Exam 4: Emotions Flashcards
a subjective mental state usually accompanied by distinctive behaviors and involuntary physiological changes
emotion
emotional states often activate the autonomic nervous system in what 2 ways?
sympathetic nervous system
parasympathetic nervous system
sympathetic nervous system
- and what emotions
“fight or fight” activates body for action
ex: anger, fear, excitement, super happy
parasympathetic nervous system
- and what emotions
prepares body to relax and recuperate
ex: love, relief, peaceful feeling
What does the cingulate cortex provide for the autonomic nervous system?
motor control
- expression of emotional state through gestures, posture, basic movements - body language
example of cingulate cortex effects on autonomic nervous system?
you get so angry that you are shaking your fists
What is the anterior cingulate responsible for?
conflict processing
ex: you have been in a fight with someone and they say “I’m fine” but they say it in an angry tone
(conflict between feeling something but displaying a diff emotion)
- so happy you could cry (conflicting)
- reciprocal projections with PFC to monitor choices and outcomes
where does the anterior cingulate cortex project to?
PFC
what are facial expressions mediated by?
- muscles, cranial nerves, and CNS pathways
2 categories of facial muscles
superficial facial muscles - attach to facial skin
deep facial muscles - attach to skeletal structures in head
facial muscles are innervated by…
the facial nerve (CN 7) and the trigeminal nerve (CN 5)
cranial nerve 7
facial nerve
- motor: making facial expressions
- sensory: taste
cranial nerve 5
trigeminal nerve
- making a surprise face - sensory
- motor: moving jaw muscles to smile
real emotional expressions are…
involuntary
evidence that real emotional expressions are involuntary
Duchenne’s muscle
Duchenne’s muscle
false smile: contraction of mouth muscle
real smile: contraction of muscles near the eye
voluntary emotional expressions require…
M1 - located in precentral gyrus
- smile for camera
volitional facial paralysis
- damage to voluntary emotional expression
- told to smile but cannot however if involuntary like at a funny joke they can still smile
spontaneous (involuntary) emotional expressions require what subcortical structures?
limbic system: amygdala and hypothalamus
emotional facial paresis
- damage to limbic system
- can get voluntary response however when something is actually funny they cannot smile
facial feedback hypothesis
sensory feedback can affect our mood
ex: forcing a smile can make you feel happier
what medical conditions can impair facial expression?
parkinson’s, Moebias, Bell’s palsy
Bell’s palsy
caused by a virus
causes partial face paralysis
temporary
cannot produce a facial expression
Moebius syndrome
- genetic condition characterized by underdevelopment of abducens and facial cranial nerves
- difficulty producing facial expression and recognizing emotion
cranial nerve 6
abducens
James-Lange theory of emotion
autonomic reaction triggers feeling
- the brain processing the response is what produces the emotion
- heart is racing so then you must be scared
Cannon-Bard theory of emotion
feelings and autonomic reaction occur simultaneously
- no interpretation needed
- emotional and physiological response at same time
Schacter’s cognitive attribution model
emotion labels (angry, joy, fear) are attributed to relatively nonspecific feelings of physiological arousal
Schacter’s model study explanation
pairing actor responses (anger or euphoria) to injections of adrenaline influence whether participant experiences anger or happiness
- when given adrenaline and in room with angry people - would feel angry
- given epinephrine and exposed to happy people - happy
Schacter’s model: which emotion we experience depends on cognitive systems that assess the______
context
Schacter’s model ex: haunted house
- things jump out at you startle, inc HR
if everyone laughing at how fake it is - positive emotion, less scary - if everyone like omg its so scary - negative emotion it will get scarier
what do emotions require?
networks of activation
How do brain regions participate in emotions
the same brain region can participate in multiple emotions
- no one to one relation between a specific brain region and an emotion
what precedes the awareness of feeling an emotion?
- patterns of brain activity
physiological responses
brain region that monitors the internal environment
hypothalamus
and insula
brain region that monitors the external environment
amygdala
brain region that generates emotional states based on past experiences
- comparing to see how you should react
hippocampus
brain region that produces physical emotional responses/expressions
cingulate gyrus
brain region hat produces physical feeling of emotion
insular cortex
brain region that represents motivation and reward
ventral striatum (nucleus accumbens)
what does the insula regulate and produce
regulates sensory, subjective experience of emotions
produces: whole-body sensations that match emotional states
anterior insula
complex, whole-body sensations associated with emotion!!!
- anger, sadness, elation, disgust, anxiety, sexual arousal
posterior insula
basic visceral sensations
- pain, temperature, fatigue, itch, pressure, tension
what does the hypothalamus respond to?
internal states and homeostatic drives
receptors in the bloodstream monitor the consumption of the blood and report that to the ____
hypothalamus
What are the 3 pathways in which the hypothalamus can affect the internal state?
autonomic output pathway
neuroendocrine pathway
motivational pathway
autonomic output pathway stimulates ___ and ____
sympathetic nervous system
parasympathetic nervous system
neuroendocrine pathway regulates ____
hormone levels throughout the body
motivational pathway stimulates _____ to generate complex plans
forebrain
the hypothalamus is the first level of the nervous system to bring together what three things
- survival relevant stimulus
- internal drive caused by these stimuli
- adaptability - to change internal state in order to respond to a stimulus
the amygdala is the key structure in the mediation of___
lesions to amygdala _____
fear
abolish fear
major brain region for emotions elicited by aversive stimuli
central nucleus of amygdala (CeA)
How does the amygdala receive inputs from the outside world?
basolateral nucleus of the amygdala
What is the main exit point of info from the amygdala?
central nucleus o amygdala projects to brainstem and spinal cord, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and cerebral cortex
Amygdala Low Road
- sensory info from thalamus goes directly to amygdala, bypasses conscious processing
- get immediate emotional reactions (sympathetic)
faster than high road
Amygdala High Road
- information routed through cortex to get conscious processing
- need to activate cortical regions
Neural mechanisms of fear in PTSD
- inc in low road activation
even when you know something is not a threat you still get an inc in sympathetic activation
What happens with people who have bilateral damage to their amygdala?
- show no fear in response to external threats
- feel fear in response to epinephrine and hypoxia
- brain must rely on other systems to warn of threats (dangerous)
Patient SM: Urbach- Wiethe Disease
- amygdala calcifies over time
- prevents the expression of fear
mesolimbic dopamine system is highly implicated in____
pleasure
where are the cell bodies for mesolimbic dopamine system?
ventral tegmental area
axons project to nucleus accumbens (NAcc)
what does the mesolimbic dopamine system respond to?
actual or expected rewards
- pleasure inc dopamine release in NAcc
work hard to get release of dopamine to the NAcc
primary reinforcers
immediately rewarding/naturally reinforcing
- food, water, sex, psychoactive drugs trigger inc NAcc
when are activation patterns highest for primary reinforcers?
after periods of deprivation
2 examples of primary reinforcers
music and humor
- hearing your fav song inc mesolimbic dopamine release
secondary reinforcers
- conditioned reinforcers
- learned value
- become reinforcing through associations
- ex: money, grades, trophies, ads
What does dopamine in the NAcc predict?
how hard one will work to receive reward (motivation)
what do you activate when preforming tasks that lead to secondary reinforcers?
VTA and NAcc
Schadenfreude
taking pleasure in bad things happening to others
- rivalry
What happens when your rival loses?
you get nucleus accumbens activation
what is activated when your rival wins?
insula and cingulate cortex
happiness is ______
non-dopaminergic
frontal cortex and happiness
-orbitofrontal cortex:
activated especially with good tastes, smells, sensations
- humor
amygdala and happiness
many positive emotion inducing stimuli DECREASE activity of amygdala
- happiness inhibits amygdala
what area is activated by all different types of jokes?
ventromedial pre-frontal cortex (vmPFC)
what region is activated by dirty jokes
orbitofrontal cortex
dorsolateral PFC and ventrolateral PFC
- support active self-regulation of emotion
- if did well on a test and no one else did - hide emotions (elsa)
ventromedial prefrontal cortex
- judgements about emotional states
- trust your gut “gut instinct”
love activates the ____ and _____
insula
anterior cingulate
love decreases activity in the _____
prefrontal cortex
- decision making, judgement
“love makes you stupid”
where are mirror neurons located and where do they receive info from?
- in premotor cortex of frontal lobe
receive from temporal lobe and posterior parietal lobe
what are mirror neurons activated in response to
facial expressions in others
involved in learning to initiate actions of others and empathizing with emotions of others
mirror neurons
mimetic desire
someone’s desire mimics that of another
- daughter says she wants something only after seeing brother has it - did not want it before
2 systems involved in mimetic desire
mirror system
valuation system
system with mirror neurons in premotor cortex and parietal lobe
mirror system
system involved in reward and motivation regions including the medial PFC and NAcc
valuation system
