Emotion Flashcards
hypothalamus function
links brain and physiological response to emotion
input connection of hypothalamus
brainstem, limbic system, cerebral cortex, retina, non-neural (blood, temperature, hormone levels)
system most important for emotion
limbic system (amygdala, hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, anterior thalamus, mammillary body, hippocampus)
output connection of hypothalamus
outputs to all input regions + thalamus, autonomic nervous system, pituitary gland
role of sympathetic response in autonomic nervous system
fight or flight response
dilates pupil, increases heart rate and respiration, raises blood pressure, greater perspiration
role of parasympathetic response in autonomic nervous system
relaxation and affiliative responses
contracts pupils, decreases heart rate and respiration, reduces blood pressure
role of pituitary gland
gets influenced by hypothalamus, pituitary then stimulates adrenal gland which is responsible for releasing stress related hormones
result of short term production of stress hormones
prepare body for emotion/reward driven repossess
result of long term production of stress hormones
shapes overall brain and behaviour responses, increased cortisol production
linked to poorer physical and mental health
amygdala function
fear based learning (verbal fear learning as well ‘don’t put hand near electric socket’) emotional processing, learning emotional significance of info, assessing both positive and negative stimuli
links to regions we think are related to reward and positive evaluation
linked to hippocampus
basolateral nuclei (amygdala) connections
project to hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and caudal nucleus (reward and punishment locations) also connect to central and corticomedial nuclei
allows amygdala to influence memory and learning
central and corticomedial nuclei connection and function
connected to hypothalamus
help amygdala modulate autonomic and hormonal responses (fight or flight)
what happened to monkeys with temporal and amygdala lesions
showed no fear responses and inappropriate sexual responses (attacking monkeys in higher rankings than themselves) that they would not normally do
however amygdala damage alone could not cause theses sort of behaviour
Describe the dissociation study (shock paired with coloured squares )
patients with and without amygdala lesions conditioned to know green square is paired with shock and orange square is not
after conditioning startle/sweat response seen control group, yet no responses seen in amygdala lesion patients (even though they know green elicits shock)
hippocampal damage –> show fear response to both squares because cannot remember which square was paired with shock
describe the face memory task (emotions)
we have better memory for faces showing emotion (especially fear)
tested face memory of faces showing emotion
right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlpfc) more active for remembered emotional faces compared to forgotten neutral faces
why might the right DLPFC be engaged in remembering emotional faces
right hemisphere more engaged in memory processes of visual stimuli
possibly due to combination of attention and memory retrieval
is the left or right side of the amygdala responsible for verbal fear learning
the left (think language)
what is a factor that can complicate the comparison of positive and negative stimuli
arousal, negative stimuli tend to be more arousing, why it was often thought amygdala responded preferentially to negative stimuli, it just happens to be more arousing but it responds to both
describe the fast (thalamo-amydaloid) pathway of stimulus to amygdala
stimuli to thalamus straight to amygdala
responsible for quick instinctive emotional responses
“first alert system”
describe the slow pathway (cortico-amydaloid) of stimulus to amygdala
sensory stimuli –> thalamus –> sensory neocortex/ primary sensory cortex –> amygdala
used to make evaluations, especially after initial reaction of fast pathway
takes int account complexity and details of situation
what are the three main regions important for emotion
amygdala –> emotion procesing
hippocampus –> memory
hypothalamus –> physiological responses
amygdala DOES NOT work alone
describe the connection between memory and emotion (amygdala and hippocampus)
amygdala plays role in remembering emotional charged information –> can influenced encoding and consolidation of emotional stimulus by hippocampus
memory enhancement effect = the more emotionally salient –> the better it is remembered (lesions to amygdala impact this)
emotional memoire less impacted by memory decay
what are the main regions important for reward processing
the dorsal and ventral striatum
describe connections and function of dorsal striatum
dorsal part of basal ganglia, includes caudate accumbens, connected to dlpfc and ACC (as well as motor and frontal regions)
function : reward evaluation in the context of action
describe connections and function of ventral striatum
ventral pat of basal ganglia, includes nucleus accumbens , connected to medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus
function : reward evaluation of objects and events
describe the three regions of the ACC and its function
anterior regions important for motor tasks
medial regions important for executive function such as conflict, switching and pain processing
posterior regions important for decision making, episodic memory and reward processing
together - weighing cost, effort and reward of actions
connection of the orbital frontal cortex
ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens
connects posteriorly to amygdala and hippocampus
describe study of music listening to songs that we love and give us chills
chills are autonomous nervous system response to music
measured skin conductance and heart rate to music people love –> the people experience musical climbs –> linked to physiological response
results –> listening to music they loved released dopamine response in ventral striatum area
describe the iTunes task
methods : had people listen to small clips of iTunes songs that had been released that day in the genera they liked
asked participants how much they would pay for the song
results –> reward structures (particularly right nucleus accumbens) showed greater activity listening to music participants said they would pay more money for
increased connecitivyt between nucleus acumben and auditory cortex as well as amygdala and orbital frontal cortex when listing to songs they liked more
take away : Reward structures enhance their functional connectivity with cortical system as items in environment increase in personal value
what is the function of the orbital frontal cortex
integrates emotion and decision making
attributing value to rewards and punishments –> using that information to guide behaviour
what happens with damage to OFC
relatively intact cognitive functioning but inappropriate behaviours such as socially inappropriate comments, gambling, irresponsibility, difficulty anticipating consequences of actions (think of phones gage)
describe the Iowa Gambling task
four card deck (2 good win 250$ in big wins or in gradual small wins, 2 bad alway lose 250$)
total win increase over time for control group
people with OFC damage do poorly (lose more money usually)
people with substance dependance also do poorly
drugs dysregulate reward system
see greater activity in OFC when people regretted their choices (lost more)
describe study of OFC, Rats and Regret
4 boxes with different flavoured meats
rats given choice to choose between boxes –> different boxes had different wait times
looked to see how long rats would wait for preferred treat
if rats switched boxes due to long wait to from preferred treat to another treat, but that wait time ended up being just as long or longer…
see activity in OFC and ventral striatum when experienced regret about switching choice
medial OFC activated when given reward
which hemisphere is specialized in recognizing and producing facial expression
the right
due to engagement in spatial, nonverbal and object processing
damage to right hemisphere on emotional expression
impairs recognition (parietal lobe) and memory for faces (temporal)
describe how amygdala damage impairs facial / emotion recognition
In emotion recognition test –> people with right amygdala damage are impaired in recognizing emotion displayed by face compared to control group
Using eye tracking ,When looking at faces people with damage don’t look at the relevant feature for decoding emotion (the eyes and mouth)
Amygdala tracks specific feature important for distinguishing emotion (such as the amount of white in eyes showing)
which half of face is more emotionally expressive
left half (controlled by right hemisphere)
suggest right hemisphere control emotional expression
people with right hemisphere lesion tend to be less emotionally expressive when speaking
which visual field is more sensitive to emotion
left visual field (represented in right hemisphere)
people often show left side (turn right) of face when wanting to convey more emotion (perceive left side of face with right hemisphere)
