Emotion Flashcards
Emotions are states elicited by ___________ or ___________ stimuli as well as their ___________ and _________
rewarding or aversive stimuli, and their omission/termination
Emotional states are comprised of __________, __________ as well as objectively measurable ________ and ________ responses.
thoughts, feelings and objective behavioural/physiological responses
What are the two main reasons for studying emotional responses in mammals (rats) ?
1 - responses have a survival value, and have been preserved through evolution, so are similar across animals.
2 - The principle organization of the brain is similar across mammals.
What are the 3 advantages, and 1 main disadvantage, of studying rats?
adv: + easy to breed
+ behavioural tests are well established
+ brain large enough to study
disadv: - genetic manipulations may be difficult (however with CRISPR tech now easier i.e knock in/knock out
What are the 3-5 main emotion centres in the brain?
Limbic system - comprised of
- amygdala
- hippocampus
- hypothalamus
Prefrontal Cortex
Meso-corticolimbic dopamine system
What is the main difference between fear and anxiety?
Fear = avoidance responses to distinct aversive stimuli
Anxiety = tonic response to reduce aversive SITUATIONS, conflict, and uncertainty
What are 5 fear and anxiety related disorders in humans?
- Generalised anxiety disorder
- OCD
- Panic disorder
- Phobias
- PTSD
How does classical fear conditioning occur in rats (3 main parts)?
1) Neutral Stimulus = tone, no fear response
2) Pair tone with UCS of shock, where shock causes fear response (i.e freezing)
3) Play tone without shock, leads to fear response (i.e freezing)
Ledoux’s _________ _________ model of conditioned fear gives the ___________ a central role in the fear response.
Functional Anatomical model
Amygdala = central
Lesions to what 2 parts of the amygdala reduce the freezing response in rats?
Central am and lateral am (CA , LA)
Fear responsed lesion studies in rats show that the _______ is associated with a freezing response, whereas the __________ is associated with increase in ________ pressure.
Caudal grey = freezing
LH = INC blood pressure
Fear conditioning and associative learning can be seen when _____ neurons fire in response to the _________ _________.
LA neurons fire in response to conditioned stimulus of a tone
What 2 neuroscience methods evidence findings suggest that the Amygdala is associated with fear in humans?
Lesion studies
fMRI studies
What type of specific hippocampal lesion is associated with reduced conditioned freezing and reduced anxiety responses?
A Sham
B Ventral lesion
C Dorsal Lesion
D Lateral lesion
B ventral lesion
True or false, ventral hippocampus lesions make rats less likely to defecate on the elevated plus maze of anxiety?
True
What 2 pieces of evidence suggest that the hippocampus is involved in anxiety disorders?
1) Anxiolytics (anxiety medication) has similar symptoms to hippocampal lesions
2) There is a reduced hippocampal benzodiazepine receptor binding in people with panic disorder
Reward is associated with wanting and liking. Wanting is characterized by feelings of ________.Liking is characterized by feelings of ____________
Wanting and desire
Liking and pleasure
What are the two main clinical implications of reward, liking (pleasure) and wanting (desire) ?
1) Reward substrates are involved as underlying mechanisms of addiction
2) Experiences of pleasure and desire altered in neuropsychiatric disorders (i.e Anhedonia in depression)
What are the 4 classical techniques to identify neural substrates of reward in the brain in rats?
1) Instrumental conditioning
2) Intracranial electrical self-stimulation
3) Intracranial drug self-administration
4) Intracerebral Microdialysis
What does Intracerebral micro-dialysis achieve?
It measures the neurotransmitters involved in rewarding stimuli.
What are 4 pieces of evidence that the nucleus accumbens is involved in reward in rats?
1) Inc accumbal dopamine levels after self stimulation of VTA
2) Inc accumbal dopamine with food
3) Inc accumbal dopamine with drug abuse
4) Blockade of accumbal dopamine blocks behavioural effects of reward
What are 2 pieces of evidence of neural substrates of reward in humans?
1) Robust activation of human striatum by rewards
2) anticipation of rewards releases accumbal dopamine
What are the 3 main circuits of reward substrates?
meso-corticolimbic Dopamine pathway
Glutamate projection
Cholinergic Projection
What is an example of a direct/objective measure of liking?
A Blood pressure
B Heart rate
C Facial expressions
D Preference measuring
C Facial expressions
Amphetamine decreases_________ and increases __________, whereas morphine increases ____________
AMPH - dec liking, inc wanting
Morphine - inc leaking
What are 2 examples of overlap of brain structures in processing positive and negative emotions?
1) Dopamine/nucleus accumbens - involved in fear processes and reward processes
2) Amygdala - involved in fear responses as well as appetitive stimuli
If brain structures overlap in producing distinct emotions, this means we can have more ___________ responses
adaptive
