Lecture week 9 - Emotion 2 Flashcards
evidence answering the question:
Is emotion inborn?
- trait emotionality is moderately heritable (40- 60%; Bouchard & Loehlin, 2001), but the relations between trait emotionality and genetic variants have only small effect sizes (Sen et al., 2004)
- While emotionality-related brain metabolic measures have not been shown to be heritable (Glahn et al., 2007), specific genetic variants have been found to be associated with reward and threat processing respectively in the brain (Nikolova et al., 2016)
–> However, these findings could be a result of gene-environment interactions
brain structure early emotion scientists identified to be underlying emotion
limbic system
what is the limbic system?
a collection of subcortical structures underneath the cerebral cortex and above the brainstem, and includes the thalamus, hypothalamus, hippocampus, and basal ganglia among others
Some cortical structures, e.g., the cingulate cortex, insular cortex, and orbitofrontal cortex, are sometimes also seen as part of the limbic system
diminished emotional responses are associated with what?
injuries in the amygdala
key role of amygdala in what?
fear conditioning
amygdala role in fear circuit
amygdala:
– detects the threat on an unconscious level
– regulates behavioral and physiological responses, and
– sends signals to the cognitive systems which in turn give rise to the conscious feeling of fear
LeDoux 1996 two pathways that lead to the amygdala
a ‘quick and dirty’ low road: doesn’t involve cortical processing and activates the amygdala in a 12ms time-frame (sensory thalamus –> amygdala)
a ‘slow but accurate’ high road: (sensory thalamus –> sensory cortex –> amygdala)
(both start of with emotional stimulus and end with an emotional response)
LeDoux 1996 dual process enables what?
enables us to react before we (consciously) fear
what does the amygdala stimulate in response to a detected threat?
HPA axis
how does amygdala stimulate the HPA axis?
through indirect projections to the hypothalamus
HPA axis
- amygdala stimulates the HPA axis through indirect projections to the hypothalamus
- results in a release of corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which stimulates the anterior pituitary to release adrenocortico-trophic hormone (ACTH) into the bloodstream
- this stimulates the secretion of cortisol in the adrenal gland, causing blood levels of cortisol to rise
LeDoux 2012 reconceptualisation renaming survival circuits - what did this propose?
recognises the amygdala’s importance in triggering physiological responses to threat, but asserts that it is less important to subjective feelings
An evidence is that direct electrical stimulation of the amygdala reliably elicits physiological responses, but subjects do not report feelings (Inman et al., 2020)
Moreover, patients with amygdala lesions can consciously report emotional experiences, including fear (Anderson & Phelps, 2002)
anxiety disorders are associated with what?
amygdala hyperactivity to threatening and neutral stimuli (Janak and Tye 2015)
This applies to panic disorder, social phobias, and, to a lesser extent, PTSD and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD)
what does increased amygdala activity lead to?
hypothalamo-pituitary axis activation and a subsequent increase in hormone levels
what does increased amygdala activity on anxious people require?
requires greater prefrontal cortex (PFC) activity to suppress unpleasant emotions
amygdala hyperactivity and reduced PFC activity iw observed in what?
depressive disorders
brain’s reward system consists of what 3 major components?
liking
wanting
learning
what is the mesocorticaolimbic dopaminergic system composed of?
the ventral tegmental area (VTA), nucleus accumbens (NAc) and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) among other brain structures
the mesocorticaolimbic dopaminergic system is considered what?
the most important reward circuit (wanting) in the brain (Berridge and Kringelbach, 2015)
role of amygdala in reward circuits is demonstrated by what findings?
that amygdala lesions impair also reward-based behavior (Janak & Tye, 2015), particularly in the ability to respond to cues in the face of changing reward value
evidence has shown that the amygdala encodes what?
stimulus valence and also salience (Sangha et al., 2013)
what does it mean that the amygdala encodes stimulus valence in addition to salience?
– some neurons respond only to a fear cue while other neurons respond only to a reward cue
– some other neurons respond to both fear and reward cue, and proportionately to ANS activation
what is the orbitofrontal cortex connected reciprocally with and what does this form?
the amygdala to form a tightly linked circuit (Adolphs 2002)
processing capacity of OFC
polymodal processing capacity receiving multi-modality inputs both directly from neocortical sensory areas and indirectly via the amygdala
what is the OFC thought to act as?
an integrator of the inner and outer worlds
what is the OFC thought to be responsible for?
gut reactions to people and events
what have recent studies found the OFC represents?
reward value (Rolls et al., 2020)
what do OFC lesions impair?
decision making in situation of cessation of previously available reward
what are the prefrontal subdivisions of the brain?
dorsolateral, rostral and ventrolateral (seen side on from outside)
orbitofrontal in the top of the front (seen by looking down onto the brain)
ventromedial and dorsomedial (side on on cross section of the brain)
Pessoa 2014 view on brain network perspective of emotion
brain regions participate in many functions (pluripotency), and many functions are carried out by many regions (degeneracy)
pluripotency
brain regions participate in many functions
degeneracy
many functions are carried out by many regions
how are brain processes carried out according to Goldman-Rakic 1988?
distributed and parallel rather than sequential and hierarchical
features of brain networks
contain overlapping brain regions so specific areas belong to several intersecting networks - so the processes carried out by a given brain region is not fixed to a certain mental function
what did McIntosh (2000) propose a region’s network affiliation is dynamically determined by?
the interactions between different parts of the brain at a given time, i.e., the neural context
example to support Macintosh 2000 view that network affiliation is determined by interactions between parts of the brain at a given time
when a cue signals the possibility of reward (compared to non-reward cue), cortical-subcortical functional connections increased systematically (Kinnison et al., 2012)
emotional processing increases what at the overall network level?
functional connections across cortical and subcortical regions
within the cortex, functional connectivity increased in the case of what?
in the case of reward (Pessoa & McMenamin, 2017)
within the cortex, functional connectivity decreased where in the case of what?
ecreased within several cortical regions in the case of threat (Pessoa & McMenamin, 2017)
stronger signal correlations in the salience network are associated with what?
stronger negative affect (Hermans et al., 2011)
3 intensively studies networks
salience network
executive control network
default (or task-negative) network
salience network
thought to be important for orienting attention to conspicuous stimuli (e.g., potential threats), and in the taking of rapid, unpremeditated actions
executive control network
thought to be important for the control of executive functions involving goal-oriented processing, deliberate attention, and working memory
default (or task-negative) network
observed in the absence of effortful tasks, typically during resting state scans; is associated with episodic memory retrieval, autobiographical memory, and semantic memory related to internal thought etc.
experiment studying changes in network organisation across time and its findings
neuroimaging study (McMenamin et al., 2014):
- participants anticipated either threat (mild electric shocks) or safety (no shocks) for about 60 seconds
- Initially, threat increased communication within the salience network, and decreased the extent to which the executive control network facilitated communication between other networks
- However, during the intermediate period, threat decreased efficiency in the salience network, and the amygdala became more engaged in communicating between networks
evidence of cultural effects on emotion
In a cross-cultural study (Boiger, 2013), participants indicated for a range of anger and shame situations, their appraisals and action tendencies as well as anger and shame intensity
A bottom-up (i.e. data-driven) classification program was used to identify types of anger
The dominant Japanese type of anger (55% of Japanese respondents) was characterized by nodding and smiling, as well as rumination – which hurts relationships least
A major American type of anger (43% of Americans) was strongly associated with blaming the other person and direct expression
In a series of studies, emotions in Japanese contexts appear to be understood as between people, whereas in American contexts emotions are understood as primarily within people (Uchida et al., 2009)
Analysis of television interviews of Olympic athletes revealed that when asked about their relationships, Japanese athletes used significantly more emotion words than American athletes
Moreover, Japanese observers inferred more emotions when viewing athletes pictured with teammates, while American observers inferred more emotion for athletes pictured alone
Chentsova-Dutton and Tsai (2010) primed participants either the individual self or a family member, and then measured their emotions in response to a film or a piece of music
European Americans rated their emotions as more intense after individual-self prime, while Asian Americans rated their emotions as more intense after family prime
The findings suggest that for European Americans emotion is individually-oriented and linked to independent conception of self, whereas for Asian Americans emotion is relationship-oriented and linked to interdependent conception of self
differences in neurobiological substrates (study)
An fMRI study with Chinese, Asian American, and European American participants recorded different correlates of emotion during emotional film clips (Immordino-Yang et al., 2014):
In Chinese, feeling strength was associated more with activation of the ventral than the dorsal anterior insula;
in European Americans, feeling strength was associated more with activation of the dorsal than the ventral anterior insula;
the bicultural East-Asian American group showed an inter-mediate pattern of activation, with brain activity equally divided between the ventral and the dorsal anterior insula.
most emotions occur in the contexts of what?
social interactions and relationshihps
example of a non-social emotion
those caused by physical threats
according to Boiger & Mesquita, 2012, how are emotions constructed?
socially
according to Boiger & Mesquita, 2012, the unfolding of emotions is a function of what?
– moment-to-moment social interactions
– ongoing relationships (relationship quality & future expectancy) – sociocultural contexts
De Leersnyder et al., 2021 culture; logic to emotion
Emotions reflect and negotiate people’s self-definition as well as
social relationships (i.e., emotions is relationship engagements)
Different ways of being and relating are valued in different cultural context, so the emotions that are valued also differ
Hence, emotions that are helpful in achieving the culturally valued self and relationship goals are encouraged and rewarded. As a result, people experience these emotions more frequently and more intensely
