Emotional Behavior Flashcards
Psychologists generally agree that emotion has components including ________(“this is a dangerous situation”), __________ (“i feel frightened”) ,
____(“run away now”) and _________(increased heart rate and heavy breathing)
cognition, feeling, action , physiological changes
Sympathetic nervous system
stimulates certain organs such as the heart, and inhibits others such as the stomach and intestines: it stimulates organs important for vigorous fight or flight activities, inhibiting vegetative activities that can wait until later
Parasympathetic nervous system
The parasympathetic nervous system increases digestion and other processes that save energy and prepare for later activities
Nausea in terms of nervous system
Nausea is associated with sympathetic stimulation of the stomach (decreasing its contractions and secretions) and parasympathetic stimulation of the intestines and salivary glands
pure autonomic failure
Uncommon condition called pure autonomic failure output from the autonomic nervous system to the body fails, either completely or almost completely; heartbeat and other organ activities continue but the nervous system no longer regulates them
They do not respond to stressful experiences with changes in heart beat, blood pressure, or sweating
They report having the same emotion as everyone else but they do have difficulty identifying what emotions a character in a story would probably experience
They say they feel their emotions much less intensely as before the autonomic failure
The implication is that feeling the body change is important for feeling an emotion
Panic disorder
characterized by frequent periods of anxiety and occasional attacks of rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating and trembling (i.e. extreme arousal of the sympathetic nervous system; important part of the disorder is frequent fear of the next panic attack
more common in women than men and far more common in adolescents and young adults than in older adults
abnormalities in the hypothalamus and not necessarily the amygdala
Panic disorder is associated with decreased activity of the neurotransmitter GABA and increased levels of orexin
orexin
(associated with wakefulness and activity)
Orexin is also associated with anxiety, drugs that block orexin receptors block panic responses
Panic attack
when people gasp for breath, worry that they are suffocating and experience great anxiety
Although emotional feelings correlate strongly with arousal of the autonomic nervous system, no particular emotion is consistently associated with ………….
a distinctive pattern of autonomic activity
behavioral activation system (BAS)
Activity in the left hemisphere especially its frontal and temporal lobes called behavioral activation system (BAS) marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal and a tendency to approach; characterize happiness or anger
behavioral inhibition system (BIS)
Activity of the frontal and temporal lobe of the right hemisphere is associated with the behavioral inhibition system (BIS) which increases attention and arousal, inhibits action, and stimulates emotion such as fear and disgust
People were quicker and more accurate at identifying happy faces when the information went to the ____hemisphere; and had an advantage in processing sad or frightened information when the information went to the___ hemisphere
left, right
people with greater activity in the frontal cortex of the __ hemisphere tend to be happier, outgoing and more fun-loving
People with greater__ hemisphere activity tend to be socially withdrawn, less satisfied with life, and prone to unpleasant emotion
left, right
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
Depression that occurs during a particular season such as winter, SAD is most prevalent near the poles where winter nights are very long
People with seasonal affective disorder have phase delayed rhythms
Many people with SAD have a mutation in one of the genes responsible for regulating the circadian rhythm
Treat SAD with very bright lights 2500 lux for a couple hours each morning or even brighter lights for a shorter amount of time which resets the circadian rhythm
Alcohol and Anxiety
Alcohol also reduces anxiety through effects on GABA receptors
Alcohol promotes the flow of chloride ions through the GABAa receptor complex by binding strongly at a special site found on only certain GABA receptors
Experimental drug known as Ro15-4513 is particularly effective in blocking the effects of alcohol on GABA receptors
Ro15-4513 blocks the effects of alcohol on motor coordination, its depressant action on the brain and its ability to reduce anxiety
People with the strongest ______ are the least likely to make the “logical” decision to kill one and save 5 others
autonomic arousal
_____________ becomes active when they compare the utilitarian and emotional aspects to make a decision
ventromedial part of the prefrontal cortex
damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex
more selfish with earnings and trust others less and show little concern for others; symptoms are poor decision making and impulsive behavior
Frontotemporal Dementia
(frontotemporal lobe degeneration) in which parts of the frontal and temporal lobes of the cerebral cortex gradually degenerate
often damage includes ventromedial prefrontal cortex and orbitofrontal cortex: important for evaluating possible rewards are also important for interpreting and evaluating other people’s emotional expression
People with damage of this type do not recognize or respond to others reactions, including reactions of distress and therefore show little empathy or concern
People with frontotemporal dementia also show little interest in how others perceive them; they neglect personal hygiene and fail to show embarrassment
limbic system
includes the forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus, Cerebral cortical areas; some are subcortical, some in prefrontal cortex, amygdala
Critical for emotion
Amygdala
The amygdala is important for learning to fear a particular stimulus
Input from sensory systems including vision and hearing goes to the lateral and basolateral areas of the amygdala, relay information to the central amygdala which combines it with pain and stress information that it received from the thalamus
Learning a fear strengthens synapses at several of the connections along this route
One part of the amygdala controls changes in breathing, another controls avoidance of potentially unsafe places, and another controls learning which particular places are safest
The path from the amygdala responsible for freezing in the presence of danger is separate from the path controlling the changes in heart rate
Amygdala responds most strongly when facial expression is a bit more difficult to interpret
bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
Long term generalized emotional arousal depends on a brain area called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis; the stria terminalis is a set of axons that connect the bed nucleus to the amygdala
fMRI show that human ______ responds strongly when people look at photos that arouse fear or at photos of faces showing fear or anger
amygdala