Emotional and social neuroscience Flashcards
What is a challenge in Studying Emotions scientifically?
It can be tricky to induce emotion. Especially because RECOGNITION of Emotions in others (sender) does not necessarily entail feeling that emotion yourself (observer). Music can work.
What is the sympathetic and parasympethatic nervous system each responsible for? (Textbook level understanding ?
sympathetic - fight or flight (i.e. “increase in activity”)
parasympathetic - rest and digest (i.e. “decrease in activity” and increase in digestition)
According to the simple Circumplex model, how can emotions be classified? What do Brain Studies show?
2 axis: valence (quality) and arousal (strength). No localization of valence and arousal in fMRI.
What does The James Lange theory state? And Why does it contradict the Circumplex model?
The James Lange theory states that emotions are a response to bodily states. In the Circumplex Model two emotional states can differ widely in valence yet be the same concerning arousal - How could this be the result of emotion being a function of bodily states
What is some evidence for the existence of basic emotions? Do Basic Emotions contradict the Circumplex Model?
- Cross cultural recognition of basic emotions and corresponding facial expressions
- Basic Emotions cannot be broken further down (i.e. valence and arousal isnt enough)
What region is active for fear?
amygdala
What is the LeDouax High Road Low Road Model of Fear? What is some empirical evidence for it?
Two pathways for fear:
High Road: thalamus -> cortex -> amygdala
–> Slower, more acccurate
Low Road: thalamus -> amygdala
–> faster, less accurate
Evidence: Even masked stimuli elicit amygdala activity.
What region is active for disgust? What does that region do?
The Insula cortex.
It has a representation/ “map” of bodily states.
What region is active for anger? What is a problem with this neural correlate?
The Cingualte Cortex/ACC.
Problem: inducing anger = ethically problematic
Problem 2: ACC is also pain related. So maybe activity reflects just the “social pain” aspect of anger, not the fundamental emotion itself.
What area is assocaited with suprise?
VTA/Nacc (reward prediction error) and the ventral attentional network (think: “pop out effect”/exogenous cues drawing attention = suprise)
What areas are related to happiness and saddness?
OFC - medial reward, lateral punishment.
(very poor correlate)
Can emotions be mapped onto regions into a sparse manner?
No. But its a bit more complicated. Activiation fMRI studies suggest multiple regions are relevant for each. But lesion studies show that there is at least localization regarding necessary regions (think: amygdala in patient S.M. -> no more fear but intact other emotions)
Localization of Social Stimuli
Extrastriate Body Area, Occipital Face Area,
FFA, FBA
also: differential acitvity for biolgical movements
Mirror Neurons: original findings
Originally: subset in F5 (pre motor areas) in monkey: about 17%
NOT pure imitation
M1 not mirror like behaviour -> not concealed imitation
What are critiques of Mirror Neuron Theory?
- Only a small subset in F5
- Could only be a result of integration of information (what the premotor areas do).
- Could even be projected activity from other regions that interpret actions
- In M1 mirror neurons where found after all
_> so maybe concealed imitation (absence in M1 was considered a vital control)
