Emotions, Aggression, & Stress

Question 1

Define Emotion.

Answer 1

Emotion: A subjective mental state that is usually accompanied by distinctive cognition, behaviours, physiological changes

Question 2

What is the cause of the physiological sensations we associate with emotion?

Answer 2

Autonomic Nervous system, both the parasympathetic (relax and restore) and sympathetic (fight or flight) divisions.

Question 3

What is the Folk Psychology theory of Emotion?

Answer 3

Folk Psychology: feelings trigger autonomic reactions; the emotions cause the body to react.

There is a stimulus –> we interpret the stimulus –> we experience an emotion –> we have a physiological reaction.

We watch Marley and Me –> we think it is sad –> we feel sad –> our nose runs, our eyes water, we feel a cathartic reaction to crying etc.

Question 4

What is the James-Lange Theory of emotion?

Answer 4

James-Lange: our autonomic reactions trigger our feelings; our bodily response evokes a particular emotional experience.

There is a stimulus –> we interpret the stimulus –> we have a specific pattern of autonomic arousal –> we experience an emotion

Someone starts insulting you –> we think that is rude and uncalled for –> our heart rate goes up, our muscles tense –> we feel angry.

Question 5

What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion?

Answer 5

Cannon-Bard: we simultaneously experience emotions and autonomic reactions; the brain interprets the stimulus and decides which reaction is appropriate.

                                                     --> Autonomic Reaction Stimulus --> We interpret the stimulus 
                                                     --> Emotion experience

We spill coffee on ourselves –> we notice we spilled coffee on ourselves in front of everyone –> our cheeks go red, our heart rate increases AND AT THE SAME TIME –> We feel embarrassed.

Question 6

What is the Schachter + Singer Theory of Emotion

Answer 6

Schachter-Singer: We use emotional labels to describe feelings of physiological arousal. The emotion we feel depends on our cognitive systems that assess the context. Autonomic responses can intensify our experiences but our cognitive analysis affects which emotion we experience.

Stimulus –> Perception –> stimulus (general autonomic arousal) Combined with context –> Particular emotion experienced (–> which feeds back to affect our perception)

Strange noise outside –> notice the strange noises –> heart rate goes up, we feel jumpy, we perspire and feel tense PLUS Context (we are in a strange house at night with our friend, our friend is looking nervous) –> we feel afraid –> this feeling feeds back to our perception of the noise we hear which we now interpret as a “scary noise outside”.

Question 7

What is the evolutionary perspective on emotions?

Answer 7

Emotions are evolved preprogramming that help us deal quickly and effectively with a wide variety of situations. E.g. we feel fear of small fast moving animals (like mice, snakes, spiders etc) to help us avoid potentially toxic encounters (e.g. spider/snake bites). We feel disgust about bodily fluids to help us avoid contacting the germs they might be carrying.

Question 8

What are Plutchick’s universal basic emotions and how are they organized?

Answer 8

There are eight and they are organized into pairs of opposites

• Joy/Sadness
• Anger/Fear
• Affection/Disgust
• Expectation/Surprise

The emotions can vary in intensity which is part of what gives our emotional experience nuance.

Question 9

What are the seemingly universal emotional facial expressions? What are the controversies here?

Answer 9

There are 8:
Joy, Anger, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Surprise, Contempt, and Embarrassment.

This is different from Plutchik’s proposed eight (Contempt and Embarrassment instead of Affection and Expectation).

There is less evidence that surprise and disgust are actually universal expressions, it seems that they may be more culturally influenced than the others BUT

• methodological issues with this area of research makes it hard to know for sure about their universality as the expressions shown are often actors which means that the expression may not be genuine or may be exaggerated

Question 10

What is the systematic process that takes place to turn emotion into facial expression?

Answer 10

There is a trigger –> we have universal facial expression motor control for each emotion –> individual cultural norms act on the universal programing to adjust it based on our own cultural expectations –> our facial expression is produced.

Question 11

What physiological processes control facial expression?

Answer 11

Muscles, cranial nerves, and CNS pathways control facial expression.

• Superficial facial muscles attach to points on the facial skin and control more expression based facial movement (lip position, eye and nose movement, e.g. widening eyes or wrinkling nose)
• Deep facial muscles attach to skeletal structures and control larger movements (like chewing)
• The Facial Nerve innervates the superficial facial muscles
• The trigeminal nerve innervates the deep facial muscles.

Question 12

What is Decorticate rage and Kluver-Bucy syndrome and what do they tell us about the brain and emotions?

Answer 12

Decorticate rage (AKA sham rage) is sudden intense bouts of undirected rage in dogs who have had their cortex removed. This suggests that the cortex is involved in inhibiting rage or anger.

Kluver-Bucy syndrome: is when there is bilateral amygdala damage which results in emotional changes similar to apathy, they is a lack of fear and anxiety. This suggest that the amygdala is significant in producing emotions like fear.

Question 13

What does research on self stimulation tell us about emotions.

Answer 13

Self stimulation research found that people/animals would work to provide electrical stimulation to a particular region of the brain because the experience is rewarding. This gives indications to what regions may be involved in pleasurable feelings

Regions involved include: the medial forebrain bundle (an axon tract that ascends from the midbrain through the hypothalamus. Some of these axons end in the nucleus accumbens of the forebrain’s reward circuit.

Question 14

What does Fear conditioning research tell us about emotion?

Answer 14

Fear condition is when a neutral stimulus is paired with an aversive stimulus until the neutral stimulus also elicits a fear response. Fear conditioning research demonstrated that the amygdala is key in the mediation of fear.

Question 15

What the major structures of the limbic system?

Answer 15

Cingulate cortex
Anterior Thalamus 
Mammillothalamic tract
Fornix
Basal Forebrain Nuclei
Mammillary body
Olfactory Bulb.

Question 16

What is the pathway of the low and high road?

Answer 16

The low road: Stimuli enters through the sensory organs and travels to the thalamus. Thalamus sends information straight to the amygdala. This produces a more immediate reaction but bypasses conscious processing.

The high road: stimuli enters through the sensory organs and travels to the thalamus. The thalamus sends the information to the sensory cortex and hippocampus (higher cognitive areas) where it is processed before going to the amygdala.

An example of these roads in action: Watching a scary movie and then jumping when the monster jumps out at the camera (Low road processing, an immediate reaction without conscious processing, helps keep us safe from a perceived threat.). We then laugh and settle back onto the couch to keep watching the movie (High road processing, our conscious processing has recognized that the perceived threat is not real and there is no need for further alarm reactions.

Question 17

Is the amygdala involved in the processing of all perceived threats?

Answer 17

No, internal threats (like lack of oxygen) are not processed by the amygdala. E.g. the panicked behaviour we exhibit when choking is not induced by the amygdala.

Question 18

What is the neural activity of someone in love?

Answer 18

Love shows increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and in the Insula.

Loves shows decreased activity in the orbitofrontal region of the prefrontal cortex, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the amygdala.

Question 19

What is the pattern of neural activity for different emotions?

Answer 19

There is overlap in the areas involved in different emotions. There is no one centre for each emotion (i.e. no “happy centre” or “angry centre”. Instead emotions evoke different patterns of activity across a network of regions that are implicated in emotion. There is overlap in these patterns between emotions.

Question 20

Define Aggression. What is intermale aggression and why do we focus on it instead of other forms of aggression in brain and behaviour?

Answer 20

Aggression: behaviour that is intended to cause pain or harm to others.

Intermale aggression: aggression between males of the same species.

We study intermale aggression over other forms of aggression in brain and behaviour because it is the easiest and most obvious to observe. Intermale aggression is very common across species and the type of aggression used is often physical and therefore easier to track and observe.

Question 21

What is the general relationship between Testosterone and Aggression? Is it the same for humans as it is other animals?

Answer 21

It appears that testosterone increases aggression in many species. Evidence of this:
- Intermale aggression rises at sexual maturity
- In seasonal breeding, intermale aggression increases during breeding season when testosterone levels are highest.
- Castrating males leads to reduced aggressive behaviour and adding testosterone increases aggression in castrated animals (but the aggression only lasts as long as the testosterone)
There may be confounding variables in this relationship:
- Experience: experience affects testosterone. Animals that lose aggressive encounters show reduced testosterone levels which calls to question the direction of the relationship
- Dominance: There are different forms of aggression; proactive aggression (defending status) or reactive aggression (defensive behaviour) could have different affects on testosterone/different relationships.

Question 22

What neurotransmitters are related to aggression? What are their effects?

Answer 22

Serotonin: inhibits aggression; low levels of serotonin are correlated with higher levels of aggression

GABA: inhibits aggression; GABA slows down the nervous system

Dopamine: inhibits aggression; low levels of dopamine are associated with higher levels of aggression

Question 23

What is the basic neural pathway of aggression?

Answer 23

The Medial amygdala integrates olfactory information (e.g. info about whether an animal is male or female) and then connects to the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH). This controls the triggering of an aggressive response.

Question 24

What are characteristics (both personality and neural) of a psychopath?

Answer 24

Psychopath: individuals who routinely engage in deception, violence, or other anti-social behaviour and have little capacity for empathy or remorse.

They are often intelligent people with superficial charm, poor impulse control, and a grandiose sense of self-worth. In experimental settings, they show blunted responses aversive cues and fear conditioning.

They often have reduced size and activity in the prefrontal cortex (explains poor impulse control).

Question 25

What is stress?

Answer 25

A multidimensional concept that includes stress stimuli, stress processing, and stress response. In basic terms, stress can be understood as anything that upsets the homeostatic balance.

Question 26

What is the first stage of the stress response?

Answer 26

The Alarm Reaction:

The hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system through the anterior pituitary. The adrenal medulla (centre of the adrenal gland) releases epinephrine and norepinephrine. This triggers a rapid stress response.

The hypothalamus connects to the anterior pituitary which also triggers the adrenal cortex (outer layer) to release corticosteroid hormones (adrenal steroid hormones) like cortisol.

All these hormones ready the body for action (e.g. increasing heart rate, increasing respiration, diverting energy flow from the immune and digestive system etc.)

Question 27

What are the second and third stages of the stress response?

Answer 27

The second stage: adaption. The body goes back to normal levels after a single stressor; glucose, adrenaline, and cortisol may stay high.

The Third Stage: exhaustion. A reaction to prolonged or frequently repeated stress that leads to increased risk of disease (due to the sympathetic suppression of the immune system). Testosterone levels also drop under prolonged stress.

Question 28

What is stress immunization?

Answer 28

Stress immunization is the idea that being exposed to a little stress at a young age makes you better at handling stress as an adult. Based on research with rats where rat pups that were handled as infants were less stressed about being handled as adults.

The relationship is not that simple however. nurturing plays a key role. Rat pups that experienced stress AND were nurtured and shown maternal attention (grooming) after the stress event handled stress better as adults. Rat pups that did not receive maternal attention responded worse to stress than rats who had not been exposed at all.

Question 29

What have different fields of study found about the relationship between stress/emotion and the immune system?

Answer 29

Psychosomatic medicine: looks at the role that psychological factors like stress and emotion play on disease.

Health Psychology: looks at the role our psychology plays on our health

Psychoneuroimmunology: looks that the relationship between the immune system and other organs in combination with the hormones and nervous system.

Overall: Stress and negative emotions negatively impact the immune system, increase our risk of getting sick, and decrease our ability to heal.

Question 30

Why does stress negatively impact our immune system?

Answer 30

Adrenal steroid hormones suppress the immune system. Which is helpful in the short term because it diverts the energy to more immediate survival needs. In the long term it is problematic because it leaves us vulnerable to illness, disease, and sustained injury. Animals under prolonged stress die. Humans (and baboons) are capable of experiencing stress for a long time (still has negative immune impacts but death is not an immediate consequence)