Kap 11. Emotion Flashcards
Emotion definition
A conscious mental reaction (such as anger or fear) subjectively experienced as strong feeling usually directed toward a specific object and typically accompanied by physiological and behavioral changes in the body
Components of an emotional response
- Behavioral
- Autonomic
- Hormonal
Fear- neuroanatomy
- ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)
- amygdala
- hypothalamus
This neural ciruit makes fear and control
Fear - amygdala
ser ut som en mandel
The amygdala has a critical role to play in emotional behavior.
It is especially important in responding to objects or situations that have biological significance:
For example, cues and stimuli that predict good or bad consequences (e.g. pain, food, water, potential mates).
What do you know about amygdalas nucleus?
Lateral nucleus and basal nucleus
The lateral nucleus and basal nucleus communicate with each other and send information to parts of the brain important for learning about reward and reinforcing stimuli.
They also send information to the central nucleus, which projects to ‘older’ parts of the brain such as the hypothalamus, midbrain, pons, and medulla.
Central nucleus
The central nucleus is essential for responding and learning about aversive and fearful stimuli.
Damage to the central nucleus stops animals showing fear in response to aversive events or conditioned stimuli that have been linked to aversive events.
Fear
Fear is a good example of an emotional response as we see that a fearful stimulus produces behavioral, autonomic, and hormonal changes.
Fear has been studied a lot in animals because it produces strong behavioral reactions that are easy to measure.
Key regions of the brain are the amygdala, prefrontal cortex and hypothalamus.
Memories for fearful stimuli can be observed and manipulated in animal studies.
Conditioned Emotional Response
Emotional conditioning is the ability to learn about a stimulus and situation that is dangerous or threatening.
This can help the animal to cope with this situation if it happens again.
This process – called a conditioned emotional response – has been widely studied in neuroscience at a behavioral, cellular and synaptic level.
Extinction ???
“how long does the mouse show fear?”
- the fear goes away
Extinction of a behavior can be produced by exposure to the conditioend stimulus without the consequence.
Importantly, extinction is not the same as forgetting.
new learning
suppress
Engram
- “idea that in our brain we have a trace of a memory and that gives us a memory”
Pattern of activity
Aggression
Almost all types of animals engage in aggressive behavior that tend to be species-specific.
Aggressive behavior is often focused on gaining reproductive advantage (access to mates, defend offspring etc.).
Aggression includes threat behaviors, defensive behaviors, submissive behaviors and actual attacks.
Agression anotomy neuro
The neurotransmitter serotonin (also called 5HT) is an important modulator of aggression.
low serotoning = high aggresion
high serotoning = low aggresion
REduced serotoning antisocial behavior
Shown in study on rhesus monkeys where monkeys with lowest serotonin were more likely to die because of high levels of aggression and risk-taking.
SSRI - Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors
The role of serotonin in aggression has also been shown in human studies.
Reduced serotonin is associated with aggression and other forms of antisocial behavior such as assault, arson, murder, and child abuse.
SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are drugs that block the serotonin transporter and lead to increased serotonin in the brain.
SSRIs are commonly used to treat depression but there is also evidence that they can reduce aggression.
sex hormones
organizational = duribg development
- pups in vom har mer testoterone under utvikling om de lå med flere gutter (se pp) Dermed mer aggresiv
activational
As aggression is often linked to reproduction, sex hormones have powerful effects on aggressive behavior.
Aggressive behavior is often reduced by decreasing sex hormones, such as estrogen and testosterone.
Sex hormones can have organizational and activational effects.
Organizational = during development
Activational = in adulthood
Highl leves of testorone
linked to aggresion not mpt causian
