Emotions/Stress/Executive Functioning

Question 1

Why are emotions not irrational?

Answer 1

Must be evolutionary conserved cause animals have them too (darwin)
Phineas gage w/o emotions didn’t fare very well

Question 2

How do we define emotions? Hypotheses

Answer 2

Easily felt but not defined

• directed assessments of value: don’t get emotional for neutral or inanimate things (indirected: moods)
• emotions help us seek pleasure and avoid discomfort (but then why do we seek discomfort?)
• emotions influence our behavior. They make us act (run/freeze) have a consious experience. flexible (many acts for one emotion)
• emotions are adaptive: evolutionarily conserved in mammals
• emotions are an intervening variable between stimulus and response (colored cognition)
• emotions can be consious but aren’t always consciously identified (don’t have to be aware of them for them to exist)
• emotions are a combo of subjective, physiological, expressive and behavioral changes.

Question 3

How do we operationalize emotions?

Answer 3

Physiological: SCR, ECG, autonomic measures
Expressive: EMG (facial electrodes), coding of expressions/body language, sorting images
Subjective: self-report (for the socially acceptable ones like happiness), brain activity (EEG, fMRI), behavior
Behavioral: startle response, decision making, social interactions, vocal tone/content
Cognitive: memory tests, percpetion, attention, decision making
Neural: functional neuroimaging, loss/gain of function studies.

Question 4

What is the ANS?

Answer 4

autonomic nervous system
- sympathetic: fight/flight
high arousal, mobilization for current situation. break down fats/muscles into energy, take in air, restrict blood to core
-parasympathetic
sugars into stored fats/muscle, plan for future, slows down, digestion, prepare and store for the future.

some circumstances use both.

Question 5

What is physiology’s role in emotion? (lange)

Answer 5

Common sense: see something scary, causes feeling of fear, then physiological reaction

James Lange view: see scary, changes in physiology which shapes our subjective experience (feel fear)

• this would mean spinal damage would limit autonomic input/fear response. kind of shown. weak evidence.
• James also thought each emotion would have a discrete signature of feeling, physiology (been shown in inducing shock/anger studies and been shown in self report “imagine you feel happy”) limited evidence
• no single version of anger

Question 6

what is evidence against james lange?

Answer 6

Cannon Bard theory: dual pathway. both at same time.

• studies on spinal chord damage (still have emotions)
• separating viscera from CNS still gives emotions, only changes in osmolarity and whatnot. Viscera is pretty insensitive and changes are slow.

now we think: context shapes our feelings (angry/happy stooge)

Schacter and Singer: arousal must be interpreted. Perception leads to interpretation of stim and context which leads to autonomic arousal and emotion experienced respectively! (evidence: capilano suspension bridge study)

Question 7

What was the cap suspension bridge study?

Answer 7

Ask men questions and more liley to call woman asking attractive after gone on the scary bridge. Interpreting arousal (schater and signer)

Followup studies have lined up well, and if person is already more attractive, you find them even MORE attractive, but if someone is ugly, you find them even more ugly after ridig a rollercoaster.
based on interviewer’s baseline.

Question 8

How do we views physiology’s role in emotion now?

Answer 8

All arrows in all directions (considering medications, endocrine/neural interactions, context, meditation)

Question 9

Are emotions categorical?

Answer 9

Not really.
Categorical theories 
- Ekman's 6 faces (categories) 
-Darwin's dogs (postural opposites) 
Principle of antithesis (opposite emotions cause opposite body shapes

faces make specific shapes/postures when in a specific emotion.
I’m not angry im frustrated

Some universality (but what about teeth baring (smile vs anger for dogs/humans))

Question 10

Are emotions universal across cultures?

Answer 10

The Himba vs USA study context vs no context.
previous studies asked people to put faces in categories or identify the emotion as sad/happy.
context (anchored sorting) : told what the piles are
no context (free sorting): organize however you want.

North americans are clustered together (same emotions clustered)
The Himba aren’tc clustered except for HAPPY. Other face things aren’t universally recognized.

Question 11

What is the universal emotion?

Answer 11

Happiness. Across all cultures, congenital blindness, Duchenne (with the eyes) vs Non Duchenne smiles

Question 12

What is affect?

Answer 12

Brain regions overlap in their emotions
affect is subjective experience of our emotinos.

TEMPERAMENT: from birth, more reactive (more volitile, fussier, reactive, all go hand in hand)
MOOD: longer lasting, non directed. very similar, influence how we percieve the world
EMOTION: intense, shorter lasting influence how we act, change the way we feel the world.

Question 13

What are dimensional theories of emotion?

Answer 13

1. Valence and Arousal (approach avoidance)
   - kids identify their emotions on this scale as they get older better.
   Issues: no room for ambivalence (good and bad) and dones’t explain why we approach sad things sometimes.
   its bipolar, so if one this is happy it can’t be sad too.
2. Unipolar representations: explain ambivalence and conflicting behavioral strategies (something can have costs and benefits discretely.
   - better supported by observations and behaviors.
   - same idea as pain vs analgesia (different neural pathways but same system acted on)

Question 14

Why are we chronically unhappy people?

Answer 14

Opponent process theory: we have an A state and a B state. You have some happiness that’s externally caused, and then you build a tolerance to being happy and body launches a B state back to feeling shitty.
Explains temporal effects of happiness via tolerance.
Hedonic adaptation: best things in life become less interesting over time
Body trying to maintain a baseline. (i got some money, but ill be broke next week)

Question 15

How does behavior guide our actions in anger?

Answer 15

anger is based around fairness/morality. injustice generates angry.
- “monkeys don’t like other monkeys getting grapes”

the ultimatum game: the proposer and responder. Rationally: accept everything.
In reality: the more unfair the offers, the less you accept. WhY? punish the other person in hopes that they won’t do it to other people. benefit to your social ingroup.
- doesn’t happen when facing a computer as much.
-trying to train other people.

Paying a price to benefit others. Lines up with self report and skin conductance response.

Question 16

How does behavior guided by frustration?

Answer 16

• frustration means you’re getting closer to success. Its aversive. but it leads to more behavior. it makes you try harder. Galvinizes behavior. Causes you to work harder. usually beneficial. If you’re beaten by a computer its less frustration and if you’re WAY off then it doesn’t lead to frustration.

The near mess effect in slot machines is really strong. Especially when you’re in control of the machine (computer, not so much drive to keep playing)

near misses feel bad but spur on further play. more intense before the payline than after (cause you feel like opporotunity has passed you by rather than approaching)
30% is most optimal near miss effect.

Question 17

Describe early studies of the brain and emotion.

Answer 17

Decorticate animals with hypothalamuses experience sham rage, but without hypos have no dramatic behaviors.

Kulver bUcy syndrome in monkeys with medial temporal lobectomy which included the amygdala. No longer fear anything, hyperorality, misdirected hypersexuality too.

Papex Circuit (limbic system): amygdala, Hth, mammillary body, hippocampus, fornex, cingulate cortex, septum, olfactory bulb. Connections to nucleus accumbnes and frontal cortex. Papez studied rabid dogs and structures that drive aggression. Not an actual ssytem.
Cingulate cortex isn’t cortex, its not 6 layered system like rest of it.
Emotions happen at multiple levels, experience, and contextualizing it higher up.
Basal ganglia is the junction for emotional and motor loops (emotions guide whats going on in the basal ganglia)

Emotional priming (showing kitten or werewolf) makes you more likely to rate a face as more positive/negative. Two track mind. Fearful stim or short non consious stim that shapes your responses. Value system thats at non concious (sub cortical) level.

Question 18

What was LeDoux’s fear experiments? What was his circuitry stuff?

Answer 18

Are there emotions in rats?
Rats show freezing in response to a tone, but rats with amygdala lesion it impairs their fear based learning. (make stimulus more complicated)

2 roads
Low Road: auditory/visual thing to thalamus to amygdala. Fast and you form a pairing for fear. Valuable when you need to run
High road: stimulus goes to thalamus then to sensory cortexes then to prefrontal then to amyg and then to the fear response. Takes longer but more processing (discriminate between two beeping sounds)

The junction is the lateral amygdala. I fyou lesion it, you can’t learn to be afraid of certain things, but once you’ve learned, maybe you only need the central nuclues.

Question 19

Describe the differences in basal ganglia, amygdala, insula and anterior cingulate cortex.

Answer 19

none of these are direct “centeres” for anything. No 1:1 regions. lots of overlap with non emotional functioning. Different areas for different aspects of the same emotions.
Orbitofrontal cortex (ventromedial PFC has also been shown in many things)
Basal ganglia: habit, motor control, motivated behavior
AMyg: fear
Insula: disgust and anger, interoception, gustation
ACC: pan anguish and frustration, decision making, decision conflict, error monitering.

Question 20

Describe how the amygdala is important for fear.

Answer 20

Activation in responce to fearful faces even if they’re masked (bigger eyes) Happiness you can learn slowly, but fear you need to learn fast.
Cant conciously report what they say but respond more to fearful eyes.

If you stimulate amyg: increased anxiety, feeling on edge, increased vigilance and attention.

Enhanced activity/sensitivity in people with PTSD. Overactive in response to memory events.

patient SM: woman with no fear. Genetic calcification of the amygdala, 3-4 years old, super happy, no sense of fear or personal space but bad at identifying fearful/surprise faces. also bad at judging character and dangerous situations (been mugged and abusive bfs)
no physiological or self report experience of fear.
fear is valuable in keeping you SAFE.
only fearful time was when exposed to c02, so the amy isn’t strictly necessary to experience fear. either biologically disposed to fear c02 or learned at an early age before calcification.

Lat amyg responsible for learning but not expressing fear. Central amgy important for expression of fear.

amgy is also critical for valuation of a stimulus i fyou lesion it (baclofen and mucimol) it decreases efforful cost benefit decision making. Equal umbers go to + and - things. critical role in updating value of a stimulus or sensory specific satiety.

Question 21

How does the basal ganglia have anything to do with any of this?

Answer 21

Disgust anger and frustration.
patient NK: Damage to this and insula results in change in types of emotions and trouble expressing disgust and recognizing it whens omeone else is expressing.

Huntington’s disease: impaired disgust recognition and emotional recognition.

Question 22

Whats the insula doing?

Answer 22

In the ultimatum and slot amchine both see ACC and insula activity. Insula is related to subjective experience of beign frustrated. more frustrated more bold response.
Insula related to disgust and experience of taste. gustation.

Question 23

whats the ACC doing

Answer 23

Tracks willingness to keep playing in ultimatum and slot machine game.
Tracks frustration, social pain (rejection/isolation) and physical pain.
ANGUISH

Question 24

What is the relationship between aggression and the brain.

Answer 24

Predatory aggression: when hunting to kill. want to be quiet. autonomic less sympathic NS response.

• lateral hypothalamus
• medial forebrain bundle and ventral tegmental area. Motivaitonal roles linked to hunger and eating.

Affective aggression: emotional expression of anger, dont actually wanna kill. More of a show. High sympathetic response. lots of stereotyped movement and vocalizations.

• medial hypothalamus
• periaquiductal grey, in prey animals emotional response.

Testosterone: related, but unlear role in humans. full castration can change but no other correlation

Bilaterl amydalectomy reduces agression in virually all animals. AND in humans with disorders of agression.

Question 25

What are low serotonin animals like?

Answer 25

Low serotonin is related to high agression in

1. 5-7 DHT lesion rodents (rude animals)
2. Drugs that block serotonin synethsis
3. Alpha monkeys with more aggresion have low serotonin
4. Serotonin receptor knockout mice
5. Atkins diet, deprived of tryptophan. Get agressive on tasks.

Serotonogic projections to PFC and HTh and other limbic structures.
R is weak

Question 26

Describe STRESS.

Answer 26

can be significant to life events but also daily.
- tell people how to cope rather than remove themselves from stress.
Active or passive
Short term or long term
Stress immunization: early exposure to controllable stress vs uncontrollable stress sets you up to be more emphasized in your life.

Sympathetic response from adrenal medulla (epi and no epie) - heart rate and slow digestion constrict blood to core

HPA axis to release from adrenal cortex cortisol in humans. Effects are diffuse. mobilize resources, glucose and proteins broken down.

Question 27

What are the degrees of stress responses

Answer 27

If you feel less stressed, your physiological responses are actually blunted. you aren’t managing it better.
Measured from people who jumped out of airplanes. the more they do it, it supresses cortisol release, re-increases testosterone release. as the jumps continue, the stress response goes down (initial stress response is incrase cortisol, decrease testosterone, increase noepi, epi, GH. more accustomed, less response.

Increased epinephrine riding the bus and before midterm/during midterm season. Stress is adaptive. If you feel controllability over the exams, stress is blunted.

Question 28

Is stress beneficial?

Answer 28

acute stress has some drawbacks but mostly beneficial.
You don’t get sick while acutely stressed.
Benefits: implicit memory, simple tasks, habitual and well rehearsed tasks become better.
- habits are potentiated. What you’re good at you become better at. If you’re habitual with school material you’ll do better. Good at implicit skills (biking, playing piano)
Virtual morris water maze, did better under stress.

Costs: less cognitive flexibility, working memory, executive functioning. PFC is shutting down. When youre under a lot of pressure, you’ll have an outburst.

Question 29

Describe the PFC and executive functions.

Answer 29

Dorsal: less emotionally tinged, more for working memory, reality

Ventral: more social and emotional domain. regulating emotions, evaluation of options A and B. valuation.

Mnany things. To initiate a behavior you need the things below it (subcortical, brainstem, spinal circuits)

Question 30

Why is chronic stress so bad?

Answer 30

Impairs immune functioning
Predicts anxiety and depression

Structures suceptible to insult leave first (hippo is metabolically demanding: goes both ways, benefits most from exercise, damaged most by stress)
Reduces hippocampal branching/synapses (not loss of neurons)
Increases PFC catecholamiens (NE and DA) which decreases PFC function after too much BECAUSE we have no DAT (DA cleanup transporter) in the PFC. WE do have NET. SO DA release in PFC has a prolonged response ( minutes ).
PFC hypofunctional.

In the short term this is good: don’t care about finer details of a bear
In long term this reduces dendritic spines in PFC and reduces performance of pFC tasks and behavioral tasks related to hippocampal functioning too. not thinking for the future (planning ahead feels like a terrible task)
-Working memory
- cognitive flexibility
- impaired decision making
- people are impulsive (sooner rewards and risker to avoid loses and less risky if trying to get gains. Yerkes dodson curve.

Question 31

What are behavioral observations? Where is activated when PFC shuts down?

Answer 31

Stress impairs working memory, (attention) planning but improves habitual behavior.
- when PFC is shut down, subcortical structures take over, basal ganglia and hypothalamus and amygdala play a larger role. Not thtinking about other thinks, just how to get away.

Long term: compromised, not thinking for the future.

Question 32

How do noadrenaline and dopamine change with the yerkes dodson curve?

Answer 32

Varying levels of stress, train animals to view a cue and measure their fixation (if they do it right = grape juice).

noepi: not enough, no activation, optimal, more activation for preffered direction, , exessive, no activity .
dopamine: activiy for both when not enough dopamine, optimal dopamine, activity for preffered direction, and excessive dop, no activity for either.

Showing that PFC becomes slienced in both directions for excessive activity.

Question 33

Explain bilateral vmPFC (OFC) damage

Answer 33

Executive dysfunction.
- almost always bilateral. almost never unilateral and not very bad when it is.
- issues with prioritizaiton, but still intelligent.
emotional dysregulation
repeat mistakes knowing that its wrong
loss of “Get up and go”
trouble holding a job
issues thinking ahead
Rigidity in thoughts actions, sequencing, problems with attention and concentration.

Question 34

Describe the chronic stress of poverty

Answer 34

people are NOT poor cause theyre bad decision makers. its the other way around.
Poverty reduces IQ by 13 points.
Exposure to irregular rewards guides poeple with high self control to be more impulsive. (marshmellow like task things)
Poverty effects executive functions and cost/benefit decision making.
Poverty disporportionately affects children and their brains.

POVERTY IS CHRONIC EXPOSURE TO UNCONTROLLABLE STRESS: has bad effect on the brain.
Poverty causes stress which leads to short sighted and risk aversive decision making, limiting attention and favoring habitual behaviors at the expense of goal directed ones.

Question 35

concluding thoughts on emotions and stressors?

Answer 35

things are complex, linked to value and motivation. but what even are emotions??
avoid stress as much as possible, but an undergrad degree reduces chronic stress, wages are as much as 48% higher.