M4: Emotion

Question 1

Define emotions

Answer 1

Sets of physiological responses, action tendencies, and subjective feelings that adaptively engage humans & other animals to react to events of biological and/ or individual significance

Question 2

Emotions are the interaction of ___, ___, and ___.

Answer 2

Behavior, physiology, and feeling

Question 3

Define categorical theories of emotion.

Answer 3

Regard each emotion as a discrete, independent entity, and typically distinguish a small set of basic emotions from a larger pool of complex emotion

Question 4

Contrast basic and complex emotions.

Answer 4

Basic emotions: innate, pan-cultural, evolutionarily old, shared w. other species, and expressed by particular physiological patterns and facial configurations.

Complex emotions: learned, socially & culturally learned, evolutionarily new, most evident in humans, and expressed by combinations of response patterns that characterize basic emotions.

Question 5

Define dimensional theories of emotion.

Answer 5

Consider each emotion a point within a complex space that includes 2+ continuous dimensions (usually arousal and valence)

Question 6

Define arousal and valence.

Answer 6

Arousal: the physiological and/ or subjective intensity of the emotion.

Valence: the degree of pleasantness of an emotion.

Question 7

Define vector models.

Answer 7

Order emotions along axes of positive and negative valence (oriented 90deg & meet at common neutral endpoint)

Question 8

Define circumplex models.

Answer 8

Order emotions around the circumference of a circle centered at the intersection of 2 orthogonal axes (arousal & valence)

Question 9

Define component process theories

Answer 9

View emotions as fluid & dynamic (not fixed states); requiring flexible interactions of multiple component processes.

Question 10

Define cognitive appraisal and its relation to component process theories.

Answer 10

Cognitive appraisal is the process of evaluating and interpreting the meaning of a situation/ event. In component process theories, emotions are categorized according to the similarity of cog. appraisal processes (e.g. urgency, coping ability, goal advancement) used.

Question 11

Define vertical integration models.

Answer 11

Models that attempt to provide an integrative account of emotional processing across many levels of the nervous system; relating different levels of processing w. each other and w. changes in the body (i.e. relate the limbic system w. neocortical contribution)

Question 12

What are the two types of fear responses observed in fear conditioning studies?

Answer 12

Cued fear, elicited by the conditioned stimulus (CS), and contextual fear, elicited by environmental features such as the testing chamber.

Question 13

Which brain structure is crucial for the acquisition and expression of conditioned fear?

Answer 13

The amygdala.

Question 14

Which brain regions are in the vertical integration model based on fear conditioning studies?

Answer 14

The amygdala, hippocampus, and ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Question 15

What is the role of the amygdala in fear conditioning?

Answer 15

It integrates info. from subcortical and cortical processing pathways

Question 16

What is the role of the hippocampus in fear conditioning?

Answer 16

It is important in contextual fear acquisition & context-dependent recovery of fear after extinction learning.

Question 17

What is the role of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex in fear conditioning?

Answer 17

It suppresses fear responses when they are no longer adaptive (extinction learning) via inhibitory connections within specific amygdala subnuclei.

Question 18

Describe the fast route to the amygdala and its purpose.

Answer 18

In this route, the amygdala gets direct sensory input from the thalamus. Its purpose is to rapidly detect threats and other relevant sensory stimuli by bypassing primary sensory cortical areas.

Question 19

Describe the slower cortical route to the amygdala and its purpose.

Answer 19

In this route, sensory input goes from the thalamus, to the neocortex, and then to the amygdala

Question 20

How does damage to the amygdala affect fear responses in humans?

Answer 20

Patients with amygdala damage show diminished conditioned fear responses, such as fear-potentiated startle and skin conductance responses (SCRs). These deficits persist even when the patient knows what the conditioned stimulus (CS) predicts, indicating that declarative knowledge of learning parameters is not enough to generate appropriate defense behavior. This suggests that simple forms of fear conditioning can be partly dissociated from declarative memory.

Question 21

What brain structures become active during the acquisition of fear?

Answer 21

Amygdala, thalamus, and anterior cingulate cortex.

Question 22

Define emotional preservation.

Answer 22

The continued deployment of cognitive strategies when they are no longer appropriate in problem-solving tasks.

Question 23

Define fear extinction.

Answer 23

The reduction of fear response due to the uncoupling of US + CS.

Question 24

Fear extinction is dependent on the integrity of what brain region?

Answer 24

The ventromedial prefrontal cortex.

Question 25

How does the vmPFC interact with the amygdala to reduce conditioned fear responses>

Answer 25

The vmPFC suppresses the amygdala’s response, i.e. the vmPFC plays a role in regulating the amygdala’s response to fear-inducing stimuli.

Question 26

What happens to individuals with damage to the vmPC?

Answer 26

They have difficulty reversing stimulus-reinforcer relationships/ have difficulty retaining extinction behavior.

Question 27

What brain region is majorly involved in contextual fear conditioning?

Answer 27

The hippocampus.

Question 28

Contrast between patients with bilateral amygdala damage and patients with bilateral hippocampal damage in fear learning studies.

Answer 28

Patients with bilateral amygdala damage have intact factual knowledge of the predictive relationship between the CS and the US but fail to exhibit SCRs to the CS. Patients with bilateral hippocampal damage have intact SCRs to the CS, but have no factual knowledge about the predictive relationship between the CS and US.

Question 29

What is the Somatic Marker Hypothesis?

Answer 29

The Somatic Marker Hypothesis explains the role of emotion in decision-making by proposing that bodily feelings associated with emotions, called somatic markers, are stored and processed in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and amygdala.

Question 30

What are somatic markers?

Answer 30

Bodily feelings associated with emotions that serve as heuristic rules of thumb for decision making. They can be positive or negative and facilitate reasoning by filtering through information and allowing organisms to make efficient decisions without elaborate logical weighing.

Question 31

How does the Somatic Marker Hypothesis explain decision making?

Answer 31

It states that reasoned decision-making is influenced by biasing signals (somatic markers) arising from changes in the body periphery. When encountering a similar situation, prior knowledge calls on relevant somatic markers, triggering the reactivation of appropriate emotions and facilitating logical reasoning.

Question 32

What evidence supports the Somatic Marker Hypothesis?

Answer 32

Experimental evidence comes from studies using the Iowa Gambling Task. Patients with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) continue to make non-optimal choices and exhibit poor decision-making abilities (+ no SCRs).

Question 33

What brain region triggers the reactivation of appropriate somatosensory patterns (Somatic Marker Hypothesis) and how?

Answer 33

The vmPFC triggers the reactivation of appropriate somatosensory patterns through its connections to the amygdala.

Question 34

What are the effects of damage to the vmPFC in relation to the Somatic Marker Hypothesis?

Answer 34

Patients with vmPFC damage have a compromised ability to learn from somatic marker links to risky actions, thereby exhibiting nonoptimal choices and poor decision-making abilities.

Question 35

What role does the insula play in decision making?

Answer 35

The insula plays a key role in monitoring the physiological state of the organism (interoception) and storing representations of visceral and skeletomotor responses to emotional states. These representations are reinstated during decision-making.

Question 36

How does emotion interact with perception and attention?

Answer 36

Emotion prioritizes the processing of sensory information with emotional significance. This prioritization occurs through both automatic (involuntary) detection of salient features and voluntary attentional biases towards emotionally significant features.

Question 37

What anatomical connection provides an avenue by which emotion may influence perception? Describe it.

Answer 37

The connection between the amygdala and sensory cortices. In this pathway, input from the visual cortices goes to the inferior temporal cortex (amygdala), and projects back to most stations along the ventral visual stream (feedback)

Question 38

The amygdala does not have many projections to the frontoparietal attentional control systems, but it can still influence goal-directed attention. How?

Answer 38

1. By releasing acetylcholine from the basal forebrain, which increases cortical activity & enhances attention
2. Through projections to prefrontal interfaces that then target other areas that innervate the attentional system
3. Feedback projections (e.g. sensory cortex)

Question 39

Explain the Memory Modulation Hypothesis.

Answer 39

Claims that emotionally arousing events enhance memory in part by engaging systems that regulate the storage of newly acquired information (i.e. amygdala enhances memory consolidation in MTL, dlPFC, vlPFC to enhance the retention of emotional events)

Question 40

In the Memory Modulation Hypothesis, how does the amygdala enhance memory consolidation?

Answer 40

It does so through direct (amygdala to other brain structures) and indirect (via the release of hormones into the bloodstream) projections.

Question 41

Name and explain the 2 strategies for emotion regulation.

Answer 41

1. Situation selection: individual changes their behavioral pattern in an antecedent way to avoid the emotional encounter altogether
2. Cognitive reappraisal: individual interprets the meaning of the elicitor such that it alters its emotional impact

Question 42

List the brain’s activity patterns when actively decreasing a negative emotion.

Answer 42

Increased dorsolateral frontoparietal attentional network activity, increased dorsal ACC & ventrolateral PFC activity, and reduced amygdala & insula activity.

Question 43

What is mentalizing?

Answer 43

The ability to infer mental states in others and attribute their actions to their beliefs, goals, desires, and feelings.

Question 44

What are the two theories on how humans mentalize?

Answer 44

1. By simulating the behaviors and internal states of others
2. By building theories on how others typically behave in particular contexts

Question 45

Where are mirror neurons found in the brain?

Answer 45

In the inferior frontal gyrus (area F5) and rostral inferior parietal cortex (which projects to area F5)

Question 46

Neurons from what brain region relay perceptual information about biological motion to the parietal component of the mirror system?

Answer 46

Superior Temporal Sulcus

Question 47

Do neurons in the superior temporal sulcus exhibit mirroring responses?

Answer 47

No

Question 48

Why is it that observing someone’s actions does not automatically elicit an analogous motor response?

Answer 48

Because the premotor cortex is inhibited while we see someone perform an action

Question 49

Name 2 reasons for why humans have mirror neurons.

Answer 49

1. Provide a means for understanding social actions
2. Links perception and action, (link established by experience)

Question 50

How can one distinguish between one’s own actions and those of others?

Answer 50

Through perspective taking

Question 51

Taking the 3rd person perspective elicits activity in what brain regions?

Answer 51

The paracingulate cortex, temporal polar cortex, superior temporal sulcus, mPFC, right inferior parietal cortex, temporoparietal junction

Question 52

What is the false-belief experimental task? Name 2 approaches to it.

Answer 52

Experimental task used to test the prediction of others’ behavior according to the false beliefs that they have. 2 approaches are: location-change tasks and unexpected-contents task

Question 53

Define empathy and sympathy.

Answer 53

Empathy is the ability to comprehend and resonate (share) with someone else’s emotional state.
Sympathy is the ability to understand someone else’s emotional state without sharing the emotional experience