Fear, pleasure, anger, hunger and sex, getting to know your Limbic system

Question 1

What are the main parts of the limbic system?

Answer 1

Amygdala

Hippocampus formations

Question 2

What are other parts of the limbic system

Answer 2

Septal nuclei
Hypothalamus
Mamillary nuclei
Cingulate gyrus

Question 3

What is the amygdala responsible for

Answer 3

emotion-matching, threat/trust differentiation, attention, episodic memory

Question 4

What is the hippocampal formation responsible for

Answer 4

consolidation of long term memory, spacial memory

Question 5

What is the septal nuclei responsible for

Answer 5

Pleasure/ reward

Question 6

What is the cingulate gyrus responsible for

Answer 6

decision/ prioritisation

emotional regulation

Question 7

What is the limbic system function

Answer 7

The limbic (“between”) system mediates between entirely automatic brain functions, and the cognitive and other higher cortical areas of the brain.
Functionally it can be considered as a set of brain systems or capabilities that provide an ‘emotional guidance system’ based on past experiences:
storing information connected with past experiences
to compare to current circumstances,
to rapidly generate hormonal, physiological and motivational responses to sensed circumstances.
The limbic system co-ordinates elements of hormonal, autonomic response as well as directing attention and
motivating behaviour in response to the stimuli it receives

Question 8

How are responses that the limbic system deal with categorised

Answer 8

positive/ move toward

negative / move away

Question 9

How is an anger response categorised

Answer 9

positive/ move toward

Question 10

How is an attraction response categorised

Answer 10

positive/ move toward

Question 11

How is a desire response categorised

Answer 11

positive/ move toward

Question 12

How is a fear response categorised

Answer 12

negative / move away

Question 13

How is a sadness response categorised

Answer 13

negative / move away

Question 14

How is a disgust response categorised

Answer 14

negative / move away

Question 15

What is affect?

Answer 15

affect is the overall physiological stance of the organism, the particular way the organism’s physiological
resources are set up to respond to the environment. Affect states can be subtle, but fundamental types of
affect can be identified. An organism can be
1) moving into a state where it must draw on its reserves and mobilise resources and respond to challenges
and threat - something that typically involves sympathetic nervous system activation
or
2) moving into a state where it can build up reserves and resources, recover from challenge/threat response
and maintain repair and grow – a set of responses that typically involve the parasympathetic and (to some
extent) oxytocin systems.

Question 16

What is allostatic load

Answer 16

The extent to which the organism drawing on the reserves and resources to meet demands or threat

Question 17

What is The extent to which the organism drawing on the reserves and resources to meet demands or threat termed as?

Answer 17

allostatic load

Question 18

What is emotion?

Answer 18

the way we perceive and make sense of our affect , along with its meaning and context

Question 19

What does developing the ability to recognise and manage emotion depend on?

Answer 19

the ability to perceive affect and sense the internal state of the body (“interoception”)
a process of learning – typically in childhood and early life – by which we construct what these patterns
mean, and how we should respond to them (which is crucially dependent on the quality of our interpersonal
environment and culture)

Question 20

What are advantages and disadvantages of pleasure response?

Answer 20

Pleasure responses are fundamental to healthy motivations to carry out important functions such as eating and reproducing, but can also form the basis of addictive patterns of behaviour

Question 21

What are the two definitions of stress?

Answer 21

a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation
a state resulting from a stress; especially: one of bodily or mental tension resulting from factors that tend to alter an existent equilibrium

Question 22

What is eustress

Answer 22

circumstances and responses associated with raised “performance”

Question 23

What is dystress

Answer 23

where responses involve suffering and/or falling performance