Lecture 17 Emotion 2.0

Question 1

Antisocial Personality Disorder

Answer 1

• A personality disorder characterized by a long term pattern of disregard for, or violation of, the rights of others.
• A low moral sense or conscience is often apparent, as well as a history of crime, legal problems, or impulsive and aggressive behaviour.
• Relatively stable over time
• Change of label from psychopathy to disorder
• Often narcissistic
• Lack of empathy, low levels of withdrawal, look on next slide

Question 2

Features of APD

Answer 2

• Lack of empathy, callousness, cynicism and being contemptuous.
• Lack of remorse, don’t think what they’re doing is wrong
• Inflated self-appraisal; excessively arrogant, opinionated, self-assured and cocky.
• Frequently present with a glib or charming demeanour, and may make extensive (often inappropriate) use of technical and impressive sounding jargon.
• Dysphoric symptoms eg. tension, depressed mood, and “chronic boredom” are frequent complaints of persons with this illness. Bored with life/better than others
• Often extremely intelligent

Question 3

Brain Regions in ASPD

Answer 3

• Associated with decreased grey matter in the right lentiform nucleus, left insula, and frontopolar cortex.
• Increased volumes have been observed in the right fusiform gyrus, inferior parietal cortex, right cingulate gyrus, and postcentral cortex.
• People that exhibit antisocial behaviour demonstrate decreased? activity in the prefrontal cortex.

Question 4

Treatment of ASPD

Answer 4

Medication:

•The use of medications in treating antisocial personality disorder is still poorly explored, and no medications have been approved by the FDA to specifically treat ASPD.

Psychotherapy:

• considered one of the most difficult personality disorders to treat. (they don’t think what they did was wrong)
• Help them by focusing on “how being pro-social will benefit YOU”
• Most treatment done is for those in the criminal justice system, given as part of their imprisonment and parole.
• Residential programs that provide a carefully controlled environment of structure and supervision along with peer confrontation have been recommended.
• Rather than attempt to develop a sense of conscience in these individuals, which is extremely difficult considering the nature of the disorder, therapeutic techniques are focused on rational and utilitarian arguments against repeating past mistakes.
• Many have experienced trauma as a child (but may be because of parents genes, traumatized the kid, etc)

Question 5

Basic characterization of Autism Spectrum Disorders

Answer 5

• Under the DSM-5, autism is characterized by persistent deficits in social communication and interaction across multiple contexts, as well as restricted, repetitive patterns of behaviour, interests, or activities.
• Sample symptoms include lack of social or emotional reciprocity, stereotyped and repetitive use of language or idiosyncratic language and persistent preoccupation with unusual objects.
• Wide variety of behaviour in the spectrum, all unique

Question 6

Emotional features of Autism (ASD)

Answer 6

Difficulties in:

• Recognizing emotions and intentions in others.
• Recognizing one’s own emotions – alexithymia.
• Expressing emotions.
• (different from spok)
• Seeking emotional comfort from others.
• Feeling overwhelmed in social situations.
• Taking turns in conversation.
• Gauging personal space (appropriate distance between people).

Question 7

Brain Regions in ASD

Answer 7

Studies have shown:

• Overall brain enlargement in autism.
• Abnormalities in several areas of the brain, including the frontal lobe, the mirror neuron system, the limbic system, the temporal lobe
• Too much activity in some, not enough in others.
• Abnormal neuronal growth and pruning during the early stages of prenatal and postnatal brain development, leaving some areas of the brain with too many neurons and other areas with too few neurons.
• FMRI studies show that when performing theory of mind and facial emotion response tasks, people with ASD exhibit less activation in the primary and secondary somatosensory cortices. Coincides with reports demonstrating abnormal patterns of cortical thickness and grey matter volume in those regions

Question 8

Medication for ASD

Answer 8

Risperidone (Risperdal):

• The only drug approved by the FDA for children with autism spectrum disorder.
• The drug effectively treats the explosive and aggressive behaviour that can accompany autism.
• Mechanism works to rebalance dopamine and serotonin to improve thinking, mood, and behaviour.
• Limitations: weight gain, doesn’t treat core symptoms

Question 9

Therapy for ASD

Answer 9

• Often focus on a psychoeducational approach to enhancing cognitive, communication, and social skills while minimizing problem behaviours. (working to educate individuals as well as family) (“what does sad look like, happy face, etc”)
• Focus on teaching parents how to implement therapeutic techniques themselves.

Question 10

What are anxiety disorders?

Neurological effects

Answer 10

What are they?

• A group of mental disorders characterized by significant feelings of anxiety and fear.
• Anxiety is often a worry about future events, and fear is a reaction to current events.

Neurological effects:

• Increased arousal of the neuroendocrine activation and specific behaviour patterns.
• Excessive fear response. (HPA axis, etc

Question 11

9 mental disorders under anxiety category (dsm5)

Answer 11

1. Separation Anxiety Disorder
2. Selective Mutism
3. Specific Phobia
4. Social Anxiety Disorder
5. Panic Disorder (Panic Attack)
6. Agoraphobia
7. Generalized Anxiety Disorder
8. Substance/Medication-induced Anxiety
9. Anxiety Disorder Due to Another Mental Condition

Question 12

Prefrontal Cortex in Anxiety disorders

Answer 12

• Less activity in PFC overall.
• Not doing job for amygdala, it’s not inhibiting the fear response for example

Question 13

Limbic System and Anxiety

Answer 13

• Emotion-processing brain structures; integrate the sensory, affective, and cognitive components of pain and processes information regarding the internal bodily state.
• Less neurogenesis in the hippocampus (due to glucocorticoids….right?!
• These structures are significantly implicated in anxiety disorders.

Question 14

Neurotransmitter Systems in Anxiety

Answer 14

• Increased activity of neurotransmitters in emotion processing brain regions àlinked to anxiety.
• Anxiolytic drugs that act on monoaminergic systems have implicated serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine in the successful treatment of anxiety.
• Decreased inhibitory signalling by γ-aminobutyric-acid (GABA) shown in those with anxiety.
• Increased excitatory neurotransmission by glutamate found in those with anxiety.