emotion and the brain

Question 1

what is ‘affect’ compromised of?

Answer 1

emotion

mood

Question 2

define emotion

Answer 2

• short-lived
• intense feeling
• clear target

Question 3

define mood

Answer 3

• longer in duration
• going on in the background
• no real target

Question 4

what are the 6 basic emotions according to Ekman?

Answer 4

• anger
• disgust
• fear
• surprise
• happiness
• sadness

Question 5

outline Ekman et al. (1969) task

Answer 5

• showed ppts a picture of a facial expression
• asked ppts to identify what emotion best describes this picture

Question 6

what did Ekman et al. (1969) conclude?

Answer 6

• concluded that basic emotions = universal
• these emotions are present in all human societies
• basic emotions do not need to be learnt

Question 7

identify criticisms of Ekman’s approach
(Gendron et al., 2014)

Answer 7

• emotions may not be universal
• Gendron et al. (2014) tested Ekman’s approach on Himba tribe in Nambia
• tasked with sorting face pictures into piles
• happy and fearful consistently recognised
• sadness, disgust and anger not consistently recognised

Question 8

identify criticisms of Ekman’s approach
(Cowen & Keltner, 2017)

Answer 8

• basic emotions fail to describe richness of human emotional experience
• Cowen & Keltner (2017) identified 27 fuzzy categories

Question 9

how are emotions represented in the brain?

Answer 9

two basic extreme positions:
1/ complete specialisation

2/ complete dispersion

Question 10

explain complete specialisation

Answer 10

• idea that the brain has particular centres for each basic emotion
• one centre for anger, one centre for sadness

Question 11

explain complete dispersion

Answer 11

• idea that each brain area equally relevant for processing every emotion

Question 12

what does evidence show with regards to how basic emotions are represented in the brain?

Answer 12

• evidence shows we have a spectrum of intermediate positions between complete specialisation and complete dispersion

Question 13

explain Papez (1937) idea on intermediate position

Answer 13

• he suggested we don’t have a particular centre and we our brain is not always doing everything
• believes we have a circuit
• we have some areas that are responsible for emotions
• this forms a circuit
• this circuit processes all emotions

Question 14

evaluate Papez (1937) circuit theory

Answer 14

• not all areas in circuit play major role in emotion processing
• also, areas not in circuit do play a major role in emotion processing (e.g.: amygdala

Question 15

what is part of the Papez circuit?

Answer 15

• cingulate gyrus
• parahippocampal region
• hippocampus
• fornix
• mammillary body
• anterior thalamic nuclei

Question 16

what do we consider emotions to be nowadays?

Answer 16

• dynamic

Question 17

what type of mappings do we use to view emotions?

Answer 17

• network mappings
• because emotions viewed as dynamic, they are seen to be distributed

Question 18

evaluate the distributed representation view of emotions

Answer 18

• we can classify emotional states in the brain
• emotional states are not random, they have something driving them … therefore should be able to identify them

Question 19

what are some problems with human research into emotion?

Answer 19

• issues with neuroimaging methods
• no neuroimaging technique has spatial resolution (measure of the smallest object that can be resolved by sensor)
• no neuroimaging technique has high temporal resolution (time taken to take multiple measurements)
• no neuroimaging technique has whole-brain coverage

Question 20

outline animal studies into fear conditioning

Answer 20

• rat in cage
• every time rat = fearful, it freezes
• cue an auditory response with foot-shocks
• as training goes on, every time foot-shocks happen with the auditory, the rat freezes
• after training, placed in one of two cages
• one cage was a contextual fear test: cage remained same with no auditory stimulus
• other cage was different but auditory stimulus was present
• rat froze a lot more in the contextual fear cage

Question 21

what did the rat cage foot-shock study show in brain mapping?

Answer 21

• study showed that primary sensory thalamus and associated cortex is feeding into the amygdala
• forming a circuit
• some parts of circuit will be inhibited

Question 22

what is optogenetic simulation?

Answer 22

• genes for light-sensitive proteins are introduced into specific brain cells
• in order to monitor activity of neurones using light signals
• allows researchers to control how nerve cells communicate

Question 23

what can optogenetic stimulation of the lateral amygdala in the rat do?

Answer 23

switch fear conditioning on and off