Lecture week 2 Flashcards
In what way can maltreatment chronically increase stress-sensitivity on a cognitive-emotional level?
Parents may hand the child negative attitudes (working models: e.g., ‘you are worthless’), which may become incorporated in his/her self image. This may lead to a strong social sensitivity that may be evoked in new stressful situations
In what way can maltreatment chronically increase stress-sensitivity on a neurobiological level?
It can chronically alter the sensitivity of hormonal stress reactions, such as the HPA-axis/ adrenergic system.
What is the order of Becks Cognitive model?
Heredity and early life adversities –> cognitive vulnerability –> negative self-inferences, dysfunctional attitudes, and low self worth –> symptoms of depression and anxiety (–> back to cognitive vulnerability, and –> current life stressor –> back to negative self-inferences etc.)
What is the link between childhood maltreatment and implicit negative self-associations?
People who have experienced emotional abuse are faster in categorizing depression words when there is a match between the depression words and the self.
Emotional maltreatment strongest predictor of negative implicit self-associations.
What is the link between the amygdala and the hippocampus?
The amygdala gives information to the hippocampus so that emotional experiences are also remembered better.
True or false: It is quite early in childhood where learning about safety and threat is crucial. This is when the amygdala is developing. The brain can learn if a child is growing up in an unsafe environment. It will become sensitive in the detection of danger. Later in life, when the PFC is developing, it is more about how you regulate your emotions. The brain is an anticipation machine, and ‘making future’ is the most important thing it does.
True
Through which brain region does a fear reaction reach the amygdala the fastest?
(quick and dirty route)
Thalamus
Through which brain region does a fear reaction reach the amygdala after that and what hormone is released?
The visual cortex, norepinephrine
Define sensitization
When you are exposed to a lot of stress during childhood the threshold of activating the amygdala and the intensity of the activation will be stronger
Give an example of the difference between the abusive environment in childhood vs. the exposure to a stressful context when you are older.
Amygdala activation in response to angry and fearful faces in soldiers after combat exposure was found. Six months later the amygdala responsivity was normalized.
Is there a decrease or an increase found in medial PFC volume in individuals with reported history of emotional maltreatment
a decrease
What is the role of the mPFC
The mPFC is involved in regulation of affective states & emotional behavior, fear extinction, and self-referential processes.
Also, the mPFC activity attenuates fear response by reducing amygdala activation over time.
Lastly, the mPFC is involved in modulating neuroendocrine and autonomic stress response/
(regulation of emotional arousal)
Studies showed that patients with PTSD the mPFC is less/more activated. It also showed that the more the amygdala was activated, the less/more the mPFC was activated.
less, less
True or false: Research showed that people with BPD were slower in a working memory task when shown emotional faces during the task → higher amygdala activation.
True
What happens during dissociation?
Disturbances in the integration of consciousness memory, identity, physical observations and the ‘self’:
Detachment of trauma, emotional disconnection and memory problems
