introduction to emotion

Question 1

what is an emotion?

Answer 1

strong/instinctive feeling responding to one’s circumstances, mood or relationships with others

distinguished from reasoning or knowledge

Question 2

what is Rottenberg’s description of mood?

Answer 2

slow moving feeling states that are weakly tied to specific objects or situations

Question 3

what are the 4 stages of emotional processing according to Phillips neuro-anatomical model?

Answer 3

1. stimulus/thought presentation
2. appraisal process to work out value of stimulus
3. affective state (short lived emotional response)
4. automatic emotion regulation of affective state to behave in appropriate way (mood when goes on for a while)

Question 4

what is Darwin’s theory of emotion?

Answer 4

emotions evolved for their adaptive value in dealing with fundamental life tasks

emotions indicate what you are likely to do next

cross-species similarities in basic emotional expression

Question 5

what are the basic emotions which exist across cultures?

who proposed this?

Answer 5

anger
disgust
fear
happiness
sadness
surprise

Ekman

Question 6

what did ekman do to study universality of emotions?

Answer 6

asked tribesmen to pull different faces for different emotional situations

asked them to identify which facial expression corresponded to which situation of americans

Question 7

examples of changing expression to take in certain info?

Answer 7

widening eyes in fear helps detect a threat

Question 8

evidence suggesting facial expressions innate?

Answer 8

1. born blind still show same facial expressions as others suggesting hard wired into genes
2. blindsighted (cortically blind) people responded to emotion shown to blind hemisphere
3. first 6 weeks can smile and cry and may be able to develop facial expressions in the womb

Question 9

example of simple dual-system theory to classification of emotion?

Answer 9

Schneirla categorise emotions in terms of approach and withdrawal

Question 10

what did Gray theorise?

Answer 10

behavioural approach (reward) and inhibition (punishment) systems 
have distinct brain circuits

Question 11

what is Davidson’s valence-asymmetry hypothesis?

Answer 11

left prefrontal cortex more related to approach related goals

right prefrontal cortex related to goals requiring inhibition and withdrawal (negative)

Question 12

example of a negative emotion being an ‘approach’ response?

Answer 12

trying to approach goal but becoming angry

Question 13

what are the 2 axis in the circumplex model?

Answer 13

arousal and valence

Question 14

what did Ekman do to study relationship between emotional expressions and emotional experience?

Answer 14

watch positive or negative movies and rate how feeling when watching them

see if expressions during correlated with subjective reported experience

ppts who showed smile movements (watching positive movie) reported more happiness and vice versa

Question 15

what does emg measure?

Answer 15

muscle activity e.g in the face to measure expression

Question 16

what does FACS stand for?

Answer 16

facial coding system

Question 17

which muscle is used to smile?

Answer 17

zygomatic major muscle

Question 18

which muscle is used to frown?

Answer 18

corrugator muscle

Question 19

relationship between emg and emotion perception?

Answer 19

emg positively correlated with emotion perception ability

Question 20

what are some of the social functions of emotions?

Answer 20

wide eyes in fear (lots of white) so threat can be detected by others by seeing whites of eyes and pupils pointing in direction of threat

sadness elicits caregiving

happy/angry act a reinforcers (esp. for babies)

Question 21

are facial expressions shaped by social context?

Answer 21

yes, more exaggerated facial expressions in social context (in particular around friends over strangers)

Question 22

what is James-Lange theory?

Answer 22

physiological response to environmental stimuli and interpretation of that response results in emotion

don’t run because afraid, afraid because realise running away form a threat

different patterns of bodily change code different emotions

Question 23

support for James-Lange’s theory?

Answer 23

expressions of disgust mis-identified as sadness or anger evoked heart rate changes more typical of sadness and anger than disgust

Question 24

what is the Cannon-Bard theory in disputing James-Lange’s theory?

Answer 24

emotions occured even if brain disconnnected from viscera (internal organs)

bodily changes not emotion specific and too slow

stimulation of bodily change doesn’t lead to emotions

Question 25

what do emotions depend on?

Answer 25

brain mechanisms

Question 26

describe embodied emotion as bodily state being represented in brain?

Answer 26

when one has experienced a bodily response to a stimulus it is encoded in memory and representation of it can be reactivated even if the original bodily state is not fully reactivated

Question 27

describe the two-factor theory of emotion?

Answer 27

physiological arousal and cognitive label give rise to emotion

Question 28

how is modern affective neuroscience used to study emotion in the brain?

Answer 28

brain imaging
lesions
behavioural experiments
electrophysiological recordings

Question 29

what is the role of the amygdala in emotion?

studies showing the effect of lesions?

Answer 29

important role in emotion processing

lesions in monkeys lead to changes in social behaviour

lesions in humans leads to emotional blunting and less effective fear conditioning

Question 30

what are the 2 pathways of the amygdala?

Answer 30

low road = eyes to thalamus to amygdala so trigger flight/fight response before consciously aware

high road = eyes to thalamus to sesnory cortex to amygdala (2x as long as low road)

Question 31

when is amygdala activated?

Answer 31

in response to facial expressions of emotions but particularly fear

Question 32

how do genes affect amygdala responses?

Answer 32

serotonin transporter less efficient at recycling into pre-synaptic (more serotonin around so stimulating post-synaptic neuron more)
increases activity of the amygdala
also more likely to develop depression

Question 33

findings regarding depressed people and emotional perception?

Answer 33

less likely to say a mildly happy face is happy so less sensitive to positive stimuli

Question 34

what is meant by depressed people having emotional bias?

Answer 34

changes in sensitivity to emotional expressions

negative emotional bias - more sensitive to negative expressions

Question 35

study on depressed patients and amygdala activation?

how altered and effect on normal patients?

Answer 35

increased amygdala response to negative facial expressions

normalised after SSRIs taken and reduce amygdala response in healthy controls as well and reduced recognition of negative expressions

Question 36

neural correlate of disgust?

Answer 36

basal ganglia and insula (anterior)

Question 37

studies on disgust regarding the insula?

lesions & stimulation studies

Answer 37

insula lesion means won’t develop disgust conditioning in rats

insula stimulation in humans leads to feelings of nausea

lesions in insula in humans worse at recognising and feeling disgust

Question 38

what do ocd patients have in relation to disgust?

Answer 38

elevated disgust response (as shown by elevation in activity in insula and correlated with how anxious felt) especially those with washing symptoms