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Physiological Psychology > Emotion > Flashcards

Emotion Flashcards

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1
Q

Name the three components by which emotion is defined.

A

Cognition, action and feeling.

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2
Q

What do emotional situations arouse?

A

The autonomic nervous system.

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3
Q

What happens first according to James-Lange theory?

A

Autonomic arousal and skeletal action occur before the emotion.

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4
Q

Name an issue with James-Lange theory.

A

People with paralysis report feeling emotion to the same degree.

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5
Q

Give two pieces of information that support James-Lange theory.

A

People with BOTOX injections report weaker emotional responses, and people with pure autonomic failure report less intense emotion.

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6
Q

What are panic attacks marked by?

A

Intense sympathetic nervous system arousal.

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7
Q

Explain Mobius syndrome.

A

An inability to move facial muscles, but still experiencing happiness.

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8
Q

Do physical actions affect emotion? If so, explain.

A

Yes, as smiling can increase happiness and frowning leads to rating stimuli as less pleasant.

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9
Q

What are the three aspects of emotion?

A

Cognition, feeling and action.

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10
Q

Which brain areas are involved in emotion?

A

The limbic system, including the forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus.

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11
Q

What do we use emotion for?

A

To communicate needs to others and to understand others’ needs.

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12
Q

Which brain area does an initial attack activate?

A

Corticomedial area of the amygdala.

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13
Q

What does male aggressive behaviour depend on?

A

Testosterone.

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14
Q

What does aggressive behaviour depend on?

A

Ratio of testosterone to cortisol.

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15
Q

What does cortisol inhibit?

A

Violent impulses.

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16
Q

What have been linked to low serotonin release?

A

Impulsiveness and aggressive behaviour.

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17
Q

How do genes influence violent behaviour?

A

Through differences in autonomic arousal.

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18
Q

What does the amygdala enhance?

A

The startle reflex.

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19
Q

Explain auditory information’s role in the startle reflex.

A

Auditory information stimulates an area of the pons that commands tensing of neck and other muscles.

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20
Q

When is the startle reflex most vigorous?

A

When the individual is already tense.

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21
Q

Where does the amygdala receive input from?

A

Pain fibres, vision and hearing.

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22
Q

What controls breathing responses?

A

The amygdala.

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23
Q

Which brain area controls long-term, generalised emotional arousal?

A

The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.

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24
Q

Explain generalised fear.

A

If a person is attacked or has a fearful experience, they become fearful in a wide variety of circumstances.

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25
Q

What does the amygdala respond strongly to images of?

A

Photos that arouse fear or photos of faces showing fear.

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26
Q

What does the amygdala respond most strongly to?

A

When the meaning of the image is unclear, or when the image is an angry face directed towards the viewer, or a frightened face directed elsewhere.

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27
Q

Which people have increases responses to threat?

A

People with genes for reduced serotonin uptake.

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28
Q

Name two effects that amygdala damage has on emotion?

A

Individuals can classify emotional pictures without difficulty, and experience little arousal from unpleasant photos.

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29
Q

What is Urbach-Wiethe disease?

A

A rare genetic condition that causes calcium to accumulate in the amygdala until it wastes away.

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30
Q

What are the effects of Urbach-Wiethe disease?

A

Experiences fearlessness, had trouble drawing a fearful face, and didn’t look at people’s eyes.

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31
Q

What are the most commonly used anti-anxiety drugs?

A

Benzodiazephines, like diazepam, valium, alprazolam, xanax.

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32
Q

How do anti-anxiety drugs work?

A

They bind to the GABA recepetor and facilitate the effects of GABA.

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33
Q

What brain areas to anti-anxiety drugs effect?

A

The amydgala, hypothalamus, midbrain, and more.

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34
Q

How did Selye define stress?

A

A non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it.

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35
Q

Explain general adaptation syndrome.

A

Threats to the body activate a general response to stress.

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36
Q

Name the three stages in general adaptation syndrome.

A

Alarm, resistance and exhaustion.

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37
Q

Explain the alarm stage.

A

Increased sympathetic nervous system activity.

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38
Q

Explain the resistance stage.

A

Sympathetic response declines, adrenal cortex continues releasing cortisol and other hormones to prolong alertness.

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39
Q

Explain the exhaustion stage.

A

Occurs after prolonged stress, where the individual no longer has energy to sustain responses.

40
Q

What two systems does stress activate?

A

The sympathetic nervous system, and the HPA axis.

41
Q

What does the HPA axis consist of?

A

The hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal cortex.

42
Q

What system is the dominant response to prolonged stressors?

A

The HPA axis.

43
Q

What does activation of the hypothalamus induce?

A

The pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

44
Q

What does adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulate?

A

The adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol.

45
Q

What two branches of the autonomic nervous system do emotional situations arouse?

A

The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.

46
Q

What four stages are there to the James-Lange theory?

A

Event, appraisal, action and emotional feeling.

47
Q

Name two predictions of James-Lange theory.

A

People with weak automatic or skeletal responses should feel less emotion, and increasing physical responses should enhance emotion.

48
Q

What does damage to the right somatosensory cortex result in?

A

Normal autonomic responses to emotional music but report little sujective experience.

49
Q

People with damage to part of the prefrontal cortex have weak ____ ____ but normal ____ ____.

A

Autonomic responses, subjective responses.

50
Q

Describe Jeffrey Gray’s behavioural activation system.

A

Activity of the left hemispere, particularly in the frontal and temporal lobes, marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal and a tendency to approach, which could characterise happiness or anger.

51
Q

What is associated with the behavioural inhibition system?

A

Increased activity of the frontal and temporal lobes of the right hemisphere.

52
Q

What does the behavioural inhibition system do?

A

Increases attention and arousal, inhibits action, and stimulates emotions like fear or disgust.

53
Q

What is the effect of damage to the prefrontal cortex? (3)

A

Outbursts of anger, blunted emotional response, and impairs decision making.

54
Q

Explain the Moro reflex.

A

A sudden loud noise causes a newborn to arch the back, briefly extend the arms and legs, and cry.

55
Q

Explain the involvement of auditory information in the startle reflex.

A

Auditory information first enters the cochlear nucleus in the medulla, from there to the pons, which causing tensing of the neck and other muscles.

56
Q

How long does it take auditory information to reach the pons?

A

3-8 ms.

57
Q

How long does a full startle reflex take?

A

2/10 of a second.

58
Q

Name the three paths through the amygdala.

A

Fear of pain, fear of predators, and fear of aggressive members of your own species.

59
Q

What controls autonomic fear responses, like increased blood pressure?

A

Output from the amygdala to the hypothalamus.

60
Q

What controls approach and avoidance responses?

A

The amygdala’s connections to the prefrontal cortex.

61
Q

Explain Kluver-Bucy syndrome.

A

The effect of amygdala damage in monkeys.

62
Q

Explain reappraisal.

A

A way to cope with anxiety that involves reinterpreting a situation as less threatening.

63
Q

What does reappraisal depend on?

A

Top-down processes from the prefrontal cortex.

64
Q

What is Urbach-Wiethe disease?

A

Calcium accumulates in the amygdala until it wastes away.

65
Q

What is panic disorder characterised by?

A

Frequent periods of anxiety and occasional attacks of rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating, and trembling.

66
Q

Explain the connection between joint laxity and panic disorder.

A

15% of people with joint laxity experience panic disorder, and if they do not, they tend to have stronger fears than most other people.

67
Q

What increases susceptibility to PTSD?

A

Smaller than average hippocampus.

68
Q

Which two transmitters increase anxiety by their actions in the amygdala and hippocampus?

A

Orexin and CCK (cholecystokinin).

69
Q

What are some side effects of benzodiazepines?

A

Addiction, sleepiness, block epileptic convulsions, and impair memory.

70
Q

How does alcohol reduce anxiety?

A

Alcohol promotes the flow of chloride ions through the GABA receptor complex by binding strongly at a special site found on only certain GABA receptors

71
Q

Which drug can block the effects of alcohol on GABA receptors?

A

Ro15-4513

72
Q

Explain systematic desensitisation.

A

Gradual exposure to the feared object, in hopes of extinction.

73
Q

How did Selye define stress?

A

The nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it.

74
Q

What happens during Selye’s alarm stage?

A

The adrenal glands release the hormone epinephrine, thereby stimulating the sympathetic nervous system to ready the body for brief emergency activity.

75
Q

What do the adrenal glands release in the alarm stage?

A

Cortisol and the hormone aldosterone.

76
Q

What are the effects of cortisol?

A

Increases blood glucose, providing the body with extra energy.

77
Q

What are the effects of aldosterone?

A

Maintains blood salt and blood volume.

78
Q

What does activation of the hypothalamus induces the anterior pituitary gland to secrete?

A

Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).

79
Q

What two systems does stress activate?

A

The sympathetic nervous system and the HPA axis.

80
Q

What does the HPA axis consist of?

A

The hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal cortex.

81
Q

_____ stimulates the human adrenal cortex to secrete _____.

A

Adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol.

82
Q

What are the most important elements of the immune system?

A

Leukocytes.

83
Q

Where are B cells matured?

A

In the bone marrow.

84
Q

What are antigens?

A

Surface proteins on a cell that allow B cells to recognise self and unfamiliar proteins.

85
Q

What are antibodies?

A

Y shaped proteins that attach to particular antigens.

86
Q

How do B cells work?

A

They recognise self antigens and attack unfamiliar cells, and can remember the same intruder for later attacks.

87
Q

Where do T cells mature?

A

The thymus gland.

88
Q

What do T cells do?

A

Attack intruders directly, and some help other T or B cells to multiply.

89
Q

What do natural killer cells attack?

A

All intruders, tumour cells and cells that are infected with viruses.

90
Q

What are cytokines?

A

Small proteins that leukocytes produce to combat infection.

91
Q

What do cytokines stimulate and trigger the release of?

A

The vagus nerve and prostaglandins.

92
Q

What do prostaglandins do?

A

They cross the blood-brain barrier and stimulate the hypothalamus to produce fever, sleepiness, lack of energy, lack of appetite, and loss of sex drive.

93
Q

What is psychoneuroimmunology?

A

The study of the ways experiences alter the immune system, and how the immune system in turn influences the central nervous system.

94
Q

What does the nervous system increase the production of in the face of a stressful experience?

A

Natural killer cells and cytokines.

95
Q

What does a prolonged stress response produce?

A

Symptoms similar to depression and a weakened immune system.

96
Q

How does prolonged stress damage the hippocampus?

A

Stress releases cortisol, which enhances metabolic activity in the hippocampus which makes it vulnerable to toxins or overstimulation.

97
Q

In humans, resilience to stress correlates with stronger connections between which brain areas?

A

The amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.

Physiological Psychology (6 decks)

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