emotion and the brain Flashcards
what are the basic emotions according to Ekman
anger, disgust, fear, surprise, happiness, sadness and contempt
what does Ekman say about basic emotions
they are universal - present in all human societies and don’t need to be learned
what did Ekman’s own research show about the basic emotions
New Guinea and Borneo population –
Most frequent response was predicted – only 50% accuracy
Stimuli where more than 70% agreed – Less than 50% accurary.
Happy stimuli recognised consistently
Fear and anger seem to be confused with each other.
Surprise and Fear seem to be confused.,
Point – not as universal as Ekman claimed, his own research did not support this.
what did Gendron et al find about basic emotions
tested whether they were universal in 2014 on the Himba tribe in Namibia
- task was to sort face
pictures into piles
- happy and fearful were consistently recognised
- but not sadness disgust and anger
how did cowen and keltner criticise ekman’s approach
identified 27 categories of emotion
what are the 2 extreme positions presented regarding the neural basis of basic emotions
complete specialisation vs complete dispersion
according to papez what is the popular intermediate position regarding the neural basis of all emotions
there is a set of interconnected brain areas involved in processing all emotions
what are the structures that are a part of papez circuit
cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, parahippocampal region, mammillary bodies, anterior thalamic nuclei
what was the main idea proposed by papez regarding this circuit and emotion
this interconnected circuit of brain regions is fundamental for the experience and expression of emotions
why was papez also wrong about emotion and the brain
- not all areas in the circuit play a major role in emotion processing
- areas not part of the circuit do play a role in emotion processing e.g amygdala
what are emerging views of emotions
dynamic, distributed representations in brain networks
in cued fear conditioning, what is the unconditioned stimulus and what unconditioned response does it elicit
UCS - only shock
- UCR - increased heart rate and blood pressure etc
what occurs during the conditioning phase of cued fear conditioning
a neutral stimulus - the tone - is paired with the UCS
after conditioning what response is elicited by the conditioned stimulus ( the tone) alone
CR such as freezing
what brain area is the key focus on regarding fear
amygdala
what are the main input areas to the amygdala
primary sensory cortices, thalamus, association cortices, hippocampus
what are some key subnuclei of the amygdala
lateral amygdala, basal amygdala, central amygdala
what does sensory input reach the lateral amygdala
directly from the thalamus and indirectly from sensory
what type of connections generally promote fear
excitatory
what 3 main areas involved in conditioning did curzon et al suggest
amygdala - fear response
- hippocampus - association between CS and CR
- frontal - attention/conscious control
what brain regions are important for voluntary control over amygdala activation
anterior insula, anterior cingulate cortex, prefrontal cortex
what were pps asked to do in the cognitive reappraisal study by ochsner et al
to reappraise negative images
e.g. changing the meaning of crying in grief to joy
what changes in brain activation were observed during the cognitive reappraisal task
decreased activation in the amygdala and increased activation in the prefrontal cortex
according to the brain study by vergallito et al what brain region regulates negative effect in preventing dangerous situations
right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex
