Emotion lecture 3 Flashcards
What is meant by psychological appraisal theories?
Cognitive evaluation of a situation
How do psychological appraisal theories compare to JL theory?
They look at emotion in a different way than JL and CB theory
Like James they focus on the subjective experience of emotion
However, they they suggest that feelings reflect cognitive evaluation of a situation which is more intuitive
Distinguish between two broad categories of appraisal
- Primary appraisal: Judging situation as positive/negative (valence). Note: every daily activity has this kind of valence. (also known as core effect.)
- Secondary appraisal: Analysis of own coping resources (if you can cope with it, causes a lot of stress.)
What are meant by two factor theories
Combining James’ ideas with appraisal theories:
1) Perception of bodily arousal => Intensity of emotion (but not the type of emotion)
2) Cognitive appraisal of situation => Type of emotion
How does this theory explain the finding that adrenaline injections does not produce emotions as predicted by James’ theory
- Unexpected and unexplained arousal (e.g. through injected adrenaline) will be explained with available situational cues
- If bodily arousal can be explained (e.g. “I have received an injection of adrenaline”), other situational cues will not be used
Describe two simple studies which demonstrate this cognitive appraisal
A young attractive researcher stood in the middle of a ‘dangerous’ bridge and on a more structurally safe bridge and asked young men a few questions and two write a story based on a picture. The researcher also gave her number for any further questions. Those on the more dangerous bridge were more likely to call her and their stories seemed more sexually charged. It was inferred that the cognitive arousal due to the scariness of the bridge was partly attributed to the attractive woman.
In the 60’s there was also a study where students would rate nude female students based on their attractiveness while they would receive feedback on their heart rate. Researchers would sometimes give elevated reports of the participant’s heart rates. Participants would give a higher rate of attractiveness.
Describe Schacter and singer’s classic experiment
There were three manipulations:
Injection of adrenaline (or not) manipulation
Informed subject group manipulation: Subjects are either informed about the manipulation (do not use situation cues) or they are not informed, told it was about eyesight (do use situational cues.)
Situation manipulation: Angry confederate (questionnaires were asking really intimate details about their sex life etc) or euphoric confederate (jumping around using a hula hoop etc, making fun comments about the questionnaires).
What were the ‘idealised’ results of Schacter and singer’s classic experiment?
In the informed subject group:
Those with the angry confederate don’t feel angry (attribute arousal to injection, rationalise the effect)
Those with the euphoric confederate (attribute arousal to injection, rationalise the effect)
In the uninformed subject group:
Those with the angry confederate feel angry (take cue to explain their arousal- misattribution)
Those with the euphoric confederate feel happy (take cue to explain their arousal- misattribution)
Contrast the causal pathway in emotion in JL theory, Canon-bard theory and schacter and Singer theory
James Lange: Stimulus => Body response => Feeling
Cannon bard: Stimulus => Subcortical brain activity => Fear + body response
S&S: Stimulus => Body response + appraisal => Feeling
Describe the neural pathways suggested in canon-bard theory
The emotional trigger passes through the occipital lobe into the thalamus. The thalamus functions as an ‘emotion hub.’ Via connections to the thalamus, the hypothalamus then induces body changes while the cortex simultaneously causes feelings.
Based on this canon-bard model, Papez, an anatomist while tracing connections in the brain made some claims on how information and emotion are processed in the brain. Name and describe the model he proposed
The Papez circuit:
- Stream of thought from dorsal thalamus (sensory relay) to sensory cortex
- Cannon’s pathway from ventral thalamus to hypothalamus induces body changes
- Stream of feeling from hypothalamus to anterior thalamus to cingulate cortex and back to hypothalamus via hippocampus
- Integration in cingulate cortex: Feelings
What neural system does the Papez circuit play a key role in? What role does it play and name some other structures involved
Limbic system (McLean):
- Key role of Papez circuit in autonomic regulation (Cingulate cortex => hippocampus => hypothalamus)
- Hippocampus as a key structure
- Later addition of other structures: Amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex
How well does MacLean’s limbic system (1949) hold up to today’s standards?
Quite outdated and wrong, In Maclean’s illustrations of the limbic system:
Some information no known to be correct such as hypothalamus projecting to the brainstem, important for autonomic responses. Information about smell from olfactory bulbs also up to date. Also information from the viscera and other sensory modalities in the temporal lobe is also partly up to date.
However the central system shown to be the hippocampus, the key function of it is clearly not emotion but memory.
Why did MacLean insert the hippocampus as the central area in emotion?
Patients with temporal lobe epilepsy experienced intense emotions, especially when damaged around the hippocampus.
Kluver-Bucy syndrome: Monkeys with temporal lobe lesions show dramatic behavioral changes (docility dietary changes, hyperorality, hypersexuality, agnosia, amnesia). These were considered emotional changes then, ignoring the key symptoms of agnosia and amnesia.
What essentially constituted the original limbic system?
Hippocampus and Papez circuit (Cingulate cortex, hippocampus, anterior thalamus, hypothalamus and mamillary bodies)
What has also been included in the limbic system?
- Orbitofrontal cortex and parts of the medial prefrontal cortex
- Amygdala
The limbic system is sometimes posited as the brain system for emotions. Is this accurate? Why or why not (3)
While it is an enduring and influential model of the emotional brain, it is a vague poorly defined concept. Additionally most parts of the limbic system are more related to declarative memory than emotion (hippocampus, mamillary bodies, anterior thalamus). Also some parts of the basal ganglia are missing.
Why is giving current views on the key roles of different brain areas in emotion a difficult task?
Because the current view is that emotions are linked to distributed complex neural networks rather than localised brain areas
Name the seven brain areas which Timo claimed are consensually the most important brain areas
- Amygdala
- Hypothalamus
- Periaqueductal gray
- Ventral striatum
- Insula
- Anterior cingulate cortex
- Orbitofrontal cortex
What constitutes the amygdala?
A collection of nuclei in the anterior temporal poles
Why is it not straightforward to link the functions of the amygdala in the rat brain to the human brain
The different cell types and nuclei in the amygdala differ across species and it is not simple to link two nuclei between species.
Where does the amygdala get input from? Where does it have bidirectional connections?
Viscera (via hypothalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, anterior cingulate gyrus), from the olfactory bulbs (why smells trigger memories) and from all senses.
Bidirectional connections with hippocampus, thalamus, ventral striatum, hypothalamus, orbitofrontal cortex and brainstem.
What functions is the amygdala associated with? (2/3)
Learning and representing the emotional value (good vs bad) and salience and relevance of stimuli (e.g Pavlovian fear conditioning). It also plays a key role in inducing bodily changes
Evidence for preferential involvement in fear perception and experience
Describe the neural process of pavlovian learning when a mouse is shocked in the foot alongside a tone.
The tone activates a response in the auditory thalamus which sends a signal to the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA). The activity in the auditory thalamus also activates a response in the auditory cortex* which sends a signal to the (LA) in the amygdala.
The shock activates a response in the somatosensory thalamus which sends a signal to the lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA). The activity in the somatosensory thalamus also activates a response in the somatosensory cortex* which sends a signal to the (LA) in the amygdala.
*The thalamus is necessary for this learning to occur however the learning can occur without the relevant cortex. The lateral nucleus of the amygdala (LA) acts as a sensory input nucleus of the amygdala. It projects to the central nucleus of the amygdala which projects to other areas which produce bodily changes and the fear response.
Give three examples of bodily changes and their brain areas in which the amygdala can activate
Central grey/ Peri-aqueductal grey (CG): Freezing
Lateral hypothalamus (LH): Blood pressure
Paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus: Hormones
Describe 2 pieces of evidence for preferential involvement in fear perception and experience in the amygdala
Patient S.M (who did not have an amygdala due to a rare syndrome) and others with amygdala damage have sever problems recognising fear from facial expressions, while others are spared. Additionally she does not experience fear in every day situations compared to normal patients apart from innate fear responses (e.g inhaling CO2.)
Also participants have a perception of fear during electrical stimulation of the amygdala.
Why does patient not recognise fear as well in facial expressions?
This is because she does not look at the eyes when evaluating a face. If made look at the eye, she can recognise fear.
What constitutes the hypothalamus?
Set of small nuclei in the ventral diencephalon between the midbrain and the thalamus
name five functions of the hypothalamus
“Homeostasis” (maintaining internal environment at an optimal state) (Canon, 1929)
- “Master endocrine gland”, directly regulates the release of hormones from the pituitary and other endocrine glands
- Regulates autonomic activity and basic survival-related behaviors (feeding, drinking, sex)
- “Sham rage” (Cannon) and “real rage” (Hess)
- Role in innate fear
What constitutes the periaqueductal gray?
A gray matter structure surrounding ‘the aqueduct of the Sylvius” in the midbrain.
Where does the periaqueductal gray connect to?
Connected with thalamus, hypothalamus, amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex
What functions are associated with the periaqueductal gray? (3)
- Propagation and modulation of pain (electrical stimulation in patients with chronic pain), involving opioid receptors
- Autonomic (sympathetic) and defensive and aversive responses (e.g. freezing, escape)
- Maternal behavior involving vasopressin and oxytocin receptors
What constitutes the ventral striatum,
Nucleus accumbens NAc, Ventral pallidum (Part of the basal ganglia).
A mesolimbic dopamenergic projection from ventral tegmental area (VTA) in the midbrain to NAc.
What functions are associated with the ventral striatum?
Operant conditioning (e.g learning to press a lever in order to obtain a reward.)
Briefly describe two 1950’s studies which illustrate the role of this mesolimbic pathways
- Olds& Milner (1954): Rats self-stimulate thousands of time, up to exhaustion when electrode placed in mesolimbic pathway
- Heath (1950s): Psychiatric patients (often homosexuals) experience desires (sexual, “something coming”, arousal)
How did Heath try to treat homosexuality
By activating this mesolimbic pathway in patients as they watched him fucking a sex worker.
What does the ventral striatum respond to?
Responds to rewards and anticipation of rewards (may compute reward prediction errors, i.e. the discrepancy between actual and expected reward).
Remember about responding to cue rather than the reward depending on temporal distance from reward, if no reward then decrease firing rate.
What previous research led to the need to establish a distinction between liking and wanting in the mesolimbic pathway?
Kent berridge’s research suggests that mesolimbic stimulation triggers desire, not pleasure:
•Heath’s patients did not say that it felt pleasant, but experienced sexual desire, erotic feelings, or thirst –often without satisfaction
•Dopaminergic pathways mediating desire (wanting) rather than pleasure (liking)?
How can liking and wanting be dissociated behaviourally?
- Liking(e.g. sugar) vs. disliking (e.g. bitter quinine): Mouth and tongue-movements, lip-licking (operalisation: Taste-reactivity test- score lip licking behaviour in response to some substance, usually sugar)
- Wanting: Amount of approach behavior and effort to get a reward ( operalisation: Duration to get reward)
Describe research findings which indicate whether dopamine controls wanting or liking
Reducing dopamine transmission (e.g. blocking its production, its receptors, or destroying dopaminergic neurons) reduced effort and approach behavior but not lip-licking. More dopamine in mutant mice (“DAT-Knockdown”): Increases wanting but not liking.
What other aspect of the ventral striatum may be involved in liking instead?
Hedonic hotspots with opioid receptors in NAc and VP encode ”liking” (vs. dopamine “wanting”). These opioids are likely more involved in liking.
Describe research results attempts to demonstrate this neural correlate of ‘liking’ and the results found pertaining to specific brain regions
The researcher micro-injected enkephalin (DAMGO, an opioid) to activate μ-opioid receptors. In a taste reactivity test there was an increase of liking response to sucrose. He found that depending where in the nucleus accumbens he was doing these microinjections to activate opioid receptors you could increase liking responses and in others you can decrease liking responses. He produced a topographic map of the nucleus accumbens in the ventral striatum through targeting opioid receptors indicating which areas increase or decrease liking and the strength at which they do so.
What specific part of the nucleus accumbens is attributed to this function and where else was a similar topographic map found for liking elevation and suppression?
Apart from the medial shell of the nucleus accumbens, There was a similar map found in the Ventral pallidum.
Why could this are be considered even more significant compared to the nucleus accumbens?
It is the only area that can completely abolish liking when destroyed (destruction turns liking into disliking).
Are these the only two areas which have been found to change liking responses?
No other areas such as the amygdala and the brainstem but these are the most important
What constitutes the insula?
Cortex deep within the lateral sulcus that separates the temporal from the parietal and frontal lobe.
Name the two divisions within the insula and their respective connections
- Posterior insula (PI) receives visceral inputs
* Anterior insula (AI) connects to orbitofrontal cortex, to classic parts of the limbic system, and to basal ganglia
What other name is sometimes given to the insula and why?
Primary gustatory cortex, electrical stimulation provokes feelings of nausea and disturbing stomach sensations as well as distaste and disgust
What do we now know that the anterior insula (AI) is involved in?
Interoceptive awareness (e.g. detection of heartbeat), pain, and bodily feelings in general.
As well as some evidence for preferential involvement in disgust, perception and experience
Rehash the main points on the second most famous Phineas
Phineas Gage (1848): The most famous patient
•Rod through skull: Left orbitofrontal cortex damage
•Personality change from amicable, organized to impatient, angry, unreliable
•Damasio’s “Gage matrix” and somatic marker hypothesis
Where is the orbitofrontal cortex located?
Located on the ventral surface of the frontal lobes, above the eye sockets (“orbits”)
Describe where the orbitofrontal cortex receives input and where it has reciprocal connections to
- Inputs from cortical sensory areas
* Reciprocal connections with amygdala, hippocampus, insula, cingulate cortex
What functions are associated with orbitofrontal cortex in regards to emotion?
Represents the motivational value of rewards (e.g chocolate when hungry vs when full) and changes them according to context (e.g following satiety, reversal learning)
Where is the anterior cingulate cortex located?
around the anterior corpus callosum on the medial surface of the brain
From where does the anterior cingulate cortex receive input? and to where does it send output?
- Inputs from medial thalamus (pain perception), orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala, insula
- Outputs to periaqueductal gray (pain), dorsal motor nucleus of vagus nerve (autonomic effects), ventral striatum
What function is the anterior cingulate cortex associated with? How do the dorsal and ventral region differ in their function?
Production of bodily responses (e.g skin conductance, heart rate, blood pressure).
Dorsal region: Response monitoring (whether rewarded or punished), pain
Ventral region: Close to “mentalizing” areas of the medial prefrontal cortex, but role debated and not well known (less important to learn)
Name the generally accepted theory of emotion
Aint none
What do different theories of emotion agree on?
Emotions are a multi-component phenomena: •Evaluation of an external stimulus •Neural responses •Psycho-physiological reactions •Expression modifications •Instrumental actions •Conscious experience
What is a central debate in emotion research?
between emotions as basic kinds vs. emotions as constructed from more basic processes (e.g atoms vs molecules)
How are there different ‘flavours’ of being basic?
Different types of coffee at a starbucks
How are there different ‘flavours’ of considering a concept ‘basic’ (3)
- Conceptual: A concept is basic if it creates the most abstract category within a hierarchy that creates a mental image, is always used by adults, and learned rapidly by children (dog vs German shepherd)
- Psychological: Basic emotions (e.g. Ekman’s Big 5/6) are irreducible (like atoms) and distinct (they do not merge and do not share components) (hostility- anger + disgust)
- Biological: Innate, hardwired reflex-like mechanisms that link sensory input (e.g. signaling danger) with a coordinated pattern of behavioral responses (e.g. freeze, fight, or flight)
How were emotions categorised according to a diagram in psychology?
Plutchik’s (1980) emotion wheel: Based on similarity ratings of emotion words; 8 basic emotions (inner circles), more complex emotions in outer circles and can be paired in certain groups
What does fitting emotions in the biological sense of basic require?
Requires that neurobiological underpinnings characteristically associated with different instances of emotions can be found. Ekman (1999): “There must be unique physiological patterns for each emotion, and these patterns should be specific to these emotions not found in other mental activity.”
How did Panksepp attempt to determine these neurological underpinnings of emotion?
Used electrical brain stimulation to map discrete emotion systems. He used electrical brain stimulation on rodents which elicited emotion-like behaviours.
Describe Panksepp’s study findings regarding the hypothalamus (2)
Two types of aggressive behavior by stimulating rat hypothalamus with different electrical currents
- Predatory aggression: Directed at prey but not other rats
- Affective aggression: Directed at other rats but not prey
Rats engage in Olds-&-Milner-like self-stimulation when electrical stimulation produced predatory aggression but not when it produced affective aggression
What could the difference in self stimulation between the two sites indicate?
Two types of aggression have different value to the rats and by choosing to stimulate or not, the rat indicates whether or not its effects are pleasurable
What is meant by a conditioned place preference?
Conditioned place preference: Whether a rat returns to an area in the cage where it had previously received brain stimulation
How did Panksepp define a basic/ core emotion?
When stimulated, it provokes an identifiable behavioral sequence that the animal can indicate it likes or dislikes, for example
- Seeking: Exploratory sniffing elicited, rats repeat stimulation
- Panic: Distress calls elicited, rats avoid stimulation
What claims did Panksepp make for how single emotional systems are mapped out?
Single emotional systems are not mapped onto individual brain areas in a one-to-one fashion, but overlapping networks subserve distinct basic emotion systems
What brain regions did panksepp say were primary for emotions?
Subcortical and brain stem regions (hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, periaqueductal gray [PAG] in the brain stem) are primary for emotions
What trend in eliciting emotion is observed the deeper the stimulation is in the brain?
The deeper the stimulation site, the less current is required to elicit emotional response (e.g. less current in PAG than in amygdala to evoke fear or rage)
Neocortex stimulation rarely elicits emotional behaviors
What behaviour did panksepp associate with dopamine, opioids and oxytocin?
Role of dopamine in seeking
•Mesolimbic system (VTA => NAc)
•Role in both reward and in exploratory behavior in anticipation to find a reward
Role of endogenous opioids in panic
•Injection of opiates reduced distress calls
•Social distress system related to pain system (involving endogenous opioids/ endorphins)
Role of oxytocin in lust, care, panic
•Increases maternal behaviors
•Decreases separation distress in young animals that are left alone
Why was Panksepp also known as the rat tickler?
He tickled rats and used special equipment that they emit some form of ‘laughter.’ Rats emit 50-kHz ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) in response to pleasurable experiences
What brain area did Panksepp stimulate to also have the rats emit this sound?
Electrical stimulation of NAc, ventral pallidum, VTA, lateral hypothalamus, etc. cause the same vocalizations
How could this finding be useful and relevant to the world of medicine?
Develop chemicals that increase 50-kHz USVs in rats to combat human depression? GLYX-13 (rapastinel) used to be a novel antidepressant developed on that basis (but was discontinued.)
Name 4 of Panksepps general conclusions about emotion
Seven basic, emotion states with specific associated neural circuitry: Rage, fear, lust, care, panic, and play
- Emotion states are innate and coordinate behavioral responses
- Different stimuli can activate emotion systems after learning through experience, observation, or instruction
- All animals have conscious experiences accompanying emotion states
Panksepp received critique by components of what type of theory of emotion and name 3 of their criticisms
Critique by proponents of constructivist theories of emotions:
- Results of electrical brain stimulation can be highly variable, within the same animal and between animals (context, temperament, etc.)
- Replications of Panksepp’s work by other groups difficult to find
- Applicability to human experience of emotions? Heath’s deep brain stimulation of psychiatric patients does not provide strong support of Panksepp’s theory
How do constructionist theories differ from Panksepp’s?
Rather than having these basic emotions which combine to build up complex emotions, emotions are considered values on scales, spectrums, or vectors
What dimensions did Wundt use to categorise emotions?
Wundt (1896): Three-dimensional space
- Pleasant/ Unpleasant
- Arousing/ Subduing
- Relaxation/ Strain
What dimensions do modern taxonomies have?
Most modern taxonomies have two dimensions
- Valence (pleasantness vs. unpleasantness)
- Arousal(wakefulness, alertness, readiness)
What are these dimensions often referred to as?
These dimensions, in particular valence, are often referred to as “core affect”
What does Russell’s circumflex model display?
Different emotions placed on two axis of arousal and valence, based on participant reports.
Multidimensional scaling of emotion words: Arousal (y-axis) and pleasantness/valence (x-axis)
How the manner in which emotions are identified already different to Panksepp?
Panksepp used rat behaviour to infer emotions, this is based on what participants reported
What axis did Rolls (1999) use for his theory of emotion?
Definition according to the stimulus (S):
Reward-seeking (y-axis) (absence of reward/ absence of punishment) and
punishment-avoidance (x-axis) (presence of reward/ presence of punishment.)
More based on operant conditioning)
What do most theories assume about the core effect?
However, most theories assume that core affect is not sufficient for conscious experience of emotions (feelings) but add additional ingredients
Name three theories of emotion and what they add to these core effects to explain different emotions
Awareness of situations and stimuli –Appraisal and constructed emotion theory
Awareness of body states –Interoceptive theories
Meta-cognitive self-awareness –Higher-order theory
Name and describe the appraisal theory which Klaus Scherer proposed (not neurobiologically based)
Multi-level appraisal: An emotion involves a sequenceof evaluations of a stimulus or situation unfolding over milliseconds to seconds
- Detecting the relevance of an event
- Evaluating its immediate implications
- Evaluating one’s ability to cope with it
- Evaluating its normative significance
•Distinct processing stages, involving multiple components that are coordinated by the emotion state, e.g. autonomic responses, motor expressions, feelings
How do these component process models contrast to basic emotion theories
In basic emotion theories a stimulus causes an autonomic appraisal via a ‘data base’ look up. For each of these basic emotions affect programs (joy, fear etc) produce a prototypical reaction including a specific action tendency, physiological response pattern, motor expression and a feeling state.
Component process models (appraisal theories) there is no specific emotion circuit that will automatically trigger, but there are many evaluation steps of a stimulus that generates different patterns (e.g motivation, physiology etc) which all interact with each other over time. Then there is a dynamic sequence of an emotion state unfolding and the subject simply labels this emotional state via a central representation of all components.
What role did the ANS play in Scherer’s model?
The patterning and amplitude of the feeling
What did the quality of the emotion depend on in Scherer’s model?
The appraisal
