Emotion

Question 1

What brain areas are involved in emotion?

Answer 1

No brain area can be understood as the area of emotions.

Hypothalamus: regulating emotions (and basic need like hunger and sleep). It controls the release of hormones that influence stress, fear, and other emotional responses

Thalamus: Acts as a relay station, processing sensory information and sending it to other brain regions

Hippocampus: Helps form new memories and learn

Cingulate gyrus: Helps with emotional regulation, decision-making, and pain processing

Amygdala: Key for processing emotions, especially fear and pleasure

Orbitofrontal cortex: Involved in decision-making, emotion regulation, and reward processing

Insula: Processes body sensations and disgust, including moral disgust

Anterior cingulate: Evaluates responses, automatic reactions, and pain

Ventral striatum: Involved in reward prediction and dopamine processing

Question 2

What are emotions?

Answer 2

Responses to stimuli, typically involving feelings, thoughts, and behaviors

(Emotions are the raw reactions, while feelings are the mental labels we place on those reactions)

Question 3

What are the four components of emotions?

Answer 3

Evaluation:
→ Peripheral response (bodily reaction)
→ Motor expression (facial expression)
→ Action tendency (what we want to do)
→ Feeling (how we subjectively feel)

Question 4

What are the 2 stages in emotions?

Answer 4

1. Appraisal: Initial evaluation of a situation or stimulus based on personal relevance, determining if it’s positive, negative, or neutral.
2. Response: How we act or react to a situation or emotion. It can be physical (like crying or smiling) or behavioral (like speaking or avoiding something) influenced by the appraisal.

Question 5

What is mood?

Answer 5

A long-lasting, less intense emotional state

Question 6

What is mentalizing?

Answer 6

The ability to understand and interpret others’ thoughts, feelings, and intention

Question 7

What is mirroring?

Answer 7

When we subconsciously imitate another person’s behaviors, gestures, or emotions. It helps build connection and empathy in social interactions

Question 8

What is Ward’s theory of emotions?

Answer 8

Emotions are reactions to rewarding or punishing stimuli, often with survival value.

Emotions are temporary, but their associated stimuli are stored in memory.

Emotions have hedonic value and trigger bodily responses (e.g., sweating, heart rate). They also lead to facial and body expressions, which help us infer others’ feelings

Question 9

What is survival value?

Answer 9

Refers to how certain behaviors or emotions help us adapt to our environment and increase our chance of survival.

For example, fear has survival value because it helps us avoid danger.

Question 10

What are expressions?

Answer 10

Visible signs of emotions, like facial movements or body gestures, that show how someone is feeling

Question 11

What is hedonic value?

Answer 11

Refers to how much something is liked or disliked based on pleasure or pain it brings

Question 12

What is Darwin’s theory of emotions?

Answer 12

Says emotions are universal, evolved for survival, and expressed through facial expressions and body language as a communication signal

Question 13

What is Freud’s theory of emotions?

Answer 13

Suggests that emotions arise from unconscious desires and conflicts. The unconcious mind influences behavior and emotions, even though we are not aware of it.

Includes the id, which seeks pleasure; the ego, which balances the id’s desires with reality; and the superego, which represents moral standards and societal rules

Question 14

What is James-Lange theory of emotions?

Answer 14

According to this theory, we feel an emotion because we first experience bodily changes, like increased heart rate or sweating, in response to an event.

(We feel sad because we cry rather than we cry because we feel sad)

Question 15

What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotions?

Answer 15

Emotions and bodily reactions occur simultaneously, not one after the other. According to this theory, when we experience a stimulus, our brain triggers both the emotional experience and the physical response at the same time.

Out emotions are primarily controlled by our hypothalamus

Question 16

What is Papez theory of emotion?

Answer 16

Suggests that emotions arise from the cingulate cortex, hippocampus and hypothalamus.
He made the Papez curcuit

Question 17

What is Papez circuit?

Answer 17

Emotions are processed through a specific neural pathway in the brain. The pathway works as follows:

Sensory information is sent to the thalamus, which sends it to the cingulate cortex and hippocampus for processing. The hypothalamus then triggers physical responses, and the circuit integrates sensory input, memory, and emotion in shaping our emotional experience

Question 18

What is MacLean’s emotion theory (the limbic brain)?

Answer 18

Extends Papez Curcuit with more structures:
Suggests that the limbic system in the brain controls emotions. Key structures in the limbic system include the hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, and Thalamus

Question 19

What is Ekman’s basic emotion theory?

Answer 19

There are six universal emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise, and disgust.

These emotions are innate and expressed similarly across all cultures, with distinct facial expressions

Question 20

What are some of the main critiques of Ekmans theory?

Answer 20

Cultural differences DO exist

Each emotion does not seem to have its own unique set of brain regions or networks

Emotions like “love” doesn’t have a facial expression associated with it (ex. you can also smile even though you are nervous)

Question 21

What are a constructionist view of emotions?

Answer 21

Suggests that emotions are not universal and fixed responses but are instead shaped by individual experiences, social contexts, and cultural influences.

The processing of emotions is not localised in specific areas of the brain, but distributed

(Lisa Feldmann Barret and Rolls)

Question 22

What is Lisa Feldman Barret’s theory of emotions? (Theory of Constructed Emotion)

Answer 22

Lisa Feldman Barrett critiques the idea of basic emotions, arguing that emotions are perceptions of bodily states and can vary widely (e.g., anger feels different in different situations).

She views emotions as constructed categories shaped by culture, language, context, and past experiences.

Emotions are processed across the brain, not in specific areas.

Question 23

What is Rolls theory of emotion?

Answer 23

Focus on rewards and punishments. Emotions are shaped by reinforcers, which influence behavior:

• Positive reinforcers (S⁺): increase behavior through rewards.
• Negative reinforcers (S⁻): decrease behavior by removing discomfort.
• Primary reinforcers: natural rewards (e.g., food, warmth).
• Secondary reinforcers: learned rewards (e.g., money, praise).

The orbitofrontal cortex is playing a key role

Question 24

Feldman Barret vs. Rolls theory

Answer 24

Feldman Barrett: Emotions are created by how we interpret body sensations. For example, your heart racing might feel like fear in one situation or excitement in another. Culture and past experiences shape how we label and understand emotions.

Rolls: Emotions come from how the brain processes rewards and punishments. Positive emotions happen when something good (a reward) happens, like getting praise. Negative emotions occur with punishments, like losing something valuable. Emotions guide behavior to seek rewards and avoid harm.

Key difference: Barrett focuses on how we label emotions, while Rolls focuses on how emotions motivate us.

Question 25

What is the core affect system by Lisa Feldman Barret and Russel?

Answer 25

Organizes emotions along two dimensions:
1. Pleasant-unpleasant (how enjoyable or unpleasant something feels).
2. High-low arousal (energy level or intensity).

It combines the inner state (the personal, subjective experience of emotions) and an outer state (the observable expression of these emotions through behaviors and expressions that others can perceive)

Question 26

What is Haidt’s theory of emotion?

Answer 26

Emotions are automatic and guide moral decisions before we think rationally. Emotions like empathy or anger shape our sense of right and wrong and influence social behavior

Question 27

What are moral emotions?

Answer 27

Emotions like empathy, guilt, and anger that guide our sense of right and wrong and influence how we behave toward others

Question 28

What is an appraisal of an emotion?

Answer 28

The process of evaluating a situation to determine its significance for our well-being, influences how we feel about the situation

Question 29

Who was patient SM?

Answer 29

Had normal intelligence and memory but had difficulty recognizing and experiencing fear because of damage to her amygdala

Question 30

What did Le doux find?

Answer 30

Emotional responses, particularly fear, are processed through two distinct neural pathways to the amygdala:

A fast, unconscious/automatic pathway “low road”: immediate emotional response

A more slow pathway “high road” through the primary visual cortex for further evaluation before reaching the amygdala: thoughtful response

Question 31

What is stimulation theory?

Answer 31

Emotions are triggered by external events or stimuli, which activate the brain and cause emotional responses. The intensity of the emotion depends on the stimulus

Question 32

What is interoception?

Answer 32

The process by which the brain senses and interprets signals from within the body, such as hunger, thirst, heart rate, and breathing

Question 33

What is extinction learning?

Answer 33

When a learned response fades because the expected reward no longer happens. It helps the brain adapt to changes

Question 34

What is emotion generation?

Answer 34

The process by which the brain creates emotional responses to stimuli or situations, based on how we interpret and evaluate them

Question 35

What is emotion regulation?

Answer 35

The process of managing and controlling emotional responses to situations, either by changing the way we feel or by altering how we express those feelings

Question 36

Emotion generation vs. emotion regulation?

Answer 36

Emotion generation is about feeling emotions, and emotion regulation is about controlling them

Question 37

What are the four main emotion theories?

Answer 37

Basic emotion theories (e.g. Ekman)
Appraisal theory (Lazarus)
Psychological construction theory (e.g. Rolls, Russel & Feldman-Barret)
Social construction theory

Question 38

What is emotion construction?

Answer 38

Emotions are built by interpreting body and environment signals, so regulation can shape emotions from the start, not just after they occur.

Question 39

What are regulation strategies?

Answer 39

Emotions can be managed by changing how we think about a situation or controlling our reactions, before or during emotional responses.

Question 40

Why is it important to look at emotion regulation across the theories?

Answer 40

Clarifying these differences can help researchers collaborate on shared questions about emotion regulation and its role in behavior

Question 41

What is basic emotion theory?

Answer 41

Emotions are built-in and the same for everyone. There are 6 basic emotions: hapiness, anger, fear, disgust, sadness and surprise

Question 42

What is appraisal theory?

Answer 42

Emotions come from how we think about and judge situations based on our own goals and values

Question 43

What is psychological construction theory?

Answer 43

Emotions are built from basic psychological components like sensory experiences, thoughts, and bodily sensations, and vary across individuals

Question 44

What is social construction theory?

Answer 44

Emotions are shaped by cultural and social influences, meaning they are learned and defined by society

Question 45

Describe basic emotion model’s view on emotion regulation and generation

Answer 45

Hard distinction between emotion generation and emotion regulation:
Emotion generation involves automatic emotional responses, while emotion regulation is about controlling these reaction

Question 46

Describe appraisal model’s view on emotion regulation and generation

Answer 46

Emotion generation is how we feel based on how we judge a situation, and emotion regulation is changing how we judge things to change how we feel.

Question 47

Describe psychological construction model’s view on emotion regulation and generation

Answer 47

Emotion generation come from body feelings and the situation, so regulation can change how emotions are made by adjusting these factors from the start.

Question 48

Describe social construction model’s view on emotion regulation and generation

Answer 48

Less meaningful distinction between them.
Emotions are shaped by cultural norms, meaning emotion generation and regulation are influenced by what society teaches us about how to feel and express emotions.

Question 49

What does it mean that emotions are transient in nature (Wards theory)?

Answer 49

They are temporary and change over time

Question 50

What is the Kluver-Bucy syndrom?

Answer 50

When both sides of the amygdala is destroyed, leads to loss of fear (reduced emotional responses), hypersexuality (inappropriate sexual behavior), visual agnosia (difficulty recognizing objects) and compulsive eating (eating non-food items or excessive amounts)

Question 51

What is ANS (Autonomic nevous system)?

Answer 51

Controls automatic body functions like heart rate, breathing, digestion, and sweating. It has two parts:

1. Sympathetic: Activates “fight or flight” response during stress.
2. Parasympathetic: Promotes “rest and digest” to relax the body.

Question 52

How does emotions relate to other topics of cognitive science?