Emotion Flashcards
Brain transections
- Removal of 1 or 1+ 2 -> sham rage or intense rage at the least provocation.
- additional lesions to the hypothalamus -> no sham rage
- hypothalamus may normally be inhibited by the cerebral cortex
Stimulate medial hypothalamus
Affective aggression
Stimulate lateral hypothalamus
Predatory aggression
The Papez Circuit
Emotional system on the medial wall linking cortex with hypothalamus, the neuroendocrine center of the brain
When do emotional experiences or feelings occur?
When the cingulate cortex integrates signals from the hypothalamus and information from the sensory cortex
Limbic system
Olfactory division, Parahippocampal division, Amygdala/Prefrontal Divison
Olfactory Division
Special sensory signals (smell, flavor)
Parahippocampal Division
Episodic memory acquisition and consolidation, spatial mapping
Amygdala/Prefrontal Division Function
Visceral motor control, emotional experience and expression, appetetive drives, social behavior
Effect of fear conditioning
Responses of neurons in the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) are enhanced by fear conditioningA
Amygdala role in limbic system
Involved in forming memories of emotional and painful events
Neural circuit for learned fear
Audiotry and somatosensory input are sent to basolateral nuclei, and then relayed to the central nucleus. Amygdala orchestrates the expression of behavioral and physiological responses by way of connection to the striatum, hypothalamus, brain stem, and cortex.
Amygdala/Frontal circuit: role of PFC
Receives information from the amygdala and multi-modal sensory input from the cortex. Activation of mPFC attuentuates the activity of the amygdala.
Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)
Coordinates interactions between amygdala and PFC.
Amygdala/Frontal circuit (Phineas Gage)
- Emotional processing, planning, appropriate social behavior, and interpretation of social cues.
Emotional re-learning
Amygdala/Frontal circuit. Process context information and modify behavior when reinforcement contingencies are rapidly changing.
Prefrontal Cortex and Decision-Making
PFC essential for assessing future consequences and making advantageous decisions
Somatic Marker Hypothesis
Reasoned decision-making is influenced by somatic markers arising from changes in the body. The sensations and feelings, which accompanied past events influence human decisions.
Somatic states
Attach value to given options and scenarios and mark them as having potential positive and negative consequences in the future
Emotion as Associative Learning
Emotion results from the association of sensory stimuli with primary reinforcers
Sensory stimuli
Interoceptive and exteroceptive
Primary reinforcers
Rewards and punishers
Emotional processing
- Somatic/visceral (effective)
- Cognitive (significance)
- Subjective (feeling)
