Emotional learning and memory

Question 1

What is the fight-or-flight response?

Answer 1

1. Blood flow is diverted towards body systems that are more likely to help you in a dangerous situations
2. These bodily changes are mediated by the Autonomic Nervous System:
   - Brain sense threat
   - ANS sends signal to adrenal glands
   - Adrenal glands release stress hormones (adrenaline and epinephrine) and glucocorticoids
   - Stress hormones turn fight-or-flight on an off

Question 2

What is James Lange’s theory of emotion? And the modern emotional theory?

Answer 2

James Lange’s:

1. Emotional stimulis
2. Bodily response (arousal)
3. Conscious emotional feeling

Modern emotional learning:

1. Emotional stimulis
2. Bodily response + Cognitive assessment of the context
3. Conscious emotional feeling

Question 3

Why do emotions influence how memories are stored and retrieved?

Answer 3

1. Tendency to rehearse emotional memories frequently
2. Review them mentally
3. Talk about them
4. Leads to better encoding

Question 4

What is the mood-congruency of memory?

Answer 4

If you are feeling sad, you will retrieve sad memories for example

Question 5

Why do we sometimes forget traumatic memories?

Answer 5

1. Because highly stressful events release stress hormones which can trigger a temporary malfunction of the hippocampus
2. Can still be retrieved later unless it was never encoded

Question 6

What are phobias?

Answer 6

Treatment through:

• Systematic desensitization
• VR therapy
• Propranolol - Blocks epinephrine, which is responsible for fight-or-flight

Question 7

What about PTSD?

Answer 7

Similar treatments

People with smaller hippocampal volume are more prone to it

Question 8

What are optogenetics?

Answer 8

1. Use light to transform into electricity on targeted neurons to switch them on and off
2. Could be used to treat phobias - By stimulating pleasure center or turning on the Purkinje cells to have more inhibition (= less conditioning)

Question 9

What is the role of the amygdala?

Answer 9

1. Sensory stimulus enters through thalamus (= direct) and sometimes also through the cortex (= indirect):
2. Enters the lateral nucleus
3. Sent to the basolateral nucleus which sends info to memory storage areas (cortex, basal ganglia and hippocampus)
4. Central nucleus sends info to motor areas and ANS which monitors the necessary bodily reponses

Question 10

What is the role of the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 10

Helps interpret emotions of others and the frontal lobes deal with controlling emotions (knowing which ones are appropriate and how much of it)

Question 11

What is the Papez circuit?

Answer 11

Lesions to these can cause different kinds of emotional impairments:

1. Hippocampus and cingulate cortex
2. Thalamus - Receives sensory info
3. Hypothalamus - Regulates bodily responses