L3 Emotion is Biological

Question 1

What is the history in terms of emotions as adaptations?

Answer 1

Darwin

Facial expressions and body reactions prepare individuals for action and serve as communicative signals

Question 2

What is the history in terms of emotions as bodily responses?

Answer 2

James-Lange
There is emotion-specific activation in the body
The bodily changes support specific actions and produce the feeling

Question 3

How has the history been critiqued by Cannon?

Answer 3

The bodily changes are too non-specific to account for the variety of emotional experiences
The bodily changes are too slow to account for emotions and can be found without the associated emotion being produced
Individuals not sufficiently sensitive to the bodily changes

Question 4

What is the first source of evidence for emotion in the body?

Answer 4

You can induce emotions from body actions e.g. wrinkling nose produces feelings of disgust

Question 5

What is the second source of evidence for emotion in the body?

Answer 5

The ability to sense bodily states and physiological reactivity declines in older age, which may impair emotional experiences - known as maturational dualism (Mendes, 2010)

Question 6

What was found surround physiological measures and emotions?

Answer 6

Ekman & Levenson
Heart rate is lower in disgust, higher in fear, anger and sadness
Galvanic skin response (sweat) is higher in disgust and fear
Finger temperature is higher in anger and lower in fear

Question 7

What is the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)?

Answer 7

It is a control system that maintains internal conditions in the body in response to environmental events
It controls processes such as digestion, blood flow and temperature
Part of the peripheral nervous system
Whether or not emotions are bodily responses depends on the evidence for emotion-specific ANS activity - mixed conclusions

Question 8

What is the Dynamic Systems View?

Answer 8

The ANS has many pathways and components so emotion specificity is possible
Thayer and Lane (2000) proposed a neurovisceral model that integrates neural systems and autonomic systems
Involving feedback circuits that enables the individual to adapt to their environment

Question 9

What evidence is there that the heart is not just a pump?

Answer 9

There is a small neural net in the heart and bidirectional communication between the brain and heart so it is not just a pump and may be part of a complex dynamic system

Question 10

What is heart rate variability?

Answer 10

Variation in beat-to-beat intervals produced by combined influence of the SNS and PNS
The PNS influences the heart via the vagal nerve
The SNS dominates during stressful events and hence reduces variability - therefore greater variability is seen as healthier in the long term

Question 11

What has been found surrounding HRV and emotion?

Answer 11

Greater HRV at rest associated with the ability to regulate negative emotions
Positive emotions generated through loving-kindness meditation found to increase HRV via an increase in perceptions of social connections

Question 12

What is Porges’ Polyvagal Theory (1995)?

Answer 12

Vagus is a family of neural pathways originating from different parts of the brainstem
The Dorsal Nucleus (DMNX) path decreases HR and the Nucleus Ambiguous (NA) path influences HRV
The NA path has inputs from the amygdala and facial nerve so is potentially influenced by emotions
It may enable prosocial emotions in particular e.g. soothing, compassion
Proposes that humans have physical reactions, such as cardiac and digestive changes, associated with their facial expressions

Question 13

What can be seen in the vagal pathways of reptiles?

Answer 13

Reptiles have the DMNX path only and this produces immobilisation in response to novel stimuli

Question 14

What can be seen in the vagal pathways of mammals?

Answer 14

Mammals use the NA path to repeatedly inhibit cardiac response but this ‘brake’ is withdrawn to deal with demands such as fight or flight
Under duress the DMNX path may produce ‘freezing’

Question 15

How can evidence about the role of brain structures in emotion be measured?

Answer 15

EEG, Neuroimaging (fMRI, PET), Brain damage studies, emotion disorders, experiments (e.g. facial actions, electrical stimulation)
A combination of these can be used e.g. neural activation in depressed patients

Question 16

What is the Papez circuit?

Answer 16

Papez (1937) extended Cannon-Bard’s proposal concerning the role of the thalamus in producing emotion
He identified a neural circuit in which sensory input to the thalamus splits into:
- an upstream ‘thought’ pathway to the cingulate cortex
- a downstream ‘feeling’ pathway which loops back to the cingulate

Question 17

What is MacLean’s limbic system?

Answer 17

in 1952 proposed that the limbic system generates emotion experience by integrating sensations from the external world and the body
Panksepp (1998) extended this - each emotion has its own limbic system circuit that readies an individual for a particular kind of action
The amygdala and its reciprocal connections to ACC, insula cortex and PFC have since been shown to have a major role in generating, processing and regulating emotion

Question 18

What did LeDoux (1993) suggest?

Answer 18

He identified amygdala as the critical structure in the limbic system for emotion, stating that it automatically evaluates emotional significance of an event (primary appraisal), responds to emotionally intense stimuli and displays emotional learning of stimuli
Appears to have key role in processing social signals of emotion especially fear in faces
Doesn’t seem to be involved in experience of emotions just evaluation

Question 19

What two responses are seen in the amygdala?

Answer 19

A fast conditioned response without involvement of the cortex (like Zajonc’s ‘emotion without cognition’)
A slow conditioned response that does involve cortex (which is why counting to ten might help in certain situations)

Question 20

What can be seen in depression?

Answer 20

Heightened activation of the amygdala

Question 21

What are some of the functions of the cortex in emotion?

Answer 21

1. Inhibition - damage to some areas have been associated with disinhibited emotional reactions
2. Reward learning - OrbitoFC also involved in learning motivational value of stimuli
3. Decision making - VMPFC uses body feedback from previous emotional events to guide decisions - evidence for somatic marker hypothesis
4. Monitoring - ACC appears to play role in monitoring discrepancies between current and desired emotional states
5. Regulation - dorsolateral PFC activated during reappraisal of negative stimuli
6. Self-awareness - insular cortex important in experience of emotion including recognition and empathy. It is activated in response to own disgust or seeing someone else’s

Question 22

What does the multi-systems model suggest?

Answer 22

That each emotion has its own neural system

Question 23

What does the single system model suggest?

Answer 23

that the right-hemisphere has a specialised role in processing emotions

Question 24

What does the dual systems model suggest?

Answer 24

The RH is associated with withdrawal or inhibition and hence negative emotions such as disgust and fear
LH is associated with approach or activation and hence positive emotions such as happiness but also anger
Known as the valence hypothesis

Question 25

Outline study on selfie takers

Answer 25

Manovich et al. (2017)
Earlier research found that artists prefer poses showing the left cheek when composing a portrait but right cheeks with self-portraits
Supports the RH hypothesis that we may be more expressive on our left side
Study of selfies found left cheek bias
But negative emotions are expressed more strongly on the left cheek and a trend for positive emotions to be expressed more strongly on right cheek - consistent with the valence hypothesis

Question 26

What conclusions can be made from this research?

Answer 26

Weight of the evidence suggests that emotion functions are not isolated in single anatomical structures within the brain

Question 27

What are some biological messengers in emotion?

Answer 27

Neurotransmitters, neuro-modulators and hormones

Question 28

How is serotonin linked to emotion?

Answer 28

Low levels related to depression, anti-depressants like Prozac inhibit re-uptake, reduce negative affect and decrease activity in the cingulate

Question 29

How is dopamine linked to emotion?

Answer 29

It is associated with goal-related motivation and rewards

Question 30

How is noradrenaline linked to emotion?

Answer 30

associated with alertness and arousal and the fight-flight response

Question 31

How is GABA linked to emotion?

Answer 31

It inhibits excitability, increased levels are associated with decreasing anxiety

Question 32

What did Oschner et al. (2009) do?

Answer 32

conduced fMRI study where PPs either looked at unpleasant images (bottom up processing) or reappraised neutral images as unpleasant (top down processing)

Question 33

What did Oschner et al. (2009) find?

Answer 33

That bottom up activated the left and the right amygdala, but top down only activated the left amygdala
Bottom up activated areas for perceiving stimuli
Top down activated areas for interpreting stimuli

Question 34

Are there gender differences in regulating emotions?

Answer 34

Studies usually find no gender differences in emotional reactivity to stimuli but might be a difference in regulation of emotions

Question 35

What did McRae et al. (2008) find?

Answer 35

fMRI study, PPs had to stop themselves from feeling distressed in response to unpleasant images
Had to use reappraisal (top down process)
Found no gender differences in reactivity, but men showed less activation in PFC, amygdala and ventral striatum
Concluded that men may use less effort in cognitive emotion regulation or women recruit more positive emotions

Question 36

What has been suggested surrounding empathy?

Answer 36

That mirror neurons may be responsible for empathy and sympathy - that they are triggered by the actions of another person and thereby generate the corresponding in the observer

Question 37

What are some criticisms of mirror neurons and empathy?

Answer 37

Insufficient evidence

Empathy is a complex process and likely to involve a range of brain regions

Question 38

What did Havas et al. (2010) find in relation to botox and expression of emotions?

Answer 38

Showed that injecting botox leads to slower processing of emotional language because it can paralyse the muscles used for emotional expression
May impair feedback from the face while language processing

Question 39

Explain the link between decision making and emotions

Answer 39

Making decisions without emotions is hard, damage to emotion centres can leave people with no gut feeling - link to Damasio’s somatic marker hypothesis

Question 40

What did Bechara et al. (2000) find?

Answer 40

patients with ventromedial frontal lobe damage were more likely to choose risky gambles
But for some types of decision this type of impairment can actually improve outcomes because an emotional response can lead to loss aversion and hence a failure to consider the actual risk