lecture 23: emotion

Question 1

affect

Answer 1

Feeling or emotion, especially as manifested by facial expression or body language

Question 2

• At least 6 categories: of emotion

Answer 2

sad
happy
disgust
surprise
anger
fear

Question 3

Phylogeny and Ontogeny of Emotion

Answer 3

Probably all vertebrates get mad (think fish fights, nasty birds)

Question 4

anterior cingulate cortex

Answer 4

social and physical pain

Question 5

amygdala

Answer 5

fear

Question 6

Two main components of the Expression and Perception of
Emotion

each has its own neuronal
pathways

Answer 6

Conscious perception
Physical expression

Question 6

part of brain for disgust

Answer 6

insular cortex

Question 7

Conscious perception

Answer 7

(afraid, embarrassed, happy, etc).
This is the conscious sensation or feeling associated with
an emotional state

Question 8

Cerebral cortex

Answer 8

cingulate and frontal lobes and amygdala all part of arousal and appraisal

Question 9

Physical expression

Answer 9

(tears, blushing, crying face,
tachycardia (fast heart beat), goose bumps, etc). This is
the physical manifestation of the emotional state
– Peripheral autonomic, endocrine, and motor systems by way of
subcortical structures: amygdala, hypothalamus, and brainstem.
And maybe cingulate for more complicated expressions like
laughing

Question 10

• Hess (1949 Nobel) Physical Expression of Emotion

Answer 10

could instantly elicit rage and attack behavior by stimulation of the hypothalamus in awake normal cats (bottom). At other sites (in amygdala maybe?), he could get fear behavior at the sight of a rat (top)

Question 11

Human Facial Expression

Answer 11

Emotional expression in humans is more about face than body language- Darwin
made the point that these expressions are
found throughout all of humankind- suggesting intrinsic not cultural mechanisms

Question 12

duchenne vs posed smiles

Answer 12

We have a large number of face muscles that although most can be moved in a voluntary way, they are also involuntarily
activated by emotions
* A “pyramidal” smile (M1 motor cortex to lateral tracts– a.k.a. pyramidal tracts) that is
volitional looks different from a
spontaneous emotional smile (accessory motor areas in prefrontal cortex and ventral
basal ganglia- extrapyramidal pathway through the reticular formation in the brain
stem)

de Boulogne studied
the role of facial
muscle activation to
express emotions.
Facial stimulation of
muscles of smiling
looks different from
a happy smile

Question 13

Lateralization

Answer 13

Emotional expression in
right hemisphere (thus starts in left face then spreads)

Question 14

limbic system

Answer 14

This is phylogenetically
primitive cortex around the
brainstem

Question 15

Kluver-Bucy syndrome in
humans (or bilateral removal of
the medial temporal lobes in
monkeys)

Answer 15

causes profound
tameness and fearlessness

Question 16

John Downer Amygdala

Answer 16

removed one
amygdala in monkeys and
transected the optic chiasm and the
commissures (corpus callosum) that
link the two hemispheres: in so
doing he had an animal with a single
amygdala that had access to visual
information only from the eye on
the same side of the head
* Found that animals behavior
depended on which eye was used to
view the world.
* When the monkey used the eye on
the side with an amygdala it was
afraid of humans and aggressive.
When it used the eye on the side
without the amygdala he was tame.

Question 17

S.M. an artist with Urbach-Wiethe disease

Answer 17

which caused
bilateral destruction of the
amygdalas: could not recognize
frightened faces, was herself rather fearless. She was not afraid of spiders, snakes, haunted houses, Central Park late at night, alone (!), etc

Question 18

The James-Lange Theory

Answer 18

We experience
emotion in response to physiological changes in our body. We feel sad because we cry not the other way round. The physical changes
are the emotion

The James-Lange theory states that stimulating events trigger a physical reaction. The physical reaction is then labeled with a corresponding emotion. For example, if you run into a snake, your heart rate increases. James-Lange theory suggests that the increase in heart rate is what makes us realize we’re afraid.

Question 19

Cannon-Bard Theory

Answer 19

Cannon and Bard introduced some important criticisms of the James-Lange theory. Firstly, physical sensations and emotions aren’t always connected. We can experience physical sensations without feeling a particular emotion, and vice versa.

Another criticism of the James-Lange theory is that physical reactions don’t have a single corresponding emotion. For instance, heart palpitations could suggest fear, excitement, or even anger. The emotions are different, but the physical response is the same.

Question 20

conditioned stimulus

Answer 20

a stimulus when paired with an unconditioned stimulus that can eventually trigger a conditioned response

Question 21

unconditioned stimulus

Answer 21

a stimulus that leads to an automatic response (dog drools when it sees food)

Question 22

Depression

Answer 22

Most common of the major psychiatric disorders
* Lifetime incidence of 10-25% in women and 5- 12% in men
* 3-fold higher prevalence in 18-29 year olds than those over 60
* reduced concentration and attention
* reduced self-esteem and self-confidence
* ideas of guilt and unworthiness
* bleak and pessimistic views of the future
* ideas or acts of self-harm or suicide
* disturbed sleep
* diminished appetite

Question 23

Increased blood flow in some brain regions associated with depression

Answer 23

left amygdala, orbital and medial prefrontal cortex

Question 24

Deep Brain Stimulation for intractable depression

Answer 24

The first specificnetwork treatment for a psychiatric disease * If it is effective could become like Parkinson’s DBS treatment (30,000 cases in the US) Reward systems (such as nucleus accumbens, area 34) seem dis-regulated in some cases of obsessive compulsive disorder. Deep Brain Stimulation is effective

Question 25

Emotion

Answer 25

- a subjective, personal state that is relatively intense and occurs in response to something we experience. Emotion consists of two components: The expression, or physical response which often involves the autonomic motor and endocrine systems and the perception, that is the conscious registration of the emotion which involves the cerebral cortex and amygdala. Emotions are largely spontaneous

Question 26

Mood (Affect)

Answer 26

a prolonged, less intense, affective state that does not occur in response to something we experience. Mood states may not be consciously recognized and do not carry the intentionality that is associated with emotion

Question 27

Autonomic nervous system

Answer 27

components of the nervous system concerned with the regulations smooth muscle, cardiac muscle and glands (endocrine). Consists of the sympathetic nervous system which prepares the body for a “fight or flight” response and the parasympathetic nervous system which prepares the body for a “rest and digest” response

Question 28

Limbic system

Answer 28

a complex group of structures that lies around the thalamus and the medial portion of the cortex (limbic lobe). Parts of the limbic system (prefrontal cortex, amygdala, thalamus, hypothalamus and basal ganglia) are especially important in the experience and expression of emotion (green in the diagram), but the limbic system as a group contains other brain regions as well (blue)

Question 29

Amygdala

Answer 29

- a group of cells in the anterior/medial portion of the temporal lobe, comprised of several distinct subnuclei. The amygdala links cortical regions and thalamic nuclei that process sensory information with hypothalamic and brainstem effector systems and thus plays an important role in the expression of emotional behavior by influencing activity of the motor system

Question 30

Hypothalamus

Answer 30

a collection of nuclei located in the medial area below the thalamus. It has diverse function including the coordination and expression of motor activities & neuroendocrine activities that promote homeostasis. The hypothalamus plays a role in the activation of the sympathetic nervous system that is a part of any given emotional reaction

Question 31

Classical conditioning

Answer 31

training paradigm that associates an involuntary response (e.g. salivating) with a stimulus (e.g. bell ringing). Typically an involuntary, emotional, or reflexive response

Question 32

Operant conditioning

Answer 32

- training paradigm that associates a voluntary behavior (e.g. pressing a lever) with a consequence (e.g. receiving a treat). Typically a voluntary response

Question 33

Fear conditioning

Answer 33

a simple form of classical conditioning in which an animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus such as a light or a tone with the presence of an innately aversive stimulus such as a mild foot shock. After several pairings the animal will demonstrate fear (freezing behavior in rodents) in response to the neutral stimulus alone. The amygdala is a central structure in fear conditioning

Question 34

Unconditioned stimulus

Answer 34

a stimulus that naturally triggers a response. (e.g. feeling hungry when you smell food)

Question 35

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 35

- a previously neutral stimulus that initially caused no behavioral response. However, after becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus eventually will trigger the response produced by the unconditioned stimulus itself.

Question 36

Fear extinction

Answer 36

- a decline in the conditioned fear response caused by repeatedly presenting the conditioned stimulus without the feareliciting unconditioned stimulus

Question 37

1. Give an example demonstrating the James-Lange theory, that expression of emotion precedes and changes our perception of it.

Question 37

2. List the two main components of emotion and provide an example of each.