Emotion

Question 1

Descarte’s Error

Answer 1

A patient with intact cognition but an impaired ability to use emotion to guide decision making, due to ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage.

Question 2

Emotional Expression

Answer 2

Emotions allow us to signal our internal state to others, constant across cultures and ages, include fear, anger, surprise, joy, sadness, and disgust.

Question 3

The James-Lange Theory of Emotion

Answer 3

Physiological reaction in the body causes the Emotion, bottom-up theory because stimuli are detected by the peripheral nervous system and transmitted to the brain.

Stim -> Phys. Response -> Emotion
● Fight or flight system reacts very rapidly to
stimuli
● Physiological reaction in body causes emotion

Question 4

The Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 4

the Emotion causes physiological reaction in body,

- top-down theory because information about the emotion spreads from the brain to the body

Question 5

Schachter- Singer Two factor Therory

Answer 5

Emotions do not need to be either top-down or bottom-up, could involve some combination of both theories

: physiological arousal and cognitive label.

Question 6

Purpose of Capillano Suspension Bridge

Answer 6

Evidence for two factor theory and misattribution of physiological arousal to emotional state

=Men more likely to give a girl their number if their heart was pumpin fast = it could be LOVE

Question 7

Core Limbic Structures

Answer 7

Hypothalamus: Internal States, Homeostatic Drives.

Amygdala: Externally Generated States and Drives.

Hippocampus: Emotional Memories

Ventral Striatum: Pleasure and Reward

Bringing It All Together: The Circuit of Papez and the Ring of Limbic Cortex

Question 8

Hypothalamus fx

Answer 8

• maintain homeostasis, Receptors in the bloodstream report composition of blood to the hypothalamus
• Reproductive fx
• Defensive/Offensive Aggresion

Question 9

Hypothalamus Output pathways

Answer 9

-Autonomic output pathway stimulates the sympathetic
and parasympathetic nervous systems

-Neuroendocrine pathway regulates hormone levels
throughout the body

-Motivational pathway stimulates the forebrain (striatum
and cerebral cortex) to generate complex plans and to
achieve goals

Question 10

Can Hypothalamic Circuits Generate

Inner Emotional Experiences?

Answer 10

hypothalamus, brings together:

• Survival-relevant stimuli
• Internal drives caused by these stimuli
• A means to change the internal state to respond to the stimuli

Question 11

Amygdala Output pathway

Answer 11

Much of the input to the amygdala is from the outside world.

• Down to the brainstem and spinal cord
• To hypothalamic nuclei that are important for secreting
  hormones
• Up to the striatum and the cortex

Question 12

Parts of the Amygdala

Answer 12

-basolateral amygdala tracks value and projects to the
higher sensory regions in the cortex.

-centromedial amygdala projects to and influences the
hypothalamus and brainstem.

-amygdala is important for fear learning in classical
conditioning experiments.

Question 13

Damage to amygdala?

Answer 13

Can impact behavior and emotions

have difficulty learning and expressing fear

Question 14

Anterior vs Posterior Hippocampus

Answer 14

• The posterior hippocampus is involved in spatial functions.
• The anterior hippocampus is involved in emotional memory

Question 15

Ventral Striatum: Pleasure and Reward

Answer 15

stimulation = intense reward (social praise, monetary reward, positive outcomes

Lesions = associated with severe depression
with anhedonia.

Question 16

The Circuit of Papez

Answer 16

• Interconnected areas involved in emotional responses.
• Hypothalamus monitors the internal environment.
• Amygdala monitors the external environment.
• Anterior hippocampus generates emotional states based on past experiences.
• Ventral striatum represents reward value.
• Cingulate Gyrus

Question 17

The Limbic Cortex

Answer 17

• Interoceptive Insula: The “Feeling” Side of Emotions
• Cingulate Cortex: A Motor Cortex for the Limbic System
• Ventromedial Prefontal Cortex: Gut Feelings

Question 18

Insula

Answer 18

regulates the sensory, subjective experience of
emotions,

insula produces whole-body sensations that are associated with emotional states

Question 19

Posterior vs anterior insula

Answer 19

-Posterior insula is associated with the inner-world
sensations such as pain, cold, tension, hunger etc.

-Anterior insula is involved in the complex, integrated
sensations - “feel part of feelings”.

Patients with anterior insula seizures describe the feeling as very pleasant and enjoyable - “a well-being inside”

Question 20

Cingulate Cortex

Answer 20

-cingulate cortex provides motor control for the autonomic nervous system, brainstem, amygdala, and hippocampus.

Question 21

Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 21

-responsible for generating the internal signals - gut
feeling- + big part of personality

damage causes impulsive, irresponsible and angry emotions/ behaviors

Question 22

anterior vs posterior Hippocampus

Answer 22

● Posterior: more involved in spatial aspects of memory
● Anterior: more involved in emotional aspects of
memory

Question 23

Anterior vs Posterior Cingulate Cortex

Answer 23

Posterior Cingulate
● Connects to posterior hippocampus to support navigation

Anterior cingulate
● Connects to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to influence emotional feelings of effort in activities

Question 24

Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 24

● Normal intelligence, language and motor control
● But, cannot get along well in daily life = Phineas Gage no longer himself
-More impuslive = picks big pay off with high loss

Question 25

Iowa Gambling Task (to do with Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex damage)

Answer 25

Subject pick cards from risky or safe deck, uses somatic markers, gut feelings that suggest danger, to influence behaviors, normal people learn safe deck is better in long run
-Patients with damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex do not switch their behavior