Emotion and emotion regulation (neurocircuitry) ✓ Flashcards
The emotion neurocircuitry involves 3 interconnected neuroanatomical levels, which levels?
- Brainstem
- Subcortical
- Cortical
The brainstem contains several important nuclei, which nuclei are improtant in emotion regulation?
Relevant in this lectures discussion
PBN: parabrachial nuclei
NST: nucleus of the solitary tract
PAG: periaqueductal grey
Not relevant in discussion for this lecture
Hypothalamus
VTA: ventral tegmental area
Substantia nigra
What does the PBN do?
Parabrachial nuclei (PBN)
Major relay and coordination center that recieves converging visceral, nociceptiv and thermoreceptive input from the spinalcord.
This information is converted to the amygdala, hypothalamus and thalamus. It is therefor involved in the interoceptive information in emotion.
What does the NST do?
Nucleus of the solitary tract (NST)
Mediates reflexes like couching and gagging that address immediate physiological needs.
What does the PAG do?
Periaqueductal grey (PAG)
Modulates the drive states of how you feel for example by:
- Dampening pain by attenuating signals from ascending sensory fibres.
- Dorsal and ventrolateral part hav complemetary roles
- Dorsal PAG: promote fear-like and freezing behaviors
- Ventrolateral PAG: promote relaxed state
What parts are included in the second level of emotionel processing (subcortical level)?
Amygdala
Nucleus accumbens
Ventral striatum
Ventral pallidum
The amygdala is an important part of the subcortical regulation of emotion, what three parts are relevent in the amygdala for emotion regulation and what do they individually do?
The amygdala is seperated into several nuclei:
Lateral nucleus (LA): primary input nucleus of the amygdala
Recieves converging information from the uncondition/conditions stimulus from the thalamus and cortex.
Central nucleus (CeA): major output structure of the amygdala that activates downwardsstream structures/output targets and can trigger the emotional response eg fear.
Basolateral nucleus (BLA): has connections with other emotion-related structures and is therefore imprtant for integration. Connections with example the thalamus and cortex and the LA.
If the amygdala is damaged, eg kluver-bucy syndrom (lesions in the bilateral medial temporal lobes including the amygdala) we will have loss of function in the amygdala, what symptoms represent this loss of function?
Reduced fear/agression
Loss of emotional reactivity
Increased exploratory behavior
Hyper-oral tendencies
Hypersexuality
Abolished threat responding
Abnormal dietary changes
The third and last level of emotion regulation occures in the cortex, Phineas Cage is an example of what can happen when you damage the frontal cortex (which caused him to become prone to fits of rage and profanity), this suggests that the damage of the cortex increase the emotion of anger.
What parts of cortex does the cortical level of emotional regulation include?
Insula
Medial prefrontal cortex
What does the insula do?
The insula has exctensive reciprocal and anatomical connections with the amygdala
- *Insula**
- The insula is activated in response to personally relevant and silent stimuli that can be both positive or negative (eg pain, or assesment of bodily state).*
Posterior part: objective interoceptive information från spinothalamic tracts and somatomotorcortex. Provides us with awarness of our bodily state
Midinsula: polymodal information, places the bodily stimuli in context
Anterior part: subjective intensity of experience and perception (higher level of awarness and conciosness of the bodily state), then feeds this information back to the thalamus.
Medial prefrontal cortex is also important when it comes to emotions and emotion regulation. Damage hear causes impaired emotional experience and expression, and impaired rational decision making. Especially in the domain of personal and social (afferens?), in particular they have a pathological inability to make advantage use of good decision in reallife situations. They don’t just pick a good/bad deck equally but activley pick the bad deck.
This finding fits with the somatic marker hypothysis, what is this?
Somatic marker hypothesis
Somatic markers are seen as bodily feelingstates that are associated with an emotion
Eg higher heartrate is a somatic marker associated with fear and it will guide and influence and action and thinking.
People do not often choose on the basis of intelectuall analysis alone but also based on the emotion elicitet as part of the decisionmaking process.
The choice of a person will not only be intellecutally based but also basen on how you feel/your current emotion. Therefor people with damage in the vmPFC will not be able to make the proper decision.
The brain regions involved in neural circuitry of emotion are similar to the ones involved in emotion, which regions are involved?
PFC: prefrontal cortex
ACC: anterior gyrus cinguli
Amygdala
Insula
In a study when participents where asked to what a film about i tooth removal, they were asked to either just watch (attend) the film or to reappraise (think objectivly, eg thinking of the clip as a dentist) of the film as it took place.
How does the way a participent is asked to watch the clip mirror in activity in brain regions couple to emotional regulation?
Reappraise: decrease activity in insula and amygdala, increase in dmPFC.
Trying to regulate an emotion turnes of the amygdala and increases PFC.
