Emotions and Memory Flashcards
What are the three manifestations of emotional experiences?
ANS (physiological, visceral), behaviors (facial expressions), subjective feelings (love, fear, hate, etc) or drives/desire basic to survival
What are the areas of the brain associated with emotional responsivity and expression?
prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, insula, amygdala, (less involved regions: hippocampus, somatosensory cortex & temporal association cortices)
What is cognitive appraisal?
exteroceptive evaluation of events and objects + interoceptive perception of physiological condition of body
What are bodily symptoms?
physiological component of emotional experiences mediated mostly by ANS
What are action tendencies?
motivational component for preparation & direction of motor responses
What are the two components of expression?
facial & vocal; accompany an emotional state to communicate reaction & intention of action
What are feelings? What are they based on?
subjective experience of emotional state once it has occurred; based on active interpretations of changes in physiological conditions of the body
What is the part of the insula involved in mapping internal body states & representing emotional arousal & feelings?
The viscerosensory cortex
What does being emotionally aware incorporate/involve?
smell, taste, visceral, internal state of body, sensory inputs related to homeostasis & well being
What is the anterior part of the viscerosensory cortex for? The posterior part?
anterior= perceiving affective aspect of pain and temperature posterior= somatosensory input
What does the viscerosensory cortex do with info about bodily states?
integrates bodily states into higher-order cognitive & emotional processes= experience of emotions; uses connections w/PFC, ACC & amygdala
What is the posterior insula for?
interoceptive & exteroceptive info regarding pain, temperature, touch, itch, taste, visceral changes & emotional touch
What is the anterior insula for?
info from posterior integrated with homeostasis, motivation, emotional & cognitive info from ACC, PFC, amygdala & interoceptive pathways via solitary nucleus; perception of subjective interoceptive states
What is the anterior insula for in relation to homeostasis specifically?
novel or unexpected stimuli; difficult perceptual tasks & maintaining homeostasis; require a change in adaptive behavior via anticipation
Map of internal states forms basis for ________ physiological reactions (______) to emotional stimuli with respect to self (______)
predicting; anticipation; subjective feeling
What two parts of the brain work together to maintain homeostasis in relation to our emotions and actions? What does each do?
cingulate (ACC) & insula; insula= limbic sensory cortex; ACC= processes motivations & actions generated by homeostatic emotions
Hyperactivity of the insula leads to what?
different anxiety disorders & fear conditioning
What part of the brain is involved in empathy?
anterior insula
What does observing an emotionally laden action do to us?
generates viscero-motor outcomes which gives us a first person experience of the observed actions
Where is the amygdala located?
just anterior to the hippocampus w/in the temporal lobe
What is the amygdala involved in?
cognitive-emotion interactions & consolidates them into memory; involved in perception & attention to emotional valency & intensity or personal & interpersonal emotions
What projections of what nucleus contribute to affective attention?
ascending & descending projects of the central nucleus
What are the ascending projections influenced by? What part of the brain mediates this action?
amygdala influences info processing & memory consolidation throughout cortex; mediated via basal forebrain
What are the efferent projections good for?
important role in shaping visual perception & awareness b/c project to multiple parts of visual cortex
Descending projects come from what structure of the brain? This leads to what?
hippocampus & other brain stem sites
leads to mobilization of bodily resources
What part of the brain mediates expression of innate & learned fear + anxiety?
the amygdala (central nucleus)
Amygdala regulates ______ and _______ functions through various ______
visceral, behavioral, brain stem nuclei
What are some visceral responses which can be mediated by the amygdala?
increased HR, decreased salivation, stomach ulcers, changes in respiration, vigilance, urination, defecation, startle responses, freezing
What are mental states?
action dispositions
What are actions?
cognitive, behavioral, physiological or behavioral responses
The amygdala participates in mental states by?
being readily engaged when there is ambiguity, when gathering more info is necessary & when generating cortical arousal
Does the amygdala respond more or less to angry faces? More or less to surprised faces?
Less to angry faces but more to fearful/surprised b/c they are ambiguous (don’t know what has caused this look) & b/c requires attention & vigilance
Vigilance is maintained by amygdala activation of what process?
activation of basal forebrain nuclei & acetyl choline to activate the (sensory) cortex; also necessary to filter out extraneous info
Amygdala mediates __________ of _________ fear
acquisition, conditioned
Amygdala consolidates cognitive levels of emotional memory directly and indirectly where?
into the mPFC & indirectly to wide areas of the cortex
Where does the amygdala initially receive input from? What does it use this info to evaluate?
mPFC, cingulate, insula, hippocampus, sensory association & limbic cortices to evaluate social & emotional significance of sensory info
Where is sensory info that the amygdala receives projected back to?
mPFC & hipposcampus & consolidated as emotional memory
What does the hippocampus do with emotional memory & how does it do this?
encodes & consolidates it as long term memory over wide areas of cortex via basal forebrain cholinergic neurmodulatory system
What does the amygdala activate during recollection of emotional memory?
hypothalamus & brainstem (areas that express autonomic & behavioral aspects of learned emotional responses)
In terms of fear what are the amygdala & mPFC for? The hippocampus?
together amygdala & mPFC retain association of sight of feared objected; mPFC regulates amygdala’s expression of emotional responses; hippocampus adds context
How does the brain process cues and contexts?
separate, parallel systems for each
What is the context processing system essential for?
understanding meaning of cues in context
What does the cue processing system include?
amygdala, sensory cortices, posterior insula, parietal & temporal association areas
What does the context processing system involve?
ventromedial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, anterior insula & anterior cingulate cortex
Is amygdalar emotional memory retrieval conscious or unconscious?
unconscious; mediate emotional conditioning of the ANS in recognition of strong facial expressions
Does a neutral face produce ANS response? How about angry face paired with sound?
neutral face= no ANS response
angry+sound= conditioned ANS response
What happens if you see an angry face followed by a neutral face in 15 msec?
no perception of angry face BUT does elicit ANS response!
Where are emotional events processed?
Where are they transmitted to and to turn it into what kind of memory?
in sensory systems & then transmitted to medial temporal lobe for declarative memory formation about situation & to amygdala for emotional memory formation
What happens when the sensory system processes a memory cue vs when the amygdala retrieves it?
memory cue processed by sensory system= retrieval of conscious memory in medial temporal lobe
when retrieved in amygdala= expression of emotional responses
When emotionally aroused are we having emotional memories or memories about emotions?
memories about emotions!
How does extinction of condition fear happen?
vmPFC inhibition of the amygdala
With extinction of conditioned fear is it erased or overriden?
overridden! emotion inhibited not forgotten
During stress what does the amygdala activate? What does this produce?
stress pathways in hypothalamus & reticular formation; produces high levels of NE & DA neuromodulation of cortex & amygdala
Does high NE & DA (in response to stress) inhibit/impair or activate/enhance PFC functions? What does this cause? What can this lead to?
INHIBITS or IMPAIRS= strengthens fear conditioning mediated by amygdala & can lead to anxiety
Attention regulation switches from ________ to _______ so that the stimulus captures our attention
top-down control by PFC to bottom-up control by sensory cortices
During stress does the amygdala act habitually or flexibly in relation to motor response?
habitually & shifts attention based on context; brain response pattern switches to rapid emotional responses
What neurotransmitter enhances reactivity & operating characteristics of amygdala? By what receptors?
NE! via adrenergic receptors
What does a vmPFC lesion cause?
leads to inability to plan ahead or recognize consequence of actions & inhibits emotional tendencies from the amygdala (think Phineas Gage)
What does an anygdala lesion cause?
inability to link past experiences to stimuli that have important behavioral consequences; inability to recognize facial expressions of strong emotions (fear esp.); complacency w/ decrease in anxiety & fear; less aggression; visual, auditory or tactile agnosia (can’t recognize objects); inappropriate sexual behavior
What does the amygdala have to do with the idea of ‘personal space’
amygdala controls interpretation & responses to social situations & recognition of possible threats; governs preference for personal space & becomes more active when people are too close
What is an SM patient?
What other neurocognitive disease has a symptom of standing ‘too close for comfort?’
have rare bilateral calcification; prefer to stand closer; can’t recognize fear in peoples’ faces;
autistics also interact at very close distances
What causes anxiety?
Greater anticipatory reactivity in insula & amygdala (insula of more importance)
What does the insula process?
fearful faces, perceptual awareness of threat, aversive interoceptive processing
Anticipation is thought to be mediated by what three parts of the brain?
insula, medial prefrontal cortex & anterior cingulate cortex
People prone to anxiety show an _______ insular response to _______ in response to neutral stimulus when paired w/aversive stimulus
enhanced; interoceptive prediction signal
