Module 2: Emotion Flashcards
prevailing view in psychology textbooks that there set of (5/6) distinct basic emotions that correspond to English emotion words
basic emotion theory
known as the father of emotion science; studied emotion expression and perception through observations of behavior; emotions originally served a survival function; found similarities across people and cultures suggesting several basic emotions that are largely innate
Charles Darwin
joy, sadness, anger, fear, disgust, (surprise)
the Big 5/6 emotions
Ekman studied Papua New Guineans who were isolated from the outside world by telling them brief stories and having them match the paragraph with a photo of a face; found high agreement for most of big 5/6 except for fear and surprise
cultural universality of facial expressions
anatomically based system to describe all visible facial movements; breaks down facial expressions into components of certain muscle movements called “action units” (AUs)
facial action coding system (FACS)
smile that communicates positive experiences/intentions
reward smile
smile that signals appeasement, social bonds
affiliative smile
smile that negotiates status in social hierarchies
dominance smile
eyes more informative for Asian observers - Big 5/6 inadequate; mouth more informative for Western observers - Big 5/6 adequate
Differences in mental models of emotional expressions between Western Caucasian and East Asian observers
Panksepp’s proposed classification scheme for basic emotions
expectancy, fear, rage, panic (research on rodents)
Elkman, Friesen, and Ellsworth’s proposed classification scheme for basic emotions
joy, disgust, sadness, anger, fear, surprise
better identification (recognition of face identity) of people from one’s own race than others; caused by differences in contact frequency (differences in expertise)
other-race effect in face identification
US and Himba ethnic group participants; when given labels of Big 5 emotions both groups sort photos according to those labels but in a free sorting task only the US participants sorted into Big 5 distinct piles
No culturally universal categories of facial expressions
brain region involved in detection of facial components
occipital face area (OFA/IOG)
brain region involved in holistic face processing/identity
fusiform face area (FFA/FUS)
brain region sensitive to detection of body parts
extrastriate body area (EBA)
brain region sensitive to full bodies
fusiform body area (FBA)
brain region involved in dynamic and changeable aspects of faces (emotion, eye gaze, mouth movement, lip reading), biological motion, and many other things (including theory of mind in temporo-parietal junction)
superior temporal sulcus (STS)
brain region responsible for early perception of facial features
inferior occipital gyri
brain region responsible for invariant aspects of faces and perception of unique identity
lateral fusiform gyrus
someone else holds a mental state (belief) that differs from one’s own belief and from the current state of reality; used to test for theory of mind
false belief
thinking about others’ thoughts (not just them in general)
theory of mind
brain region associated with theory of mind
(left) temporo-parietal junction (TPJ)
known as the father of psychological science; studied the role of body and brain areas in the experience of emotion; focused on the conscious experience of emotion or “feelings”
William James
a stimulus (processed by the sensory cortex) causes a bodily response (motor cortex) which then triggers a feeling or emotion (feedback from body)
James-Lange Theory of emotion
part of the autonomic nervous system that prepares for action (arousal) by providing glucose and freeze, fight or flight response
sympathetic ANS
part of the autonomic nervous system that replenishes the body (important: vagus nerve with motor and sensory fibers)
parasympathetic ANS
ANS is too slow and too unspecific
general critique of James-Lange Theory
cutting the vagus nerve (major parasympathetic nerve carrying sensory information from the viscera) does not disrupt emotion expression
Sherrington critique of James-Lange Theory
injection of adrenaline causes body changes similar to intense emotions but no subjective experience of emotions (except when primed!); subjects reported feeling “keyed up”, they seemed to feel “as if” they were afraid, sad or happy, but ”without true feeling”
Maranon critique of James-Lange Theory
sudden unprovoked attacks in fury; a kind of emotional
expression shown in cats with lesioned cortex
sham rage
lesioning this brain region abolished sham rage in cats, suggesting that it plays a role in emotion expression
hypothalamus
found “real rage” through hypothalamus stimulation in cats which also created “affective defense reaction” (increased heart rate, alertness, and propensity to attack)
Walter Hess
a stimulus triggers subcortical brain activity which simultaneously causes a feeling and bodily response; thalamus as emotional hub and hypothalamus causes bodily changes (cortex causes feelings)
Cannon-Bard Theory of emotion
we identify feelings based on
1. perception of bodily arousal (tells us about intensity of emotion)
2. cognitive appraisal of the situation (tells us the type of emotion we’re experiencing)
two-factor theory of emotion (Schachter & Singer)
brain region involved in learning and representing the
emotional value (good vs. bad) and salience and
relevance of stimuli (e.g., Pavlovian fear
conditioning); key role in inducing bodily changes; vidence for preferential involvement in fear
perception and experience (e.g. patient S.M.,
electrical stimulation of amygdala evokes fear)
amygdala
brain region known as “master endocrine gland”; directly regulates the release of hormones from the pituitary and other endocrine glands; regulates autonomic activity and basic survival-related behaviors (feeding, drinking, sex); “sham rage” (Cannon) and “real rage” (Hess); role in innate fear
hypothalamus
brain region involved in propagation and modulation of pain (electrical stimulation in patients with
chronic pain), involving opioid receptors; autonomic (sympathetic) and defensive and aversive responses (e.g. freezing, escape); maternal behavior involving vasopressin and oxytocin receptors
periaqueductal gray
part of the basal ganglia; involved in operant conditioning (ex. learning to press a lever to receive a reward); responds to rewards and anticipation of
rewards (may compute reward prediction errors, i.e. the discrepancy between actual and expected reward)
ventral striatum
neurotransmitter that controls “wanting” (as opposed to “liking”)
dopamine
controls “liking” (in terms of taste)
opioid receptors in medial shell of nucleus accumbens and ventral pallidum
brain region involved in interoceptive awareness (e.g.
detection of heartbeat), pain, and bodily feelings
in general; some evidence for preferential involvement in disgust perception and experience
insula
the most famous patient; has a rod through skull which left orbitofrontal cortex damage personality change from friendly and organized to impatient, angry, unreliable
Phineas Gage
brain region that represents motivational value of rewards; changes value of rewards according to context (e.g., following satiety, reversal learning)
orbitofrontal cortex
brain region responsible for production of bodily responses (e.g., skin conductance, heart rate, blood pressure); dorsal region related to response monitoring (whether rewarded or punished) and pain; ventral region close to “mentalizing” areas of the medial prefrontal cortex, but role debated
anterior cingulate cortex
parts of the Papez Circuit
Cingulate cortex
Hippocampus
Anterior thalamus
Hypothalamus and mamillary bodies
parts of the limbic system
Papez circuit
Orbitofrontal cortex and parts of medial prefrontal cortex
Amygdala
a concept that creates the most abstract category within a hierarchy that creates a mental image, is always used by adults, and learned rapidly by children
ex. referring to a dog as “dog” rather than “mammal” or its breed
basic concept
basic emotions (e.g., Ekman’s Big 5/6) are irreducible (like atoms) and distinct (they do not merge and do not share components)
basic emotion theory
based on similarity ratings of emotion words; 8 basic emotions (inner circles); more complex emotions in outer circles; can be paired in certain groups
Plutchik’s (1980) emotion wheel
Rodent studies using electrical brain stimulation eliciting emotion-like behaviors (inspired by Hess and Olds & Milner); noted two types of aggressive behavior by stimulating rat hypothalamus with different electrical currents: predatory aggression and affective aggression
Panksepp’s approach to studying emotion
aggression directed at prey but not other rats
predatory aggression
aggression directed at other rats but not prey
affective aggression
whether a rat returns to an area in the cage where it had previously received brain stimulation
conditioned place preference
when stimulated, it provokes an identifiable behavioral sequence that the animal can indicate it likes or dislikes; single emotional systems are not mapped onto individual brain areas in a one-to-one fashion, but overlapping networks subserve distinct basic emotion systems; the deeper the stimulation site, the less current is required to elicit emotional response; subcortical and brainstem regions (hypothalamus, thalamus, amygdala, periaqueductal gray [PAG] in the brain stem) are primary for emotions
Panksepp’s core emotional systems
mesolimbic system (VTA à NAc); role in both reward and in exploratory behavior in anticipation to find a reward
role of dopamine in seeking
injection of opiates reduced distress calls; social distress system related to pain system (involving endogenous opioids/endorphins)
role of endogenous opioids in panic
increases maternal behaviors; decreases separation distress in young animals that are left alone
role of oxytocin in lust, care, panic
a way of framing emotions as two dimensional: valence and arousal
core affect
the pleasantness or unpleasantness of a feeling
valence
dimension of emotion related to wakefulness, alertness, readiness
arousal
an emotion involves a sequence of evaluations of a stimulus or situation unfolding over milliseconds to seconds
1. Detecting the relevance of an event
2. Evaluating its immediate implications
3. Evaluating one’s ability to cope with it
4. Evaluating its normative significance
Distinct processing stages, involving multiple components that are coordinated by the
emotion state, e.g., autonomic responses, motor expressions, feelings
appraisal theory
conscious feelings are constructed from sub-components on the fly, without distinct phases; emotions are constructed from other elements (like molecules); for the construction of an emotion, knowledge, thoughts, memories, concepts are added to this core bodily feeling; no brain systems for distinct emotions
constructive emotion theories (Lisa Feldman Barrett)
processes such as memory, perception, and attention that work together to construct an emotion episode on the fly, as a particular situation requires it (constructed emotion theory)
domain-general processes
“to know but not feel”; OFC patients show normal skin conductance response (SCR) to loud noise or bright light (capable of becoming aroused) but no SCR to gruesome images or emotional memories; alterations in emotional reactivity leading to great difficulties in making advantageous decisions in social and personal life despite intact cognitive and intellectual functions
Gage matrix
innate or simple learned responses to salient features of an external stimulus (such as loud noise or bright light), mediated by the amygdala; intact in Elliot (OFC damage); impaired in S.M. (bilateral amygdala damage)
primary emotions
acquired through long-term learning about emotional consequences of our behavior; can be activated mediated by the OFC; impaired in Elliot (no SCR to gruesome pictures and emotional memories) and in S.M.; in the OFC activate the body via the amygdala and body changes are registered in somatosensory cortex
secondary emotions
neurologist who found that emotions are critical for social-decision making; studied Elliot, a patient with OFC damage; the Gage matrix; primary and secondary emotions; bodily feelings are critical for decision-making
Antonio Damasio
a neurological condition in which the patient is unaware of their neurological deficit or psychiatric condition; caused by damage to right somatosensory cortices; often leads them to deny treatment or rehabilitation
anosognosia
brain regions represent external (touch, temperature, pressure, pain) and internal body sensors (viscera) and are key for emotions and social/personal decisions; damage to this region causes anosognosia
right somatosensory cortices
the “gut feeling”, somatic changes triggered by OFC provide a summary of our past experience with a stimulus
somatic markers
circle of connections from mind/brain to body and back to mind/brain; bodily responses are sensed by somatosensory cortices as feelings (remember William James!)
body loops
body representations in somatosensory cortices can be activated directly without actually inducing the full-fledged bodily responses (“all in the head”); feedback about body changes that have not happened yet
as-if loops
“real-life” value-based decision-making taskl; “good” decks pay out initially less, but “bad” decks come with massive losses every now and then; healthy control players learn to take from the good decks; patients with OFC damage continue to take from the bad decks because they use reward-based decision-making
Iowa Gambling Task
neuroanatomist who studied ascending sensory projections to the brain and the insula; discovered Lamina 1 as interoceptive system; argues that feelings about the body give rise to all forms of feelings (e.g. the “pain” of social rejection, the “chills” when listening to a moving piece of music)
Bud Craig
Craig found ongoing activity in this system in the absence of noxious (painful) stimuli, but related to signals providing information about homeostatic state of body tissues
Lamina 1
brain region associated with projections of the Lamina 1 system to somatotopic maps for pain, temperature, itch, affective touch, etc.
posterior insula
brain region associated with re-representations that give rise to subjective feelings
anterior insula
component of insula that indicates where the body is “damaged” in the experience of pain
sensory component
component of insula that indicates the negative emotion associated with pain
affective component
overlapping affective pain matrix areas for felt pain and empathy for pain in anterior cingulate cortex and anterior insula
cortical pain matrix
facial expressions, body posture, observable behavior etc. are expressions of an emotion state
Darwin, Adolphs & Anderson
emotions are the conscious feelings that humans experience due to their elaborate cortical processing; what most people think of as emotion is really motivation, arousal, and drive
LeDoux’s Higher-Order Theory
emotions may have evolved out of reflexes (e.g. see how flies show some emotion features) but unlike reflexes, emotion states are portable across a huge range of situations, many of which we learn about
emotions as decoupled reflexes
studying emotions as functional states, not as brain states; should be identified by their causal relations (i.e., what do they do?)
psycho-functionalism
scalability, valence, persistence, generalization, global
coordination
functional properties of emotion states
there is a scale in intensity (arousal), which can result in discontinuous behaviors (e.g. transition from hiding to freezing during the approach of a predator) - not always the same response = not a reflex
flies: few/single shadow passes: response is freezing; multiple shadow passes: response is hopping
scalability
psychological dimension of (un)pleasantness or stimulus-response dimension of appetitive/approach vs. aversive/avoidance; can measure whether an animal is approaching or avoiding a stimulus
flies: feeding flies ignore first pass, but escalate behavior after following passes because shadow valence becomes stronger than food valence
valence
emotions outlast their eliciting stimulus for seconds to minutes (different for different emotions); can influence cognition and behavior; amnesia patients showed elevated levels of emotion well beyond the point where they had lost factual memory of the movie clips (emotional persistence does not rely on long term memory)
flies: behavioral response lasted for seconds to minutes
persistence
same emotions can be experienced over stimuli and behavior, dependent on learning and context (fan-in/fan-out)
flies: had similar responses in different contexts (with/without food)
generalization/integration
emotions orchestrate a whole web of effects in brain and body (whole organism)
flies: freeze or hopping response
global coordination
emotion can boost attention and working memory; smaller attentional blink when second item was a negative word; no emotional boost with bilateral amygdala damage
emotional attentional blink
pair electric shock (US) with neutral odor (CS)
aversive conditioning in flies
pair sucrose (US) with neutral odor (CS)
appetitive conditioning in flies
type of neurons that encode reward AND punishment depending on their circuitry (fruit flies)
dopamine neurons
mediates both male flies’ aggressive behaviors towards other males, and courtship/mating toward females; promotes a persistent state of aggression once a conspecific male is encountered; similar in male mice in ventromedial hypothalamus
P1 neuronal cluster
brain region necessary for acquisition and expression of conditioned fear (but not sufficient for conscious experience of fear); non-mammalian species (reptiles, birds, fish, but not flies) have a similar brain region with similar circuits and function as the mammalian version;
only 3–5 of of 12 nuclei are involved in fear conditioning
amygdala
nuclei in the amygdala involved in fear conditioning
Basolateral complex (BLA, including the lateral [LA], cell group), and central nucleus (CeA, containing lateral [CeL] and medial [CeM] subdivisions)
coordinated behavioral, autonomic, and endocrine response
global organismal response
pathways conveying CS (cue) and US (shock) converge in the BLA (or LA), where they strengthen synaptic responses to the CS; CeL also plays a role
acquisition of fear conditioning
information is relayed to CeA (CE) as the final common pathway for output from the amygdala; CeM coordinates output via inhibitory projection neurons
expression of fear conditioning
seven distinct cell types within different subdivision of this brain region; some involved in appetitive behavior, some in defensive behavior
central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA)
BLA neurons activated by aversive stimuli (e.g. foot shock) project to the CeA, and are necessary and sufficient for fear conditioning
BLA neurons activated by rewarding stimuli (e.g. nicotine) project to the NAc and support positive reinforcement
distinct neuronal subtypes in basolateral complex (BLA) of amygdala
general role of amygdala in “relevance detection”; but human neuroimaging does not have sufficient cell-type/circuit-level resolution
implications for human neuroimaging
aggression and mating (mice-fly similarities) – neurons express the type 1 estrogen receptor (Esr1)
ventrolateral portion of ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHvl)
innate predator defense – neurons express the transcription factor SF1
dorsomedial/central portion of the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMHdm/c)
brain region involved in innate fear; separation of neurons for innate fear (SF1 in VMHdm/c) and aggression/mating (Esr1 in VMHl)
ventromedial hypothalamus
S.M. no fear recognition, fear conditioning, fear experience, but intact concept of fear and panic induced by the thought of suffocation
dissociations of fear components in bilateral
amygdala damage
many (sub)cortical regions, some
specificity for emotion, some specificity for
emotion categories
three lessons from electrical stimulation in
humans
findings of imaging for emotion concepts
emotion concept findings in dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) support appraisal theory
