Emotions Flashcards
Emotions are..
dispositions towards behaviours aimed at ecologically significant events
3 aspects of emotions
behaviour, physiology, feeling
functions of emotions
- fight or flight response helpen
- social behaviour: je kan zien wat anderen denken/voelen
- assessment of the consequences of decisions
two types of emotions theory
- basic emotions: each emotion is seen as one, independent emotion. same across cultures, evolutionary old, shared with other species, with specific physiological processes and facial expressions.
- complex emotions: learned, shaped by environment, evolutionary new, mainly in humans, combinations of the basic emotions. (bv pride).
experiment Paralympics facial expressions
emotions are innate.
Joyful or sad smiles expressed after a competition are the same for blind and sighted athletes, says a new study, showing that certain facial expressions are innate and managed differently depending on the social situation.
Two dimensions of emotions theory
arousal (physiological/subjective intensity of the emotion) and valence (how pleasant or unpleasant the emotion is)
how do emotionally relevant stimuli get processed
- thalamus
- amygdala -> assesses the emotional value of the stimulus
- hypothalamus
- activation of sympathetic part of the autonomous nervous system
- adrenal glands: norepinephrine/adrenaline (activates the viscera)
- hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal acitvation
- cortical processing (experiencing a feeling)
waar reageert de amygdala op
- emotional stimuli
- neutral stimuli that predict motivational stimuli after conditioning
Klüver-Bucy syndrome
damage to both amygdalae -> decreases in fear, aggression. all congenital and acquired fear responses are lost
how do you measure activation of the sympathetic nervous system
skin conduction response increases (hands and feet sweat glands), startle response (stoppen met behaviour, eyeblink reflex)
goal of the HPA axis activation
- keep the sympathetic nervous system going
- cortisol production => stress response
HPA axis
hypothalamus
releasing factor
anterior pituitary
ACTH
adrenal cortex
cortisol
what happens if the stressful stimulus is gone
- deactivated HPA axis
- cortisol levels go down
- parasympathetic part of autonomous nervous system is restored
what happens during chronic stress
the HPA axis is constantly activated
right-hemisphere hypothesis
right hemisphere neemt meeste processing van emotions op zich.
- damage R helft -> difficulty in perceiving emotions and producing facial expressions
- R helft beter in recognition of vocal and facial affect
- L helft gezicht meer expressief
valence hypothesis
- R helft negatieve emotions (voor survival en reaction) => R prefrontal cortex more activity in shy persons
- L helft positieve emotions (voor sociaal en liefde) => depressed individuals minder left prefrontal activity
- children with L dominance: meer met toys spelen en andere kids
- children with R dominance: cry more when separated from parents
- R dominant monkeys produced more cortisol
twee theorieen over emotional processing
right-hemisphere hypothesis, valence hypothesis
the reaction to an emotional stimuli is regulated by the amygdala, but the feeling is not
oke
action-readiness is mediated by…
sympathetic nervous system & HPA axis
the feeling aspect of emotions is processed by…
the prefrontal cortex
early neurobiological models steps of emotions
evaluation of sensory input
conscious experience of a feeling
behavioural and physiological expression
James Lange emotion theory
bodily reaction => conscious experience of a feeling
physicial reaction is needed for feeling an emotion
kritiek James Lange
- if emotions are due to bodily reactions, each emotion should be caused by a different bodily reaction
- injectie met adrenal hormones zorgt niet echt voor boosheid, maar alleen voor de bodily response zonder het gevoel
- soms misinterpreteren mensen het gevoel dat ze hebben (vrouw op brug)
Cannon-Bard diencephalon theory
animals without a diencephalon (hypothalamus and thalamus) show no emotional behaviour
(stimulation of hypothalamus in cats: juist heel veel emotions, sham rage)
component process theories
emotions are fluid!
appraisal is important -> what does the feeling mean to me?
the meaning is processed consciously and unconsciously.
but hard to study scientifically
fear classical conditioning
rats hear tone (CS) and get startle response (CR).
produce the CR to the CS (cued fear) and the cage (contextual fear)
al activity in de amygdala 15 ms na presentation of CS
LTP tussen thalamus en amygdala
2 routes for conditioned fear learning
fast: thalamus - amygdala
slow: neocortex - amygdala
amygdalae have a lot of connections
oke
damage to amygdala in humans
reduced SCR and starte reflex, even when they know about the CS-US relationship
wat gebeurt er in PTSS
fear extinction werkt niet goed, even when stimulus is no longer threathening there is a fear response
door welke brain area komt fear extinction
ventral medial prefrontal cortex vmPFC
wat doet de vmPFC
- suppressed de amygdala -> daardoor fear extinction
- evaluates emotions in decision making: maakt een soort mentale simulatie van wat er in elk geval zou kunnen gebeuren, en dan een beslissing maken op basis daarvan. zorg ook voor de fysieke reactie er bij.
rats with damage to vmPFC
fear extinction takes a lot longer, even though they can still learn
hoe maakt vmpfc de fysieke reactie
door de amygdala weer te activeren
- direct: door visceral reactions in the body
- indirect: door activation of the insula and somatosensory cortex
insula functions
- monitor physiological state of the body = interoception
- store the visceral and skeletomotor representations of emotional states
activity in the anterior insula shows…
awareness of body responses, integration with executive systems
posterior insula is related to
information about the body
mid insula
integration with other information (e.g. visual) and connection to amygdala/hypothalamus
the vmPFC can start simulations…
of bodily responses via the insula
iowa gambling task
4 decks: A and B are large wins but also large losses (more losses -> niet goed). C and D are small wins en small losses (more wins -> goed).
during the first trials: you feel emotional consequences of losses and wins
during later trials: vmPFC simulates the emotional results. -> gives a sense of good and bad options.
iowa gambling task which participants do not perform well?
patients with vmPFC damage -> do not make good decisions.
they also do not have a skin conduction response during the task -> no activation of sympathetic nervous system
fearful white eyes that were masked (no active perception of them)
still activated the amygdalae.
faces and houses experiment
participants were shown faces and houses
either one presented to another eye -> binocular rivalry
therefore, you consciously only see one picture.
even the people that saw houses, had increased amygdala response for fearful faces
normal attentional blink vs emotional word
normal words: when represented as rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) -> a response to a word at T1 prevents T2 from being perceived.
emotional words: fearful words are perceived more then neutral words -> attentional blink decreases. (this effect dissapears for people with amygdala damage)
how does the amygdala affect perception
amygdala projects to the entire visual system, V1.
- stop what you are doing and attent to danger: amygdala activates sympathetic nervous system (even patients with left visual neglect can detect danger here)
- amygdala stimulates basal forebrain to spread acetylcholine -> more attention
- activates ACC and basal ganglia -> frontoparietal attentional system
2 ways of emotion regulation
- situation selection (dont fly if you are scared)
- cognitive reappraisal (give a different meaning to an emotional event)
