Lecture 19 (the limbic system) Flashcards
Which parts of the brain is involved in the learning and memory processes that enable context-dependent behavior?
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Medial prefrontal cortex
Which type of people have dysfunctions in the network of hippocampus, amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex?
PTSD, schizophrenia, and substance abuse disorders.
What are the two learning processes?
Context encoding and context conditioning.
What is context encoding?
encode a representation of the context.
What is context conditioning?
you do this after context encoding. You learn to associate the encoded representation with the condition – can either be conditional stimuli or unconditional stimuli.
What type of learning is harder for people with deficits in context fear memory following hippocampal damage?
deficit in forming and storing the contextual representation itself (context encoding) and not so much context conditioning.
What is amygdala crucial for?
critical for encoding, storing and retrieving direct associations between contexts or cues and aversive stimuli, and for the acquistition and expression of conditioned fear.
Extinction?
a way of dealing with anxiety and trying to get rid of it in certain situations. This is done by subsequent repeated presentation of the conditioned stimuli by itself.
What are people with PTSD found to have a deficit with?
The extinction of fear memory. Loss of contextual control of extinction
What do the anteriore and dorsal brain do?
Action orientated
What do the posterior and ventral brain do?
Analyze the value of objects which is signaled to the action part of the brain.
What do people have to focus on in cognitive therapy?
Their feelings, behavior, body and thoughts.
The left part of the brain regulates negative or positive emotion?
Positive
When fear activates amygdala - what do amygdala then activate?
The HPA-axis.
What is the Papez circuit of emotion?
Used for the control of emotion expression and important for episodic memory as well.
