14

Researchers measure rates of 5-HIAA in the cerebrospinal fluid of Rhesus monkeys and then tracked them over a four year period, what did they find?

Answer 14

Monkeys with low 5-HIAA demonstrated risk taking behaviour and a large percentage of them were killed by other monkeys over the 4 period of study

Question 15

What do genetics studies show about the role of serotonin in anger?

Answer 15

• selective breeding programmes have increased levels of serotonin in both rats and silver foxes
• These animals show increased brain levels of serotonin and 5-HIAA
• These animals display greater tameness and are friendlier in response to human contact

Question 16

What has research with humans shown about serotonin and anger?

Answer 16

• Lower levels of 5-HIAA in the cerebrospinal fluid are associated with aggression and other forms of antisocial behaviour including assault, arson, murder and child beating
• Prozac, a serotonin agonist, reduces irritability and aggressiveness

Question 17

What is the role of heredity in aggression?

Answer 17

Higher concordance between MX twins than DZ twins at ages 7 and 9 on measures of antisocial behaviour

Question 18

What is the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in emotion?

Answer 18

• The ventromedial prefrontal cortex plays an important role in emotional regulation and inhibition of emotional responses
• The vmPFC includes medial orbitofrontal cortex and the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex
• Inputs to the vmPFC provide information about what is going on in the environment and what is being planned in the rest of the frontal lobe
• Outputs from the vmPFC affect a variety of behaviours and physiological responses, including emotional responses organised by the amygdala

Question 19

Who is a good case study into the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex?

Answer 19

Phineas Gage

Question 20

What did the case study with Patient EVR who had surgery to remove a large orbitofrontal meningioma in the frontal lobes show?

Answer 20

• Dissociation between normal performance of psychological tests and abnormal real-life behaviour
• EVR intact cognitive abilities but poor utilisation of those abilities in real life context

Question 21

What is the role of the vmPFC?

Answer 21

• Evidence suggests that the vmPFC serves as an interface between the brain mechanisms involved in automatic emotion response and those involved in the control of complex behaviours
• Informant ratings of emotional dysfunction and real world difficulties significantly correlated for patients with damage to vmPFC

Question 22

In which type of decision making is the vmPFC activated?

Answer 22

Moral dilemmas

Question 23

What does the amygdala and vmPFC do regarding emotions?

Answer 23

• Amygdala plays an important role in generating emotional reactions and the vmPFC in suppressing negative behavioural consequences of emotional reactions
• Decreased prefrontal activity and increased subcortical activity in the brains of convicted murderers (Raine et al. 1998)
• People with antisocial personality disorder have 11% less volume of grey matter in the prefrontal cortex
• Link between brain volume and serotonergic activity

Question 24

What is the James-Lange theory of emotion?

Answer 24

1. Emotion-producing situation elicits a set of physiological responses
2. Emotion-producing situation also elicits certain behaviours
3. Feedback from the organs and muscles involved in these responses constitutes how we feel

Question 25

What are the Hohmann study conclusions into whether a lack of mobilisation of the spine leads to a lack of emotion?

Answer 25

• The data supports the view that disruption of the autonomic nervous system causes changes in experienced emotional feelings
• The more extensive the autonomic nervous system disruption, the greater the decrease in emotional response – those with higher lesions experience greatest reduction in emotional feeling

Question 26

What are the critiques on the Hohmann study?

Answer 26

• Experimenter bias
• Measurements lack validity and reliability
• Measurements based on self-report, could they be corroborated?
• Unique sample and therefore unrepresentative
• Institutionalisation could provide an alternative interpretation to findings
• No control group
   Memory effects
   Age effects
• Conclusion: methodological limitations cast doubt on conclusions

Question 27

What does feedback from simulated emotion show?

Answer 27

• Researchers gave participants series of instructions to simulate emotions
• Simulated emotions altered the activity of the autonomic nervous system

Question 28

What does research in participants who have received Botox show?

Answer 28

Research in participants who have received Botox into corrugator muscle showed significantly less negative mood compared to people with other forms of cosmetic treatment

Question 29

What did Damasio’s study where people were asked to recall and re-experience episodes of their life in which they felt happiness, sadness, fear and anger show?

Answer 29

 Recalling these emotions activated somatosensory cortex and upper brain stem nuclei – areas involved in control of internal organs and detection of sensations received from them
 Compatible with James-Lange theory

Question 30

What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion and what is Bard’s evidence for this?

Answer 30

• Eliciting stimulus
• Thalamus sends simultaneous signals to the cortex (conscious experience) and the autonomic nervous system (arousal and behaviour)
• This subcortical activity drives autonomic arousal and conscious feeling of emotion simultaneously
• Cannon severed nerves in the autonomic nervous system in cats. He found that despite them not being able to experience somatic signals, the cat could still demonstrate anger, fear and pleasure