Emotion And The Brain Flashcards
The two components of emotions are…
1) emotional response
2) subjective feeling
The bodily response during the emotional response…
Changes in the ANS
Involve parasympathetic and sympathetic nerves
Sympathetic - short term emergency. Acceleration of heart rate, slowing of digestive function, perspiration and glucose availability increase
Bodily response
Hormonal changes…
Adrenal glands produce cortisol, the stress hormone, adrenaline and noradrenaline.
Stress leads to increased production and supply of oxygen and glucose to the brain
Hypothalamus - pituitary - adrenal glands
Bodily response
Typical actions…
Fight
Flight
Freezing
Facial expressions - Ekman
6 primary emotions
Happy Sad Angry Surprised Fear Disgust
Facial expression involve 2 neural circuits…
Voluntary under command - motor cortex
Involuntary spontaneous - basal ganglia
Subjective feelings is…
Awareness of emotions, conscious experience of emotions
James Lange theory (1884)
Bodily response comes first and the brain interpreted that as an emotion
Criticism of James Lange theory
1) autonomic responses can’t produce large range of emotions we feel
2) spinal cord injury patients still feel emotions
Cannon-Bard theory (1927)
Subjective feeling comes first, is processed, and the appropriate bodily response follows
Cannon-Bard criticism
1) forced smiles makes us feel happier
2) drugs influencing heart rate can reduce anxiety
3) angry face in the crowd effect
James Papez (1930) the Papez circuit…
Is a bidirectional loop
Neocortex (emotional colouring)
- cingulate cortex - hippocampus (emotional experience) - hypothalamus (emotional expression) - anterior nucleus or thalamus - cingulate cortex
Paul McLean (1952) Limbic system
No single emotion system
Different brain networks for different emotions
The hypothalamus…
Generates an emotional response associated with aggressive behaviour
The amygdala…
Is responsible for fear and aggression
Stimulus - amygdala - emotional response/feeling
Joseph LeDoux - 2 routes either from the cortex or the thalamus.
It outputs to the hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray matter and cerebral cortex
Klüver-Bucy syndrome is…
Monkeys with temporal lobes removed had an absence of fear and aggression
The ventromedial prefrontal cortex…
Orbitofrontal cortex
Is important for emotional feeling, social interactions and decision making.
Phineas Gage (1848)
Railway worker. Rod went through his head.
Damage to the prefrontal cortex. He recovered normal intelligence but suffered changes in his social behaviour
Iowa gambling task…
Win or lose money. A bad deck has a high immediate win but long term loss
A good deck has low immediate wins but a long term win
Healthy adults on the Iowa gambling tasks…
Chose good decks
Patients with ventromedial lesions
Chose bad decks. Poor decision making
The insula…
Is important for experience of pain and several basic emotions like disgust.
Important role in translating visceral States into subjective feelings
Emotions are important for our survival because…
Fight or flight response
Reproduction and upbringing
Quick decisions to complex problems
Learning
