Emotion

Question 1

hypothalamus function

Answer 1

links brain and physiological response to emotion

Question 2

input connection of hypothalamus

Answer 2

brainstem, limbic system, cerebral cortex, retina, non-neural (blood, temperature, hormone levels)

Question 3

system most important for emotion

Answer 3

limbic system (amygdala, hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, anterior thalamus, mammillary body, hippocampus)

Question 4

output connection of hypothalamus

Answer 4

outputs to all input regions + thalamus, autonomic nervous system, pituitary gland

Question 5

role of sympathetic response in autonomic nervous system

Answer 5

fight or flight response

dilates pupil, increases heart rate and respiration, raises blood pressure, greater perspiration

Question 6

role of parasympathetic response in autonomic nervous system

Answer 6

relaxation and affiliative responses

contracts pupils, decreases heart rate and respiration, reduces blood pressure

Question 7

role of pituitary gland

Answer 7

gets influenced by hypothalamus, pituitary then stimulates adrenal gland which is responsible for releasing stress related hormones

Question 8

result of short term production of stress hormones

Answer 8

prepare body for emotion/reward driven repossess

Question 9

result of long term production of stress hormones

Answer 9

shapes overall brain and behaviour responses, increased cortisol production
linked to poorer physical and mental health

Question 10

amygdala function

Answer 10

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

Question 11

basolateral nuclei (amygdala) connections

Answer 11

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

Question 12

central and corticomedial nuclei connection and function

Answer 12

connected to hypothalamus

help amygdala modulate autonomic and hormonal responses (fight or flight)

Question 13

what happened to monkeys with temporal and amygdala lesions

Answer 13

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

Question 14

Describe the dissociation study (shock paired with coloured squares )

Answer 14

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

Question 15

describe the face memory task (emotions)

Answer 15

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

Question 16

why might the right DLPFC be engaged in remembering emotional faces

Answer 16

right hemisphere more engaged in memory processes of visual stimuli
possibly due to combination of attention and memory retrieval

Question 17

is the left or right side of the amygdala responsible for verbal fear learning

Answer 17

the left (think language)

Question 18

what is a factor that can complicate the comparison of positive and negative stimuli

Answer 18

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

Question 19

describe the fast (thalamo-amydaloid) pathway of stimulus to amygdala

Answer 19

stimuli to thalamus straight to amygdala

responsible for quick instinctive emotional responses

“first alert system”

Question 20

describe the slow pathway (cortico-amydaloid) of stimulus to amygdala

Answer 20

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

Question 21

what are the three main regions important for emotion

Answer 21

amygdala –> emotion procesing
hippocampus –> memory
hypothalamus –> physiological responses

amygdala DOES NOT work alone

Question 22

describe the connection between memory and emotion (amygdala and hippocampus)

Answer 22

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

Question 23

what are the main regions important for reward processing

Answer 23

the dorsal and ventral striatum

Question 24

describe connections and function of dorsal striatum

Answer 24

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

Question 25

describe connections and function of ventral striatum

Answer 25

ventral pat of basal ganglia, includes nucleus accumbens , connected to medial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus

function : reward evaluation of objects and events

Question 26

describe the three regions of the ACC and its function

Answer 26

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

Question 27

connection of the orbital frontal cortex

Answer 27

ventral striatum/nucleus accumbens

connects posteriorly to amygdala and hippocampus

Question 28

describe study of music listening to songs that we love and give us chills

Answer 28

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

Question 29

describe the iTunes task

Answer 29

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

Question 30

what is the function of the orbital frontal cortex

Answer 30

integrates emotion and decision making

attributing value to rewards and punishments –> using that information to guide behaviour

Question 31

what happens with damage to OFC

Answer 31

relatively intact cognitive functioning but inappropriate behaviours such as socially inappropriate comments, gambling, irresponsibility, difficulty anticipating consequences of actions (think of phones gage)

Question 32

describe the Iowa Gambling task

Answer 32

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)

Question 33

describe study of OFC, Rats and Regret

Answer 33

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

Question 34

which hemisphere is specialized in recognizing and producing facial expression

Answer 34

the right

due to engagement in spatial, nonverbal and object processing

Question 35

damage to right hemisphere on emotional expression

Answer 35

impairs recognition (parietal lobe) and memory for faces (temporal)

Question 36

describe how amygdala damage impairs facial / emotion recognition

Answer 36

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)

Question 37

which half of face is more emotionally expressive

Answer 37

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

Question 38

which visual field is more sensitive to emotion

Answer 38

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)