Motivation and Emotional Behaviour Flashcards
What are our interpretations of subjective feelings?
Emotions
What are behaviours that are purposeful and goal directed?
Motivation
What brain regions play in emotion and motivation?
Hypothalamus
Limbic system
Frontal lobes
What is free will?
We do what we want and have the choice to do so.
What is Sensory deprivation?
Experimental setup in which a participant is allowed no, or only a restricted, sensory input
What were the restults of Hebb (1957)’s study?
Humans crave stimulation. > 4-8 hours and then became increasingly distressed, not lasting more than 24h without any sensory stimuli
What is the role of chemosignals?
Motivating and emotional behaviour.
What is the evolutionary purpose of the olfactory system?
Designed to discriminate whether information is safe or familiar
Where is the olfactory epithelium found?
Inside the nasal cavity
How does smell convert into neural impulses?
Chemicals dissolve into the olfactory mucosa to interact with nasal cilia, which leads to action potentials.
True or false? Olfactory receptor neurons don’t respond to specific odors, rather to a range of odors.
True
How does our unique pattern of receptors allow us to distinguish smells?
Summed activities stimulate perception of ranges of odours.
What is the olfactory pathway?
Olfactory receptor cells –> olfactory bulb –> glomeruli –> mitral cell synapse –> broad range of areas with olfactory targets
What olfactory receptor system detects pheromones?
Vomeronasal organ
What brain regions are activated by body odours of common kin?
Regions of visual emotional processing
What brain regions are activated by body odours of strangers?
Amygdala and insular cortex
What are some differences in taste thresholds between ages?
Children have more taste receptors than adults
What is the gustatory pathway before the split in the brainstem?
Stimuli –> Receptor tips (taste pore) –> action potential –> contracting cranial nerves 7, 9, 10
What nerves form the solitary tract of gustation?
Cranial nerves 7, 9, 10
What is the first gustatory pathway (ventroposterior medial nucleus) post brainstem split?
Stimuli –> Receptor tips (taste pore) –> action potential –> contracting cranial nerves 7, 9, 10 –> ventroposterior medial nucleus –> S1 –> primary gustatory cortex of the insula
What is the role of S1?
Processing tactile information about food/texture
Insula: Dedicated to taste
What gives rise to the perception of flavour?
Mixture of olfactory and gustatory input
What is the second route of the gustatory pathway (lateral hypothalamus and amygdala) post brainstem split?
Stimuli –> Receptor tips (taste pore) –> action potential –> contracting cranial nerves 7, 9, 10 –> Lateral hypothalamus –> amygdala
What are three critical structures that control motivated behaviours?
- Hypothalamus and associated pituitary glands
- Limbic system
- Frontal lobes
What are two types of motivated behaviours?
Regulatory behaviours
Nonregulatory behaviours
What are regulatory behaviours?
Behaviours that are intended to meet the animals survival needs –> controlled by homeostatic mechanisms (see hypothalamus)
What are nonregulatory behaviours?
Behaviours that are not necessary to basic survival needs (eg. sex, singing, reading) – **NOT controlled by homeostatic mechanisms)
What brain regions are responsible for nonregulatory behaviours?
Frontal lobes (systems) and external stimuli
What are the three subregions of the hypothalamus?
Lateral region
Medial region
Periventricular region
What is the principle tract connecting the lower brainstem to the forebrain?
The medial forebrain bundle (MFB)
What controls reward and pleasure in the medial forebrain bundle?
Dopamine containing fibres.
What are the two regions of the pituitary gland?
Posterior pituitary and anterior pituitary
What is the posterior pituitary composed of?
Neural tissue (it is a continuation of the hypothalamus)
What is the anterior pituitary composed of?
Glandular tissue (responsible for synthesizing various hormones)
What is the role of the posterior pituitary?
Storage and release of hormones produced by the hypothalamus
What is the role of the anterior pituitary?
Synthesis of hormones. Release is controlled by releasing hormones within the hypothalamus
What two factors control the synthesis of hormones by the anterior pituitary?
Feedback loops and neural regulation
What are feedback loops (in hypothalamic controls)?
Hormones influencing the hypothalamus to increase or decrease the secretion of releasing hormones.
What is neural regulation (in hypothalamic controls)?
Hormonal activity regulated by the limbic system and frontal lobes
Feeding behaviours are controlled by what two regions of the body?
The digestive system and the hypothalamus
What are detector cells in the enteric nervous system?
Cells that keep track of the level of each nutrient in the bloodstream –> feedback mechanisms tell us when we are full
How can damage to the hypothalamus impact our desire to eat?
Hypothalamus can’t properly release insulin and ghrelin –> causes aphagia and hyperphagia
What is aphagia?
Failure to eat–> can be caused by unwillingness or lesions to the lateral hypothalamus
What is hyperphagia?
Overeating –> usually caused by lesions to the ventromedial hypothalamus
What are the two kinds of thirst?
Osmotic thirst and hypovolemic thirst
What is osmostic thirst?
To drink water to restore solute concentrations.
- Results from an increased concentration of chemicals, known as solutes, in body fluids
What is hypovolemic thirst?
Drink fluids other than water to restore nutrients
- Results from a loss of overall fluid volume from the body
What are three characteristics of emotions?
Autonomic responses
Subjective feelings
Cognitions
What controls autonomic responses of the emotional system?
Responses controlled by the hypothalamus and associated structures – also ENS
What controls subjective feelings?
The amygdala and parts of the frontal lobes
What controls cognitions?
The cerebral cortex
What can cause one to experience LOSS of emotion?
Spinal cord injuries
What is true about emotional intensity and lesions on the spine? (Eg. this region makes you more ____)
A greater loss of emotional intensity occurs when the lesion is high on the spine.
- Exception: sacral injury = more fear
What is the limbic circuit?
A primitive region formed by the allocortex
What are the three layers of the allocortex?
- Cingulate gyrus
Hippocampal formation - Hippocampus
- Parahippocampal cortex
What is the role of the cingulate cortex?
Linking reward and punishment information
What is the role of the hippocampus?
Important for species-specific behaviors, memory, and spatial navigation.
What is the role of the parahippocampal cortex?
Some functions of memory
What is the amygdala?
Almond-shaped collection of nuclei in the limbic system
What is the role of the amygdala?
Production of emotional and motivated behaviours
What is Kluver-Bucy syndrome?
Removal of amygdala (think also what are some symptoms of this)
What is the role of the prefrontal cortex in emotional behaviour?
regulates our thoughts, actions and emotions through extensive connections with other brain regions
What are some effects of damage to the prefrontal cortex in social and emotional behaviour?
