Lec 9: Emotion

Question 1

emotion is generally understood to involve…

Answer 1

1. subjective report (“feelings”)
2. Physiological/behavioural response: changes in sweating, heart rate
3. Cognitive appraisal: interpreting bodily state to guide behaviour

Question 2

what are the 6 primary emotions?

Answer 2

1. anger
2. fear
3. disgust
4. surprise
5. happiness
6. sadness

Question 3

facial acting coding system (FACS)

Answer 3

• tool for measuring and describing facial expressions
• observed particular muscles activated with certain expressions
• doesn’t interpret emotional states directly
• provides a framework for describing facial movements, which can then be analyzed in conjunction with other data to infer emotions

Question 4

study on emotional content and memorability

Answer 4

• showed people negative or neutral pictures
• asked them to judge whether the picture is emotional or not
• after seeing photos they are given a surprise memory test
• fMRI used to measure activity in brain during the test
• the 2 categories were either
  1. remember: they know for sure they saw it
  2. know: kinda remember seeing it but don’t remember all the details
• highest activity in amygdala for emotional pictures you later remember
• amygdala is particularly engaged in negative emotional processing

Question 5

instructed fear

Answer 5

• verbal or symbolic communication about the potential threat, allowing individuals to develop fear responses without direct experience of the aversive event
  ex. Participants are told that a specific stimulus (e.g., a red square) will be followed by an aversive event (US), such as a shock, but they may not experience the US directly

Question 6

fear conditioning

Answer 6

• individuals learn to associate a neutral stimulus with an aversive event
• the aversive event actually occurs

Question 7

impaired fear conditioning in humans

Answer 7

• patients had amygdala removed on one side of brain
• these patients failed to develop a conditioned response to the stimuli they were instructed to fear
• they still displaced a higher skin conductance response when shocked
• the patients can experience emotion but struggle to link emotion in useful way via fear conditiong
• this helped show causality in amygdala in fear conditioning

Question 8

what can be impaired as a result of orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction?

Answer 8

• emotion regulation
• social behaviour
• decision-making
• theory of mind

Question 9

what can be increased as a result of orbitofrontal cortex dysfunction?

Answer 9

• impulsivity
• orienting response: not using goals to focus, getting sucked into distractions

Question 10

Phineas Gage

Answer 10

• sustained damage to his orbitofrontal cortex by a rod
• became impulsive, irresponsible, and profane
• difficulty planning and following through with tasks
• Friends and colleagues noted he was “no longer Gage.”
• suggests orbitofrontal cortex can play a role in emotional regulation

Question 11

what is considered “hot” cognition?

Answer 11

emotion and intuition

Question 12

what is considered “cool” cognition?

Answer 12

logic and reasoning

Question 13

somatic marker (somatic state)

Answer 13

• bodily state
• physiological or emotional response, such as a gut feeling or a rapid heartbeat, triggered by recalling past experiences or anticipating future outcomes
• markers are associated with positive or negative outcomes of similar situations experienced in the past and serve as shortcuts for decision-making

Question 14

somatic marker hypothesis

Answer 14

• somatic states can be triggered by positive or negative events and can help influence decision making
• our brain recalls past experiences, activating somatic markers tied to the possible outcomes of each choice

Question 15

ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and somatic marker hypothesis

Answer 15

• smaller part of the OFC
• when feeling a particular emotion, vmPFC can trigger somatic markers in the body (gut feeling)
• can then bias towards making a certain decision

Question 16

Iowa Gambling Task

Answer 16

Goal: choose 100 cards total from the 4 decks, try to earn the most money possible
- some cards give money, some take away money
- bad decks (higher risk): Offer larger rewards but also larger penalties, Net outcome is a loss
- good decks (lower risk): Offer smaller rewards but also smaller penalties, Net outcome is a gain

Question 17

Iowa Gambling Task and vmPFC patients

Answer 17

• at the beginning of the task, participants do not know the difference between the good and bad decks
• over time, the controls choose more good decks because they learn the differences
• vmPFC patients showed no preference for a specific deck, as if they aren’t learning that the bad decks are bad

Question 18

Results of skin conductance response (SCR) before picking up a card (Iowa Gambling Task)

Answer 18

controls: sweat more when picking from the riskier deck
vmPFC patients: no difference in sweating between decks

Question 19

Results of skin conductance response (SCR) after picking up a card (Iowa Gambling Task)

Answer 19

controls: start sweating more when they get a penalty
vmPFC patients: no difference
- as if there is a blocked ability to feel somatic markers
- makes them less likely to learn from their mistakes

Question 20

Trolley Problem

Answer 20

there is a trolley out of control, if nothing changes it will kill 5 people on the track
2 Conditions:
- switch: if you pull the switch, trolley will kill 1 person instead of 5
would you do nothing (5 ppl die) or would you pull the switch (1 dies)?
- bridge: you can push someone off the bridge, if you do it will stop the trolley and save the 5 ppl but that person will die

Question 21

Trolley problem and the vmPFC

Answer 21

functional fMRI found that the vmPFC was much more active during the bridge scenario than the level
- because pushing someone off the bridge is more emotional

Question 22

vmPFC patients on the Trolley Problem

Answer 22

people with vmPFC damage are more likely to push the person off the bridge because they do not have an emotional state, they are looking at the question more logically

Question 23

the insula and the ultimatum game

Answer 23

• Proposer is given a certain amount of money (can either be a human or a computer)
• Proposer suggests how to divide the money between themselves and the Responder
• Responder can either:
  Accept the offer: Both players receive the proposed amounts.
  Reject the offer: Neither player receives anything
• insula is the brain region sensitive to unfairness
• more likely to accept an unfair offer from a computer (emotionally neutral)
• lower acceptance rate corresponds with higher activity in the insula