Module 1 Flashcards
Define “Psychological Hedonism” and what is its problem with subjectivity?
Organisms approach goals/engage in actions which have desirable or appetitive out comes and avoid events that are expected to have unpleasant or aversive outcomes.
Subjectivity: “desirable” + “unpleasant” are subjective and vary across individuals; difficult to determine the degree of desirability/unpleasantness
What is the difference between internal and external motivators?
Internal: motives, eg. Hunger
External: incentives, the value associated w/ the item (cucumber + monkey example), eg. Tasty food
What is the difference between Determinism vs. Free-will?
Free-will: behaviour is not predictable
Determinism: cause-effect relationship, psychology mainly studies from this perspective
What are the 2 philosophical ideas surrounding the Mind-Body Problem?
Dualism: acknowledges that the mind and brain are qualitatively different; 2 separate entities
Monism: acknowledges that mind and brain are qualitatively the same; the same entity
Body -> many measurable parameters, eg. Height, weight, sweat
Mind -> known to one’s own consciousness, can be barred by language
What are the 2 types of Dualism?
Cartesian dualism: mind-body interaction, the pineal body is where the “soul” is, the mind and brain (body) communicate with each other.
Parallelism: no interactions between the mind and body, the mind works separately from the brain (body)
What are the 2 types of Monism?
Mentalism: only the mind is real
Materialism: mind is generated by body, the mind state is made by the brain’s state, every mind state has an underlying brain state, EXPERIMENTALLY APPROACHABLE: can recreate mental states by recreating body states -> establish mind-body relationship
What is the difference between a theory and a fact?
Theory are the dots that outline the fact (the circle)
What makes a good theory? (4 components)
Testability, Fruitfulness, Simplicity, Comprehensiveness
-> a good theory is intrinsically connected to conducting valid+reliable research
What is empirical research and the scientific method?
An evidence-based method for accepting/rejecting hypotheses. Uses the scientific method.
Scientific Method: Question -> Background Research -> Construct Hypothesis -> Test w/ Experiment (if procedure doesn’t work, stay here and troubleshoot) -> Analyze Data + Draw Conclusions -> Communicate Results
What are 6 factors to consider when conducting research?
Operational definitions: specifies what is measured, and what is the meaning behind the measurement
Control groups: provides a baseline of the effects of IVs on DVs
Confounds: Variables that affect both IVs and DVs, randomization can help mitigate confounding effects
Reproducibility: Whether scientific findings can be reproduced without the influence of errors/biases
Production of public knowledge: Created from peer review for quality control and verification
Research ethics: Guideline outlining acceptable + unacceptable behaviour in research; Researchers - honesty + integrity, Experimental work - animal care (use substitution) + human subject protection (confidentiality)
What is ethology?
The scientific + objective study of animal behaviour
-> focus on behaviour under natural conditions
->assumes behavioural traits are evolutionarily adaptive and selected for
It is important to appreciate that many animal behaviours are also species-specific
What are 2 conflicting views on thinking about animal behaviour as humans?
Anthropomorphism: extending + attributing human characteristics to other animals
Anthropodenial: a priori rejection of shared characteristics between humans and animals
Interpretation of animal behaviour should avoid OVER-ANTHROPOMORPHISM and ANTHROPODENIAL
What are Tinbergen’s 4 questions for ethologists?
Function: how does behaviour affect the animal’s chances of survival and reproduction? Why does the animal respond that way instead of some other way?
Causation: what are the stimuli that elicit the response, how is it modified by recent learning
Development: how does the behaviour change w/ age, what early experiences are necessary for animal to display certain behaviour?
Evolutionary history: How does the behaviour compare with similar behaviour in related species, how might it begun through phylogeny?
What are the differences between Instinct and Learning? How should experiments be designed when organisms are involved?
Instincts: related to biologically essential resources, critical for animal survival, potentially evolutionarily ancient
Learning: acquisition of new behaviour, allows for flexibility of innate behaviour
Experiments should be designed with organism’s natural behaviour (produced by their natural environments and physiology) taken into consideration
What 3 resources and 6 behaviours that are biologically essential?
Resources: Food, Water, Thermal Energy
Behaviours: Feeding, Drinking, Temperature Regulation, Sex, Sleep, Pain Avoidance
What is the homeostatic model and its relationship to motivation?
Homeostatic model: Body makes automatic adjustments to restore stability when there is a departure from the narrow tolerance ranges for biologically essential resources.
-> argues for regulatory function of motivation
Start signals -> detection of deviation
Stop signals -> when tolerance range is met
Motivated behaviour initiated by START SIGNALS, terminated by STOP SIGNALS
What is the peripheral theory of homeostatic signals?
Peripheral theory: Signals are generated outside of the brain.
Example: stomach contraction recorded in human subjects that reported hunger, but patients with gastric bypass still eat normal amount of food
What is the central theory of homeostatic signals?
Central theory: signals are generated in the brain
Hypothalamus is a key brain region for regulating homeostasis through a variety of hormones.
What are central motive states (CMS)?
- CMS are hypothesized states, that are defined by the stimuli (hunger CMS, thirst CMS)
- Pathways and/or centres in the brain become activated and trigger a CMS for a period of time
- Active CMS predisposes the organism to directly emit certain behaviours to particular stimuli
What are limitations of the homeostatic model?
Eating: we eat to prevent starvation, homeostatic model would predict that the longer we wait to eat, the more we eat (which is not often the case)
- Some other factors may be involved; humans may have social factors playing a role.
The homeostatic model is not successful at explaining ALL aspects of motivated behaviour.
What are 2 ways the body informs the brain what it needs?
- Direct innervation
- Signalling molecules in the circulatory system
What is the differences between Neurotransmitters, Neuromodulators, and Neurohormones
Neurotransmitters: synaptically transmitted, usually acts on ionotropically, fast, but not the most effective for neuromodulation due to being energetically expensive
Neuromodulators: synaptically and extra-synaptically transmitted, usually metabotropic (G protein coupled receptors), release site may not be directly adjacent to receptor site
Neurohormone: secreted and acts on other parts of the brain or other organs, works both ways (body -> brain, brain -> body) and across different systems
What is neuromodulation?
The modulation of neuronal and neural circuit functions, which subsequently alter physiology and behaviour
Neuromodulators + Neurohormones: What are monoamines and what are 3 examples of monoamines?
Monoamines: synthesized from amino acids
Dopamine, Serotonin, Norepinephrine/epinephrine
Neuromodulators + Neurohormones: What are neuropeptides and what are 3 examples of neuropeptides?
Neuropeptides: genetically encoded
Oxytocin/vasopressin, Endorphin, Insulin
Neuromodulators + Neurohormones: What are fatty acids/lipid molecules and what are 3 examples?
Fatty acids/lipid molecules: modification of fat + lipid molecules
Anandamide, Testosterone, Estrogen
Where can neuromodulation happen?
Every synapse is subject to neuromodulation!
Can happen beyond the connectome
Co-transmission: multiple chemicals released by same neuron
Intrinsic Neuromodulation: w/in the circuit
Extrinsic Neuromodulation: outside the circuit
What are the 5 taste receptors, and what do they each detect?
Sweet: sucrose
Bitter: quinine
Salty: sodium chloride
Sour: citric acid
Umami: savory (glutamate + aspartate)
How is taste modulated by starvation?
In drosophila, during starvation, their taste receptors become modulated to become less sensitive to bitter tastes, increasing their chance of feeding, along with increasing their chance of consuming toxic food.
How can anticipation change hormone levels (reproductive behaviour)?
Anticipation (presumably sexual motivation), potentially modulates FSH levels
->from a “case study” (?) published 1970
How is behaviour prioritized under different conditions for C. Elegans?
Well-fed male: prioritized sex over food.
Hermaphrodites: always prioritize food, due its self fertilizing abilities.
Starved male: modifies sensory neuron function to prioritize food
Different motivational states -> different behavioural prioritization
- optimized for organism’s fitness
What are 3 ways to describe feelings?
Temperament: long-term, stable tendencies to having positive or negative affect
Moods: low-level, persistent, often non-specific affective experience
Emotions: more intense, brief, specific reaction; specific towards something and react in some ways
How can we operationally define an emotion?
An emotion is operationally defined by the situation it is observed in and the consequences it produces.
What are 3 ways to measure emotion?
Verbal behaviour: self-reported subjective emotional obtained (via ratings), has potential problem with language and biases
Non-verbal behaviour: Most can be objectively and directly observed and measured. Needs to be interpreted by the situational context
Physiological responses: Can be objectively and directly measured. Responses can stem from other sources, not just emotion
What are 6 evolutionarily adaptive reasons for us to have emotions?
- Allows us to act quickly w/ little cognitive processing
- Prepares the body for situations
- Influences thoughts and reasoning
- Guide future motivated behaviour
- Communicates w/ other members in social settings
- Regulates social behaviours
What are the 4 terms used to describe a stimulus in terms of motivated behaviour as a result of emotion?
Presentation + Positive Affect: Hope (increase motivation to engage)
Presentation + Negative Affect: Fear (decrease motivation to engage, increase motivation to avoid)
Removal + Positive Affect: Disappointment (decrease motivation to engage, increase motivation to avoid)
Removal + Negative Affect: Relief (increase motivation to engage)
What is the James-Lange theory of emotion and its limitations?
Emotional experience is the perception of the response to the situation.
Limitation: same physiological responses cause different emotions
What is the Cannon-Bard theory of emotion and its limitations?
Thalamic sensory inputs generate emotional experience and physiological responses independently.
Limitation: Spinal cord injury patients reported less subjective feelings t anger and fear (contradicting the theory)
What is Schachter’s Cognitive Labelling Theory?
Physiological arousal is necessary for emotional experience, the cognitive interpretation of the arousal determines the emotional experience.
What are the components of the limbic system, and what other structures does it interact with for goal-directed behaviour?
Amygdala, Mammillary body, Hippocampus, Fornix, Cingulate cortex, Septum, Olfactory bulb/piriform cortex, Entorhinal cortex, Hypothalamus
Limbic system interacts with NUCLEUS ACCUMBENS and FRONTAL CORTEX
What are the hemispherical differences in emotion and the sword and shield hypothesis?
Left hemisphere -> dominates for positive emotions
Right hemisphere -> dominates for negative emotions
The sword + shield hypothesis: cortical substrates and cortical circuits for approach motivation + actions overlap functionally and anatomically with each other. Same with avoidance motivation + actions.
What is the “pleasure centre” of the brain?
The circuit involving the medial forebrain bundle, lateral hypothalamus, and ventral tegmental area.
VTA receives GABAergic and NEergic modulatory inputs, and is highly DAergic, projecting to NAc and PFC
What is the difference between liking and wanting?
Liking related to the endorphin system, wanting related to the DAergic system
Animals with DA depletion in tegmental area will not work for reward (not wanting), but would still consume if fed (liking).
What key brain region is involved in fear?
The amygdala mediates the emotional responses to fearful stimuli.
Patient SM: amygdala lesion led to no fear
Toxoplasma Gondii: Infected rats show impaired predator aversion due to altered gene expression in medial amygdala
What regions of the brain are involved in fear conditioning?
Medial geniculate nucleus in thalamus + amygdala -> for fear conditioning
Auditory cortex process complex sounds for auditory fear conditioning
Hippocampus critical for contextual aspect of fear conditioning
Lateral nucleus of the amygdala: sensory interface + acquisition of fear learning
Medial nucleus of the amygdala: behavioural response
What is an example of the natural learning tendency being maladaptive?
PTSD: excessive emotional + physiological responses to cues associated w/ traumatic events
Which motor systems control voluntary and involuntary emotional expression? What brain region is involved in face recognition?
Voluntary: pyramidal motor system
Involuntary: extrapyramidal motor system
Fusiform gyrus: plays a role in face recognition + facial expression recognition
What does the mere exposure effect show?
How subliminal emotional information can be processed (w/o our awareness)
What are the 2 pathways involved in emotion processing, proposed by LeDoux?
“Long” pathway: cognitive recognition
“Short” pathway: quick action (survival)
Initial action: evolutionarily selected response
Cognitive appraisal: rationalizing, bring additional information to make a decision
Modified action: best reflects the “decision”
What is social referencing?
Infants seek out information from others to clarify the situation then act accordingly
- emotional expressions can provide incentives for desired behaviour
- similar principles of emotional rewards and punishers apply, change our motivation to engage/avoid
How does pain induce anhedonia-like behaviour in rats?
Pain causes GABAergic inhibition, leading to decreased excitability of VTA DA neurons -> less motivated to work for sugar reward (anhedonia-like behaviour)
VTA-NAc projections underly the anhedonia-like behaviour
What are 3 examples of the body-emotion interaction?
Insula cortex + anterior cingulate cortex respond to bad taste + emotional disgust
Pain-killers alleviate psychological pain
Body temp affects processing of “cold” and “warm” emotions
What are 4 ideas that are the current consensus on emotion research?
- Emotional stimuli produce widespread activity in the entire body, not just in parts of the brain
- All brain areas activated by emotional stimuli could also be activated during other psychological processes
- No brain structure has been invariably linked to a particular emotion
- The same emotional stimuli sometimes activate different areas in different people
What terms are used to describe genome editing and RNA interference?
Genome editing: add = knock in, delete = knock out
RNA interference: knock down (still has a chance to escape interference and express proteins)
What is the difference between a mutation and polymorphism?
Mutation: changes to DNA sequence of an organism, we know of the “wild type”
Polymorphism: presence of 2/more variant forms of a specific gene that can occur among different individuals/populations, no “wild type”
What are the 2 approaches to establishing the relationship between gene and behaviour?
- Detect the genetic variations in subjects w/ known behavioural deficits
- Induce the genetic variations to induce corresponding behavioural deficits
How can you detect genetic variations in human patients, and what are the pros and cons associated with this research method?
Begin w/ a disorder -> diagnose w/ phenotypes -> compare genotypes between patient population + healthy cohorts
Can use candidate gene approach or examine whole genome (GWAS)
Pros: start with human diseases, discoveries are usually directly relevant + impactful
Cons: often correlational, hundreds of variations present; multiple genes may contribute to the same phenotypes (redundancy); possible complex genetic interactions involved; expensive
What are 3 advantages and drawbacks to using model organisms to study neurogenetics, and what 5 examples of these organisms?
Advantages:
1. Invasive techniques are possible
2. Well-established tools + protocols to manipulate gene expressions
3. Short life cycle allows for rapid, larger scale, high-throughput, investigations
Drawbacks:
- Not all genes are conserved, differences in biology
- No comparable behavioural complexity
- Cannot interrogate the mind
Examples: mice, zebra fish, drosophila, C. Elegans, yeast
What does the foraging gene (for) in Drosophila code for?
Encodes a cGMP-dependent protein kinase, that adds phosphate to molecules in cells
Has 4 diff promoters, that make 21 diff products which have different functions and locations.
What does pleiotropy mean?
one gene regulates multiple behavioural phenotypes
What is a screen in neurogenetics?
Find genes associated with certain condition -> go through many conditions with the subject to cause mutations to certain genes -> plot phenotypic changes to see which genes may be involved in causing the condition
