Emotion

Question 1

What are the 4 things emotions are characterised by?

Answer 1

• Physiological changes
• Behavioural responses
• Changes in cognition
• Subjective feelings

Question 2

List the main fear responses

Answer 2

-Changes in heart rate, blood pressure, respiratory rate, pupil size and EEG patterns

-Facial expression, immobility, avoidance behaviour

-Enhanced attention and memory

-The feeling of fear

Question 3

What are the 3 adaptive benefits of emotion?

Answer 3

Find food/ water/ mates
Avoid danger
Signal intent of other

Question 4

What are the 3 maladaptive downfalls of emotions

Answer 4

Phobias
PTSD
Drug addiction/ homeostatic obesity

Question 5

What is a peripheral response?

Answer 5

any reaction or change that occurs in the peripheral (outer) parts of the body

Question 6

Describe the James- Lange theory of emotion

Answer 6

-Stimulus in the environment (thing that makes us afraid) is perceived in the brain

-that produces a peripheral response

-By the brain interpreting and recognising those changes the subjective emotion is felt

Question 7

Describe the Cannon- Bard theory of emotion

Answer 7

• perception of the stimulus, the brain perceives it and a peripheral response is produced

-But parallel with perception of the stimulus there’s a direct generation of the emotion

( e.g. Running away and feeling afraid at the same time)

Question 8

Describe the Schachter- singer/ two factor/ cognitive labelling theory of emotion

Answer 8

-Stimulus is perceived by the brain producing a peripheral response

-The peripheral response basically tells us we need to feel an emotion but doesn’t tell us which emotion to feel

-The environmental interpretation of the external context tells us what is causing the peripheral response and therefore what emotion to feel

Question 9

What is an implication of emotion theories?

Answer 9

-Lie detectors (Polygraphs record peripheral responses e.g. sweating)

-Responses thought to increase involuntarily with fearful or guilty emotions

Question 10

What is the purpose of the Limbic system

Answer 10

• A grouping of areas that historically have been associated with emotion
• The structures of the limbic system seem to be found on the edge of the corpus callosum

Question 11

What 5 areas make up the limbic system

Answer 11

• Cingulate cortex
• Septal area
• Hypothalamus
• Hippocampus
• Amygdala

Question 12

What is the Amygdala?

Answer 12

• Localised in a place where it can coordinate the outputs that we associate with fear and anxiety

Question 13

Describe patient SM in relation Amygdala

Answer 13

• Suffers from a condition called Urbach Wiethe disease (Specific damage to the amygdala)
• Calcium is deposited in the amygdala resulting in a death of neurons within the amygdala
• Patient SM was incapable of fear conditioning

Question 14

What link does the Amygdala have with emotive memory

Answer 14

Patients were asked about the detail of their memory after an earthquake

The detail correlated with how intact their amygdala was

Question 15

what is the pre frontal cortex role in emotion

Answer 15

• It is upstream from the Amygdala as the amygdala receives information from the PFC
• Emotional decision making
• Inhibits the activity of the amygdala (emotions)
• Meaning to have an underactive PFC is to have excessive emotional Reponses

Question 16

What is a study showing evidence for the pre frontal cortex role in emotional decision making

Answer 16

Phineas gage (metal rod through his skull) = He recovered quickly physically but his personality changed

e.g. risky behaviour and this has been characterised by an inability to use emotional cues to regulate behaviour

Question 17

What is memory extinction

Answer 17

• From Pavlov’s study
  the reduction of a conditioned response when the CS no longer predicts the US

Question 18

How do the PFC and the amygdala link together?

Answer 18

• You can measure white matter between the PFC and the amygdala
• What is shown is that the smaller the connection the greater the likelihood an individual will suffer from anxiety

-Meaning the PFC provides an inhibitory brake on the expression of anxiety

Question 19

Describe the Periaqueductal greys role in emotion

Answer 19

• Downstream, where the amygdala sends its information to
• Involved in the selection of defensive emotional processes

triggers two responses to a fearful situation:
Freezing response (PAG)
Not moving
Active response (DPAG)
Fight or flight

Question 20

What are the 6 core emotional facial expressions

Answer 20

Anger
Sadness
Happiness
Fear
Disgust
Surprise

Question 21

How does the have Amygdala involvement in recognition of emotional facial expressions

Answer 21

• Damage to the amygdala impairs recognition of emotional (mainly fearful) faces
• But does not affect ability to recognise identity Nor recognition of emotion from tone of voice

Question 22

What shows activation of amygdala by fearful faces

Answer 22

• Functional imaging shows activation of amygdala by fearful faces
• But less evidence in relation to happiness
  This function of the amygdala can operate outside of conscious awareness
  E.g. masked stimuli

Question 23

briefly describe Brain Lateralization in the production of emotional facial expressions

Answer 23

• Left side of the face is more expressive
• So right side of the brain more expressive

Question 24

What is implicit racial bias in relation to emotional facial expressions

Answer 24

• Fear conditioning is forced into implicit memory (unconscious)
• Fear conditioning in animals and in humans is a candidate system for implicit negative affective responses

Question 25

what is evidence for implicit racial bias in relation to emotional facial expressions

Answer 25

• Measuring fear responses include blinking
• Faces were presented on a screen and then a loud sound is played through headphones
• using a piece of equipment measuring how strong the blink is in the participant
• There was a greater increase of startle to black faces compared to white faces