Emotion Flashcards
What is affective neuroscience?
The study of emotions in neuroscience.
Emotions are difficult to define, which is important for debates such as…?
Whether animals and infants have emotions in the same way we experience them
In what ways are emotions important for our survival?
- Fight/flight response
- Reproduction (attraction) and upbringing (attachment)
- Quick decisions to complex problems
- Learning - avoidance/approach
What are the two components of emotions?
- Emotional response (body)
- Subjective emotional feeling.
What changes in the ANS does an emotional response elicit?
- Hypothalamus controls the activity of the parasympathetic and sympathetic NS, when one is active the other is not. Para = rest+digest, Symp = fight/flight.
What does activation of the Sympathetic Nervous System cause?
- Increased HR
- Slowing of digestive function
- Perspiration
- Increase in glucose availability
- Pupil dilation
- Inhibit salivation
- Secrete adrenaline and noradrenaline
When is SNS useful?
Short term emergency, e.g. fear, anger, sexual arousal.
How can ANS changes be detected?
- Polygraph
- Galvanic skin response
What hormonal changes does an emotional response elicit?
The adrenal glands produce cortisol, adrenaline and noradrenaline when stressed, giving a supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain and muscles (rapid energy).
What is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and what does it do?
Among other things, controls stress reactions.
hypothalamus, CRF (cortisol releasing factor), pituitary gland, ACTH, adrenal gland, cortisol released.
What are the typical actions in terms of body posture and gestures caused by an emotional response?
Fight/flight/freeze
What are Ekman’s 6 primary emotions?
Happiness, sadness, fear, anger, surprise and disgust. Said to be universal and innate, some definitely are, e.g. blind children laughing.
What are the two neural circuits which produce facial expressions?
Voluntary and involuntary (spontaneous)
What bodily systems are associated with the voluntary neural circuit?
- Corticospinal system
- Pyramidal tract (motor cortex)
What bodily systems are associated with the involuntary neural circuit?
- Subcortical system
- Extrapyramidal tract (insula, basal ganglia).
What are subjective feelings?
Awareness/conscious experience of emotions. Difficult to investigate.
According to Damasio, what are subjective feelings the result of?
Integration of environment and body (emotional response).
What comes first out of emotional response and subjective feeling according to the James-Lange theory (1984)?
- Physiological changes
2. Subjective feeling
What are the two main criticisms of the James-Lange theory?
- Autonomic responses aren’t diverse enough to produce the range of emotions we feel.
- People with spinal cord injuries (no info body-brain) can still feel emotions.
What does Cannon-Bard theory (1927) suggest?
Subjective feelings cause physiological changes.
What are criticisms of Cannon-Bard theory?
- Forcing yourself to smile makes you happier.
- Drugs reducing HR reduce subjective feeling of anxiety
- Autonomic responses to subliminally presented angry faces
= no need for subjective feeling to have an emotional reaction.
Historically, what has been searched for with regard to emotions in the brain?
A single emotional centre, with a focus on the limbic system (Broca), popularised by Paul McLean in 1952.
What can we conclude about subjective feelings and emotional responses?
They aren’t strictly one before the other and we need a better understanding of their neural basis to understand their interaction.
What did James Papez do in the 1930s?
Highlight a bidirectional circuit of brain structures involved in emotion, including the neocortex, cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, hypothalamus and thalamus.
What does current evidence suggest about emotions in the brain?
- Not all structures of the limbic system are involved in emotion
- There’s no single emotion system
- We use different brain networks for different emotions
- Several brain structures are important (hypothalamus, amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex and insula)
- The structures involved aren’t exclusive to emotion processing
What is the role of the hypothalamus in emotion processing?
- Important for generating emotional response (hormonal and ANS changes)
- Associated with aggressive behaviour.
What is the role of the amygdala in emotion processing?
- Important for fear and aggression
- Kluever-Bucy syndrome in monkeys after temporal lobe removal (absence of fear and aggression, hypersexuality, visual recognition problems, oral tendencies), amygdala lesion responsible?
- Responds to unconditioned and conditioned stimuli
According to LeDoux, how does an emotional stimulus elicit emotional responses?
2 routes:
- Stimulus, thalamus, cortex, amygdala, responses.
- Stimulus, thalamus, amygdala, responses (simple stimuli).
What is the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (or orbitofrontal cortex) in emotion processing?
- Important for emotional feeling, social interactions and decision making
- Phineas Gage’s social changes.
- Iowa gambling game - lesioned pts pick bad cards.
What is the role of the insula in emotion processing?
- Important for experience of pain and basic emotions (esp. disgust)
- According to Damasio, important in translating visceral states into subjective feelings.
