Emotion

Question 1

Emotions are states elicited by ___________ or ___________ stimuli as well as their ___________ and _________

Answer 1

rewarding or aversive stimuli, and their omission/termination

Question 2

Emotional states are comprised of __________, __________ as well as objectively measurable ________ and ________ responses.

Answer 2

thoughts, feelings and objective behavioural/physiological responses

Question 3

What are the two main reasons for studying emotional responses in mammals (rats) ?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

What are the 3 advantages, and 1 main disadvantage, of studying rats?

Answer 4

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

Question 5

What are the 3-5 main emotion centres in the brain?

Answer 5

Limbic system - comprised of
- amygdala
- hippocampus
- hypothalamus
Prefrontal Cortex
Meso-corticolimbic dopamine system

Question 6

What is the main difference between fear and anxiety?

Answer 6

Fear = avoidance responses to distinct aversive stimuli
Anxiety = tonic response to reduce aversive SITUATIONS, conflict, and uncertainty

Question 7

What are 5 fear and anxiety related disorders in humans?

Answer 7

• Generalised anxiety disorder
• OCD
• Panic disorder
• Phobias
• PTSD

Question 8

How does classical fear conditioning occur in rats (3 main parts)?

Answer 8

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)

Question 9

Ledoux’s _________ _________ model of conditioned fear gives the ___________ a central role in the fear response.

Answer 9

Functional Anatomical model
Amygdala = central

Question 10

Lesions to what 2 parts of the amygdala reduce the freezing response in rats?

Answer 10

Central am and lateral am (CA , LA)

Question 11

Fear responsed lesion studies in rats show that the _______ is associated with a freezing response, whereas the __________ is associated with increase in ________ pressure.

Answer 11

Caudal grey = freezing
LH = INC blood pressure

Question 12

Fear conditioning and associative learning can be seen when _____ neurons fire in response to the _________ _________.

Answer 12

LA neurons fire in response to conditioned stimulus of a tone

Question 13

What 2 neuroscience methods evidence findings suggest that the Amygdala is associated with fear in humans?

Answer 13

Lesion studies
fMRI studies

Question 14

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

Answer 14

B ventral lesion

Question 15

True or false, ventral hippocampus lesions make rats less likely to defecate on the elevated plus maze of anxiety?

Answer 15

True

Question 16

What 2 pieces of evidence suggest that the hippocampus is involved in anxiety disorders?

Answer 16

1) Anxiolytics (anxiety medication) has similar symptoms to hippocampal lesions
2) There is a reduced hippocampal benzodiazepine receptor binding in people with panic disorder

Question 17

Reward is associated with wanting and liking. Wanting is characterized by feelings of ________.Liking is characterized by feelings of ____________

Answer 17

Wanting and desire
Liking and pleasure

Question 18

What are the two main clinical implications of reward, liking (pleasure) and wanting (desire) ?

Answer 18

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)

Question 19

What are the 4 classical techniques to identify neural substrates of reward in the brain in rats?

Answer 19

1) Instrumental conditioning
2) Intracranial electrical self-stimulation
3) Intracranial drug self-administration
4) Intracerebral Microdialysis

Question 20

What does Intracerebral micro-dialysis achieve?

Answer 20

It measures the neurotransmitters involved in rewarding stimuli.

Question 21

What are 4 pieces of evidence that the nucleus accumbens is involved in reward in rats?

Answer 21

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

Question 22

What are 2 pieces of evidence of neural substrates of reward in humans?

Answer 22

1) Robust activation of human striatum by rewards
2) anticipation of rewards releases accumbal dopamine

Question 23

What are the 3 main circuits of reward substrates?

Answer 23

meso-corticolimbic Dopamine pathway
Glutamate projection
Cholinergic Projection

Question 24

What is an example of a direct/objective measure of liking?
A Blood pressure
B Heart rate
C Facial expressions
D Preference measuring

Answer 24

C Facial expressions

Question 25

Amphetamine decreases_________ and increases __________, whereas morphine increases ____________

Answer 25

AMPH - dec liking, inc wanting
Morphine - inc leaking

Question 26

What are 2 examples of overlap of brain structures in processing positive and negative emotions?

Answer 26

1) Dopamine/nucleus accumbens - involved in fear processes and reward processes
2) Amygdala - involved in fear responses as well as appetitive stimuli

Question 27

If brain structures overlap in producing distinct emotions, this means we can have more ___________ responses

Answer 27

adaptive