Emotion Flashcards
Name the three components by which emotion is defined.
Cognition, action and feeling.
What do emotional situations arouse?
The autonomic nervous system.
What happens first according to James-Lange theory?
Autonomic arousal and skeletal action occur before the emotion.
Name an issue with James-Lange theory.
People with paralysis report feeling emotion to the same degree.
Give two pieces of information that support James-Lange theory.
People with BOTOX injections report weaker emotional responses, and people with pure autonomic failure report less intense emotion.
What are panic attacks marked by?
Intense sympathetic nervous system arousal.
Explain Mobius syndrome.
An inability to move facial muscles, but still experiencing happiness.
Do physical actions affect emotion? If so, explain.
Yes, as smiling can increase happiness and frowning leads to rating stimuli as less pleasant.
What are the three aspects of emotion?
Cognition, feeling and action.
Which brain areas are involved in emotion?
The limbic system, including the forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus.
What do we use emotion for?
To communicate needs to others and to understand others’ needs.
Which brain area does an initial attack activate?
Corticomedial area of the amygdala.
What does male aggressive behaviour depend on?
Testosterone.
What does aggressive behaviour depend on?
Ratio of testosterone to cortisol.
What does cortisol inhibit?
Violent impulses.
What have been linked to low serotonin release?
Impulsiveness and aggressive behaviour.
How do genes influence violent behaviour?
Through differences in autonomic arousal.
What does the amygdala enhance?
The startle reflex.
Explain auditory information’s role in the startle reflex.
Auditory information stimulates an area of the pons that commands tensing of neck and other muscles.
When is the startle reflex most vigorous?
When the individual is already tense.
Where does the amygdala receive input from?
Pain fibres, vision and hearing.
What controls breathing responses?
The amygdala.
Which brain area controls long-term, generalised emotional arousal?
The bed nucleus of the stria terminalis.
Explain generalised fear.
If a person is attacked or has a fearful experience, they become fearful in a wide variety of circumstances.
What does the amygdala respond strongly to images of?
Photos that arouse fear or photos of faces showing fear.
What does the amygdala respond most strongly to?
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.
Which people have increases responses to threat?
People with genes for reduced serotonin uptake.
Name two effects that amygdala damage has on emotion?
Individuals can classify emotional pictures without difficulty, and experience little arousal from unpleasant photos.
What is Urbach-Wiethe disease?
A rare genetic condition that causes calcium to accumulate in the amygdala until it wastes away.
What are the effects of Urbach-Wiethe disease?
Experiences fearlessness, had trouble drawing a fearful face, and didn’t look at people’s eyes.
What are the most commonly used anti-anxiety drugs?
Benzodiazephines, like diazepam, valium, alprazolam, xanax.
How do anti-anxiety drugs work?
They bind to the GABA recepetor and facilitate the effects of GABA.
What brain areas to anti-anxiety drugs effect?
The amydgala, hypothalamus, midbrain, and more.
How did Selye define stress?
A non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it.
Explain general adaptation syndrome.
Threats to the body activate a general response to stress.
Name the three stages in general adaptation syndrome.
Alarm, resistance and exhaustion.
Explain the alarm stage.
Increased sympathetic nervous system activity.
Explain the resistance stage.
Sympathetic response declines, adrenal cortex continues releasing cortisol and other hormones to prolong alertness.
Explain the exhaustion stage.
Occurs after prolonged stress, where the individual no longer has energy to sustain responses.
What two systems does stress activate?
The sympathetic nervous system, and the HPA axis.
What does the HPA axis consist of?
The hypothalamus, pituitary gland and adrenal cortex.
What system is the dominant response to prolonged stressors?
The HPA axis.
What does activation of the hypothalamus induce?
The pituitary gland to secrete adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).
What does adrenocorticotropic hormone stimulate?
The adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol.
What two branches of the autonomic nervous system do emotional situations arouse?
The sympathetic and parasympathetic systems.
What four stages are there to the James-Lange theory?
Event, appraisal, action and emotional feeling.
Name two predictions of James-Lange theory.
People with weak automatic or skeletal responses should feel less emotion, and increasing physical responses should enhance emotion.
What does damage to the right somatosensory cortex result in?
Normal autonomic responses to emotional music but report little sujective experience.
People with damage to part of the prefrontal cortex have weak ____ ____ but normal ____ ____.
Autonomic responses, subjective responses.
Describe Jeffrey Gray’s behavioural activation system.
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.
What is associated with the behavioural inhibition system?
Increased activity of the frontal and temporal lobes of the right hemisphere.
What does the behavioural inhibition system do?
Increases attention and arousal, inhibits action, and stimulates emotions like fear or disgust.
What is the effect of damage to the prefrontal cortex? (3)
Outbursts of anger, blunted emotional response, and impairs decision making.
Explain the Moro reflex.
A sudden loud noise causes a newborn to arch the back, briefly extend the arms and legs, and cry.
Explain the involvement of auditory information in the startle reflex.
Auditory information first enters the cochlear nucleus in the medulla, from there to the pons, which causing tensing of the neck and other muscles.
How long does it take auditory information to reach the pons?
3-8 ms.
How long does a full startle reflex take?
2/10 of a second.
Name the three paths through the amygdala.
Fear of pain, fear of predators, and fear of aggressive members of your own species.
What controls autonomic fear responses, like increased blood pressure?
Output from the amygdala to the hypothalamus.
What controls approach and avoidance responses?
The amygdala’s connections to the prefrontal cortex.
Explain Kluver-Bucy syndrome.
The effect of amygdala damage in monkeys.
Explain reappraisal.
A way to cope with anxiety that involves reinterpreting a situation as less threatening.
What does reappraisal depend on?
Top-down processes from the prefrontal cortex.
What is Urbach-Wiethe disease?
Calcium accumulates in the amygdala until it wastes away.
What is panic disorder characterised by?
Frequent periods of anxiety and occasional attacks of rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating, and trembling.
Explain the connection between joint laxity and panic disorder.
15% of people with joint laxity experience panic disorder, and if they do not, they tend to have stronger fears than most other people.
What increases susceptibility to PTSD?
Smaller than average hippocampus.
Which two transmitters increase anxiety by their actions in the amygdala and hippocampus?
Orexin and CCK (cholecystokinin).
What are some side effects of benzodiazepines?
Addiction, sleepiness, block epileptic convulsions, and impair memory.
How does alcohol reduce anxiety?
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
Which drug can block the effects of alcohol on GABA receptors?
Ro15-4513
Explain systematic desensitisation.
Gradual exposure to the feared object, in hopes of extinction.
How did Selye define stress?
The nonspecific response of the body to any demand made upon it.
What happens during Selye’s alarm stage?
The adrenal glands release the hormone epinephrine, thereby stimulating the sympathetic nervous system to ready the body for brief emergency activity.
What do the adrenal glands release in the alarm stage?
Cortisol and the hormone aldosterone.
What are the effects of cortisol?
Increases blood glucose, providing the body with extra energy.
What are the effects of aldosterone?
Maintains blood salt and blood volume.
What does activation of the hypothalamus induces the anterior pituitary gland to secrete?
Adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH).
What two systems does stress activate?
The sympathetic nervous system and the HPA axis.
What does the HPA axis consist of?
The hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal cortex.
_____ stimulates the human adrenal cortex to secrete _____.
Adrenocorticotropic hormone, cortisol.
What are the most important elements of the immune system?
Leukocytes.
Where are B cells matured?
In the bone marrow.
What are antigens?
Surface proteins on a cell that allow B cells to recognise self and unfamiliar proteins.
What are antibodies?
Y shaped proteins that attach to particular antigens.
How do B cells work?
They recognise self antigens and attack unfamiliar cells, and can remember the same intruder for later attacks.
Where do T cells mature?
The thymus gland.
What do T cells do?
Attack intruders directly, and some help other T or B cells to multiply.
What do natural killer cells attack?
All intruders, tumour cells and cells that are infected with viruses.
What are cytokines?
Small proteins that leukocytes produce to combat infection.
What do cytokines stimulate and trigger the release of?
The vagus nerve and prostaglandins.
What do prostaglandins do?
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.
What is psychoneuroimmunology?
The study of the ways experiences alter the immune system, and how the immune system in turn influences the central nervous system.
What does the nervous system increase the production of in the face of a stressful experience?
Natural killer cells and cytokines.
What does a prolonged stress response produce?
Symptoms similar to depression and a weakened immune system.
How does prolonged stress damage the hippocampus?
Stress releases cortisol, which enhances metabolic activity in the hippocampus which makes it vulnerable to toxins or overstimulation.
In humans, resilience to stress correlates with stronger connections between which brain areas?
The amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.
