Lecture 21: Emotion and Health

Question 1

Ekman’s work: culture and emotion

Answer 1

6 universal emotions: joy, anger, sadness, surprise, fear and disgust; plus contempt
Nature vs. nurture
How to study? Need to find populations without influence of others; tribes; congenitally blind
General support for consistency across cultures for some expressions
– Strongest for happiness, weakest for fear and disgust
– Gestures more culturally influenced

Question 2

“Feeling”

Answer 2

Conscious component of emotion

Cognitive assessment, appraisal

Question 3

Theories of emotion

Answer 3

How do we explain the relationship between different components of emotion?
Which comes first? Physiological response or “feeling”?

Question 4

James-Lange theory (1884)

Answer 4

Situations elicit behaviors and physiological responses

Feelings are produced by feedback from these behaviors and responses

Question 5

Facial feedback hypothesis

Answer 5

Feedback from simulated emotions
–Artificial creations of facial expressions alters autonomic nervous system activity
• Did not tell participants what expression to make, just which movements to make
• Anger: increased HR and skin temp
• E.g. Botox on frown muscles decreases negative mood

Question 6

James-Lange

Answer 6

However: arousal responses are not specific enough to fully explain emotions

Question 7

Cannon-Bard theory (1927)

Answer 7

Noted three challenges to James-Lange:
– Physiological arousal can occur without emotion
– Time lag between quick cognitive assessment and slower physiological response
– Same physiological responses to different emotions
Mind and body both experience emotions independently - both respond to stimulus

Question 8

Schacter-Singer theory (1962)

Answer 8

Two factor theory: a situation evokes both a physiological response and cognitive appraisal (emotion label)
Experience of arousal leads to search for its source & labeling is dependent on individual beliefs as to source of arousal
We can misattribute sources of emotional state - e.g. arousal for affection

Question 9

Experimental evidence

Answer 9

Administered adrenaline to two groups: informed and uninformed
Further divide into groups engaging with peers showing euphoric vs. angry behavior
Uninformed participants looked to environment to assess and define their emotional state

Question 10

Summary: theories

Answer 10

James Lange theory: emotions arise from our bodily reactions
Cannon-Bard theory: both emotion and bodily reaction are caused by brain activity triggered by a stimulus
Schacter-Singer theory: emotions arise from the way we interpret our bodily reactions

Question 11

Behavioral physiology of emotion

Answer 11

– Muscular movements

– (e.g. expression)

Question 12

Autonomic physiology of emotion

Answer 12

– Facilitate behaviors
– (e.g. fight or flight)
– Sympathetic / parasympathetic

Question 13

Hormonal physiology of emotion

Answer 13

– Adrenal gland secretes epinephrine and NE and steroid hormones which reinforce fight and flight response

Question 14

What’s the brain doing?

Answer 14

Peripheral component: hypothalamus
Central component: cingulate and prefrontal cortices
Both: amygdala, coordinates peripheral response and conscious experience

Question 15

How do they connect?

Answer 15

“thinking/feeling” stream -> cingulate cortex, hippocampus, then to hypothalamus
“body response” stream -> hypothalamus, then to body and back to thalamus
Papez circuit links prefrontal and cingulate cortices w/ limbic system, amygdala and hypothalamus

Question 16

Hypothalamus

Answer 16

Regulation of physiological state
Acts on ANS
Damage to ventrolateral -> placid
Damage to ventromedial -> highly excitable and aggressive
Projects to -> cingulate cortex (limbic system)

Question 17

The amygdala

Answer 17

Almond-shaped structure in anterior temporal lobe
• Important in processing social signs of emotion, particularly fear
• Fear conditioning
• Consolidation of long-term memories

Question 18

Amygdala and fear processing

Answer 18

Electrical stimulation -> feelings of fear & apprehension
Early damage leads to:
• Decreased emotional responses
• Impaired conditioned responses
• Inability to detect mood in music
• Failure to learn cues to detect facial expressions of fear
Receives info from ventral visual system via inferior temporal cortex & projects back to V1 & higher visual areas (face processing)

Question 19

Ventromedial PFC

Answer 19

• Complex analyses of social situations
• Role in inhibiting emotional responses
• Use of emotions to guide behavior
• Connecting w/ emotional processing areas (e.g. amygdala, hypothalamus)

Question 20

Learning of emotional responses

Answer 20

• Conditioned emotional response
– Neutral stimulus paired with emotion-producing stimulus
• Fear conditioning
• Amygdala is crucial
• Learning and un-learning (extinction) possible
– Ventromedial PFC inhibits expression of CR

Question 21

Emotion & memory

Answer 21

• More likely to remember events associated w/ strong emotional responses
• Recall in positive context predicted by activation in parahippocampal & visual areas
• Recall in negative context predicted by amygdala activation

Question 22

Communication of emotions

Answer 22

• Recognition and expression
• Universality of facial expressions for primary emotions
– Can be recognized despite culture (innate)
• Facial expressions, voice quality

Question 23

“Reading” faces

Answer 23

• Tendency to imitate the expressions of others appears to be innate
– May reflect associations with mirror neurons
• Multiple systems involved
– FFA: face processing
– Superior temporal sulcus: eye gaze
– Inferior parietal regions: biological motion
– Amygdala: fearful faces

Question 24

Expression of emotions

Answer 24

• Facial expressions are automatic & involuntary
• Difficult to artificially produce realistic facial expressions of emotion
• Different systems involved in automatic & voluntary movement of some muscles

Question 25

Volitional vs. emotional facial paresis

Answer 25

• A 50-year-old man with a primary lymphoma of the central nervous system in the left thalamus had a normal, symmetric face at rest (A) and on voluntary movement, showing his teeth (B), but had weakness of the lower right side of the face on reflex smiling (C).
• A 72-year-old woman with hypertension and an infarct in the territory of the left middle cerebral artery had slight facial asymmetry at rest (D), weakness of the lower right side of the face on voluntary movement (E), and a normal, symmetric smile (F)

Question 26

Emotion regulation

Answer 26

• It is often important to regulate our emotions
• The ability to regulate emotions develops over the course of childhood
• Can use methods such as cognitive reappraisal or suppression
– Both decrease emotional expression, but reappraisal seems to dampen emotion w/o a cognitive or physiological cost

Question 27

Thought suppression, rumination, distraction

Answer 27

• Suppression: attempt to not feel/respond to emotion
– But can -> rebound effect
• Rumination: thinking about, elaborating, and focusing on undesired thoughts or feelings
– Can prolong mood and impede other regulation strategies
• Distraction: doing/thinking about something other than troubling activity/thought
– But only temporary solution by absorbing attention

Question 28

Physiology of cognitive reappraisal

Answer 28

Reappraisal is associated with increased activation in the (A) dorsolateral and (B) ventrolateral prefrontal cortex as well as the (C) dorsomedial prefrontal cortex.

Question 29

Development of emotion vs. control systems

Answer 29

• Gap in development between limbic and prefrontal regions

* Thought to underlie risky behavior in adolescents

Question 30

Emotions impact cognition

Answer 30

• Immediate affective responses are quick & automatic - and color our perceptions
• Guide decision making, memory, and behavior
• When making decisions factor in how we would feel…anticipate future states
• Somatic marker theory: Damasio proposed that most self-regulatory actions & decisions are affected by bodily reactions resulting from emotional evaluation of action’s consequences

Question 31

Emotional expressions impact interpersonal relations

Answer 31

• Signal inner states, moods, & needs in nonverbal ways
• Adaptive: group membership enhanced survival
• E.g., guilt & embarrassment