Lecture 10- Emotion and the brain Flashcards
How can emotional responses be categorised?
Behavioural, Autonomic, hormonal
What is Ekman’s approach to emotion?
7 Basic emotions (original 6 e/o contempt) associated with particulate facial expressions.
What did Ekman’s study show about emotions?
-Task in which ppts were asked which emotion best describes the picture. -Ekman says basic emotions are universal (present in all human societies) and do not need to be learned.
How does Gendron et al (2014) criticise Ekman’s approach?
Tested this on the Himba tribe in Namibia.
-Task: Sort face pictures into piles – no labels given (free sorting). -“Happy” and “Fearful” consistently recognised but not Sadness, Disgust and Anger.
How does Cowen & Keltner (2017) criticise Ekman’s approach?
Suggests basic emotions fail to describe the richness of human emotional experience and suggested 27 (fuzzy) categories eg adoration.
How did Sorenson (1975) show replicability of Ekman’s study?
-Showed can be replicated within same lab and method
BUT failed to replicate when using free labelling
What are 2 extreme positions of the brain?
Specialisation
Dispersion
What is specialisation in terms of brain extreme positions?
-Singular areas that control different aspects of the brain
What is Dispersion in terms of brain extreme positions?
Whole of brain controls everything
What is the Papez circuit?
One circuit that deals with emotion but uses different parts of the brain.
What are the different aspects of the Papez circuit?
-Cingulate gyrus along the Cingulum to the Parahippocampal region.
-This leads to the Subiculum (hippocampus).
-Go along the Fornix to the mamillary bodies.
-The MTT goes from maxillary bodies to the Anterior Thalamic nuclei
How is the Papez circuit proven wrong?
Not all areas in circuit play role in emotion processing eg mammillary bodies and hippocampus more important for long-term memory in general.
Also, areas not part of the circuit do play major role in emotion eg amygdala
What is the new emerging view of emotions?
As dynamic, distributed representations in brain networks.
What are the basics of cued fear conditioning?
An unconditioned emotional response eg shock causing increase in HR is paired to create conditioned responses of shock eliciting fear response.
What is context fear conditioning?
Context of situation will determine fear response
What is extinction?
When CS in repeatedly presented w/o aversive stimulus, the CR eventually disappears and becomes extinguished
How is extinction different to forgetting?
Not the same as forgetting as memory of CS and CR is not completely erased, just relearning aversive stimulus isn’t there anymore.
How do fear responses indicate 3 main systems?
-Amygdala – Fear Response -Hippocampus – Association between CS and CR -Frontal / PFC – Attention/ Conscious Control
How does Oschner et al (2000) indicate emotional regulation?
Ppts asked to reappraise negative images eg crying in grief and change meaning to wedding. Led to decreased activation in amygdala and increased activation in PFC.
How does Vergallito et al (2018) show emotional regulation?
Brain stimulation in which rVLPFC would regulate negative affect in preventing dangerous situation regardless of intensity.
Coactivation between AI, ACC and PFC also shown in regulating and processing: -Interoceptive – heartbeat, arousal etc.
-Exteroceptive – environmental change
What are real life implications for emotional regulation?
Important for anxiety and depression disorders.
In everyday life you could use cog appraisal for presentations, public speaking
