Emotion Flashcards
Describe the differences between emotion, mood, and affect
emotion: feelings, behaviors, and physiological changes in state
mood: a temporary state of mind or feeling
affect: experience of feeling or emotion
—> affect display: facial, vocal, or gestural behavior that serves as an indicator of affect
Define and name basic emotions and complex emotions
basic emotions: innate, cross-cultural, and evolutionarily “old”; expressed by facial expressions and physiological responses; present in non-humans
ex: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise
complex emotions: learned emotions that emerge later in development; shaped by culture and language
ex: embarrassment, shame, guilt, pride
Describe the dimensional scales of emotions
high versus low arousal and valence
arousal: interest (high or low/positive or negative)
valence: evaluation (high or low/positive or negative)
high arousal
low valence + high valence
low arousal
high arousal, high valence: excited
high arousal, low valence: stress
low arousal, high valence: calm
low arousal, low valence: fatigue
Describe MacLean’s “Triune Brain” theory. Name the components and their functions
proposed that the human brain is really three brains in one, a “triune brain”
- Neocortex: rational thinking (reflection/self perception/discrimination/goals)
- Limbic Brain: emotion f(ear/anger/anxiety)
- Reptilian Brain: basic survival instincts (hunger/thirst /reproductive drive/etc)
Describe the components and functions of the autonomic nervous system
autonomic = (involuntary nervous system)
para is calm, sims is fight
parasympathetic: rest and digest; calming; facilitates slow processes and reactions that can be spread out over time
sympathetic: fight or flight; arousing; facilitates fast processes that require immediate attention
Describe the components of the HPA axis
central stress response system
- hypothalamus
sends messages from the brain to the adrenal and pituitary gland and other organs - pituitary gland
produces hormones that regulate adrenal glands - adrenal gland
produce a variety of hormones including adrenaline and the steroids aldosterone and cortisol
controls reactions to stress and regulates many body processes, including digestion, the immune system, mood and emotions, sexuality, and energy storage and expenditure
Describe the concept of optimal stress level
eustress as opposed to distress
—> can increase or decrease cognitive and immune functioning
what accounts for our ability to be productive and accomplish our daily tasks
increased stress increases cognitive and immune function
tooLITTLE stress, and we becomedepressed and apathetic…but too MUCH stress, and webecome overloaded and start to burn out
too much stress reduces cognitive and immune function
Be able to describe ways of decreasing chronic stress
breathing exercises, meditation, healthy diet
Describe the James-Lange Theory of emotion and broadly describe some evidence in
favor of it
James-Lange Theory
- bottom-up
- physiologic response first
- brain being influenced by bodily state
- emotions occur as a result of physiological reactions to events
- witnessing an external stimulus leads to a physiological response—your emotional reaction depends on upon how you interpret those physical reactions
- suppose you are walking in the woods, and you see a grizzly bear—you begin to tremble, and your heart begins to race—you will interpret your physical reactions and conclude that you are frightened (“I am trembling, therefore I am afraid”)
Describe the Cannon-Bard Theory of emotion and broadly describe some evidence in
favor of it
Cannon – Bard Theory
- top-down
- emotional states arise in brain, which sends signals down to produce physiological reactions
- emotions are caused by higher brain regions (cerebral cortex)
Describe the Schachter-Singer Theory of emotion and describe in detail the methods, results, and significance of the epinephrine study and the shaky bridge study.
Schachter-Singer Theory:
-according to the two-factor theory, both the visceral response to stimulus and the cognitive evaluation of this stimulus contribute to the emotional response
both top-down (CB) and bottom-up (JL) are important
epinephrine (adrenaline) injection experiment:
-aim of study was to determine how a physiological stimulus and a cognitive context might interact to produce the emotional state
to create the physiological factor, subjects were injected with adrenaline or a saline placebo
to create a cognitive context, some subjects were informed of the likely bodily effects of the injections, some were misinformed, and some were uninformed
subjects then interacted with an actor for 20 minutes, who either was angry or euphoric
—>emotional states monitored
—>both the physiological stimulus and a cognitive context affected emotional state
bridge study:
- surveyed young men after high bridge and low bridge —> gave number
- only small number of sturdy bridge men called, high number of wobbly bridge men called
- they had transferred (misattributed) their arousal from fear or anxiety on the suspension bridge to higher levels of sexual feeling towards the female experimenter
Identify the main components of the limbic system (name them and know their anatomy) and be able to describe their respective functions
HAHIF
hypothalamus — perception of inputs relevant for survival drives — maintaining homeostasis and internal regulation functions
amygdala — detection of threats and implementation of fear response
hippocampus — spatial memory and navigation (posterior), learning and recalling emotional value (anterior)
insula — sensory experience of emotions
frontal cortex — emotion regulation
Describe what happens in animals and humans with lesions to the amygdala and what this tells us about some of the functions of the amygdala
amygdala lesions
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome – removal of anterior temporal lobes: animals stopped displaying fear and anger
Urbach-Wiethe disease, in which the amygdala hardens and shrivels up — patient S.M. — bilateral amygdala lesions “woman without fear”
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome – removal of anterior temporal lobes: animals stopped displaying fear and anger
Urbach-Wiethe disease
Urbach-Wiethe disease, in which the amygdala hardens and shrivels up — patient S.M. — bilateral amygdala lesions “woman without fear”
Broadly describe the differences in functions in the anterior vs. posterior hippocampus
hippocampus — spatial memory and navigation (posterior), learning and recalling emotional value (anterior)
Broadly describe the differences in functions in the anterior vs. the posterior insula
posterior insula: basic visceral sensations like pain, temperature, itch
anterior insula: complex whole-body sensations like sadness, happiness, anger
Describe developmental changes in amygdala – medial prefrontal cortex function and their significance
negative correlation with age
positive amygdala-prefrontal connectivity in early childhood that switches to negative functional connectivity during the transition to adolescence
The developmental switch in functional connectivity paralleled by a steady decline in amygdala reactivity
younger children = increased activations in the left amygdala in response to the happy and the fearful relative to neutral emotions
teens = showed midline ACC activations sensitive to the fearful emotion.
in adults = significant ACC and right amygdala activations were shown, seen only to the fearful faces.
Know how depressed individuals show differences in limbic system regulation
how depressed individuals show differences in limbic system regulation
the ventromedial and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices can decrease amygdala activity during emotion regulation
—in depressed patients, the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) paradoxically amplifies emotional response or just fails to suppress it
Define some limbic system neurological changes that occur with mood disorders
changes of size of limbic system areas after experience
- hippocampus atrophies (withers) with depression
- amygdala enlarges with PTSD
Describe the differences between treating mood disorders with neurotransmitters and treating circuitry. Explain why one might be better than the other
what makes a substance “mood altering” is not its molecular structure alone
instead it is whether that molecular structure is capable of producing alterations in the activity of neural pathway circuits that modulate emotional states
Describe the ways in which we study emotions in the lab
-physiological responses
(skin conductance, heart rate, pupil dilation)
-cortisol levels in saliva samples
-fMRI
