Emotion

Question 1

What is an emotion?

Answer 1

Sometimes described as “affect” or “affective experience”
Many brain regions contribute to emotional experiences
___
Many components:
» perception, expression, subjective feeling
» Associated actions, physiological changes, cognitive changes
___
Emotions have survival value- adaptive emotional behaviour requires both rapid automatic responses and slower, elaborated responses

Question 2

Subcortical contributions to emotion

Answer 2

Subcortical regions affect automatic aspects of emotion

Question 3

The limbic system

Answer 3

> A collections of regions thought to contribute to emotion (both cortical and subcortical)

> Refers to the organization of these structures in a ring around the medial part of the brain

> Emotions depends on it, but which structures make up the system are still debated

Question 3

Cortical contributions to emotion

Answer 3

Cortical regions affect slower, elaborative, and conscious assessments

Question 4

Key structures involved with emotion (limbic system)

Answer 4

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Nucleus accumbems

Hypothalamus

Orbitofrontal cortex

Amygdala

Hippocampus

Question 5

The automatic Nervous system (ANS)

Answer 5

Fight-or-flight response
- Sympathetic branch of the ANS is important in bodily expressions of emotions, like changes in heart rate, respirations, sweating
Rest and digest response
- parasympathetic branch of the ANS activated under resting conditions

Question 6

the HPA Axis

Answer 6

Hypothalamus, Pituitary gland, Adrenal glands
brain controls the body’s stress response through this
When stimulated by the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland secretes ACTH into the bloodstream (which stimulates the adrenal gland to produce cortisol)

Question 7

Hypothalamus and Stressors

Answer 7

Governs the extent to which fight or flight is activated
controls the release of stress hormones w/ HPA axis
Receives input from the amygdala (which can modulate the fight-or-flight autonomic and stress responses

Question 8

The Amygdala

Answer 8

Important for:
—- early detection of emotional information
—- rapid response to said information
—- learning emotional significance of information

Question 9

Amygdala Complex (will be asked about!)

Answer 9

Amygdala consists of several nuclei
___
Basolateral nuclei project to the hippocampus, prefrontal cortex, and regions involved in learning and memory
»» allows the amydala to influence LAM

Central nucleus and corticomedial nuclei connect to the hypothalamus
»» Enable emotional modulation of responses

Question 10

Fear Conditioning

Answer 10

Form of classical conditioning (learning)
A neutral stimulus develops a negative emotional connotation through association with a negative stimulus
Damage to the amygdala disrupts fear conditioning in studies of animals and people w/ brain lesions

Question 11

Effects of Amygdal damage in humans

Answer 11

—> loses ability to detect aversive emotional cue embedded in visual or auditory stimuli
—> inability to acquire fear conditioning
—> Inability to learn fear from verbal instruction, observational learning

Question 12

Dual route model (amygdal connections)

Answer 12

1. Low road pathway that projects directly from the anterior thalamus to the amygdala
   —-> acts as a first alert
2. High road pathway that connect the sensory areas of the cortex to the amygdala
   —-> Provides a more comprehensive context for processing emotional information
   —-> Gives rise to a slower affective reaction that takes into account the complexity and details of the situation

Question 13

Amygdala’s other connections

Answer 13

> > Bidirectional with the hippocampus
Projections from amygdala to cortex (like high road pathway)
——-> Enhance cortical processing of incoming sensory information based on emotional relevance
——-> May allow the amygdala to enhance attention to emotionally relevant information
Bidirectional with the visual cortex (fear response from vision)

Question 14

Reward and Motivation

Answer 14

The brain signals which situations and actions lead to rewards
Nucleus accumbens is critical for supporting reward-related behaviour

Question 15

Nucleus Accumbens

Answer 15

Critical for supporting reward-related behaviour

AKA ventral striatum

Receives dopamine projections from midbrain ventral tegnmental area

Closely connected to motor regions that support reward-seeking actions

Has two subregions

Question 16

Nucleus Accumbens Subregions

Answer 16

The core: responsible for wanting, meaning of motivation to seek a desired goal

The shell is responsible for liking, the sensation of consummatory pleasure upon achieving a desired goal

Question 17

Activation of Nucleus Accumbens

Answer 17

Activates:
> When a person recieves an unexpected reward
> When a person anticipates a predictable reward beore actually recieving it
> In response to a variety of different rewards (including addictive items)

Question 18

Cortical contributions to emotion

Answer 18

Critical for:

Integrating emotion, decision-making, action

Inferring the feelings of others

Producing expressive emotional behaviour

Representing bodily cues of emotion

Regulating emotional responses

Question 19

Interoception

Answer 19

The ability to perceive and represent one’s own internal body state (like recognizing your heart is beating fast

Appears to depend on the insular cortex (or insula)

Question 20

Subdivisions of the insula

Answer 20

Posterior portion: connected to primary and secondary motor cortex and somatosensory cortex
—-> represents primary sensory information (like taste)

Anterior portions: connected to ACC (Anterior Cingulate Cortex)
—-> integrates sensory representations with awareness

Ventral Anterior Insula: connected to portions of ACC relevant to emotional processing

Question 21

The Insula and disgust

Answer 21

Damage to the insula disrupts the experience of disgust AND the ability to recognize expressions of disgust in others

Activity in the anterior insula increases when a participant tastes bitter liquids, imagines disgusting scenarios, or sees another person expressing guilt

Some studies also associate the insula with feelings of guilt

Insula may have evolved to support taste sensations, but evolved to support disgust and guilt

Question 22

Emotion and the Cingulate Cortex

Answer 22

The cingulate cortex is necessary for:
»» Action, cognition, emotion
» Evaluating the utility of actions that have emotional significance
» Intergrating motivational aspects of behaviour

Question 23

Cingulate Cortex Zones

Answer 23

Posterior section (blue in slides)
»> motor functions

Middle section (red in slides)
»> cognitive control

Rostral/ Ventral section (green in slides)
»> emotion

The zones overlap in different sections (see slide 29 under emotion)

Question 24

Incorporating Emotions into Decision Making

Answer 24

Common sense: emotions affect decision making
»> the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) integrates emotion and decision making
»»»» attributes value to emotion, uses that understanding to guide (adaptive) behaviour

Question 25

OFC Damage

Answer 25

Causes disinhibited, socially inappropriate behaviours, irresponsibility

Difficulty anticipating the consequences of actions and an inability to learn from mistakes

Poor performance on tasks in which past results must be considered in order to make an appropriate choice

Inability to respond to changing patterns of reward and punishment

Question 26

(LIKELY FOR FINAL) Models of emotional experience

Answer 26

An important aspect of emotion is the subjective experience

Internal emotional state is distinct from how we process information in the world that has emotional significance

There is no one-to-one mapping between emotions and brain regions (no regions specific to certain emotions)

Question 27

(LIKELY FOR FINAL) Approach-Withdrawal model

Answer 27

• Assumes that basic emotional dimensions are best describes with approach and withdrawal motivations (emotions cause an approach or a withdrawal to something)

Most basic and rudimentary actions that organisms take in response to the environment

Hemispheric Asymmetries in the model:
— left frontal regions involved in approach behaviours
— Right frontal region involved in withdrawal behaviours

Question 28

(LIKELY FOR FINAL) Dimensional Model

Answer 28

Basic dimensions of emotion are valence (pos. vs. neg. emotions) and arousal (low vs. high emotional intensity)
— Related to approach-withdrawal approach

Question 29

(LIKELY FOR FINAL) Distributed Model of Emotional Experience

Answer 29

Different emotions have “signatures” that are broadly distributed rather than tied to a single region or system (similar to population model for object recognition)

Brain imaging studies of emotional experience generally indicate that different emotional states are associated with unique yet highly overlapped patterns of activation