Neurobiology of emotion Flashcards
Plutchick and emotions
Theorised 8 basic emotions that were each alternatives:
Joy/ Sadness
Trust/Digust
Fear/ Anger
Surprise/ Anticipation
Ekman and emotions
Theorised that emotions expressed facially are innate
- Disgust
- Happy
- Sad
- Anger
- Fear
- Surprised
James-Lange theory
Theorised that physiological arousal initiates an emotional experience
Frijda and emotions
Theorised that our emotions predisposed specific actions
Cannon-brad theory
Theorised that emotions proceeded the physiological changes that occur as a result.
Example
- Perception of frightening situation
- Feeling ‘fearful’
- Action–> Heart speeds, sweating/ run away
Schacter and singer
Students were given saline or adrenaline and told it was a drug
- One group were misinformed
- Another group informed
- Third group ignorant
Exposed to euphoria/ anger
Gave rise to the conclusion–> physiological response is governed by cognitive interpretation
- When informed, they were the least emotive.
Panic disorder
- Mechanism
When bodily sensations are wrongly appraised as catastrophic
[e.g, my heart is racing= im having a heart attack]
People who suffer from it response to cues that suggest sudden, sever illness compared to normal people.
Dorsal and ventral visual stream
Dorsal stream
- From primary visual cortex [V1] in occipital lobe –> Parietal lobe
- Interprets where the object is in space
Ventral stream
- From V1–> Medial temporal lobe
- Identifies the object
Limbic system [8]
Composed of:
- Hippocampus
- Cingular gyrus
- Hypothalamus
- Orbitofrontal cortex {OFC]
- Mammillary bodies
- Fornix
- Amygdala
- Insula
- Anterior thalamic nucleus
Hippocampus
Involved in memory
- Episodic, declarative
Amygdala
- Location
- Two divisions
Located in medial temporal lobe
Division
- Corticomedial–> Nuclei project into the hypothalamus
- Basolateral–> Nuclei diffuse into PFC and other extensive projections
Amygdala function
- Fear [conditioned and viewing fear]
Processes emotion
Also recognises emotion in others and is involved in emotional learning
Processing fear
- Seeing fear in another person activates feeling fear yourself [lateral amygdala activated]
- Conditioned fear–> dorsal
Amygdala and emotional memory
Increased amygdala activity when encoding emotional image= affects if image is remembered
Benzodiazepine and the amygdala
Binds to GABA-a sites in the amygdala
Reduces anxiety
Even after destruction of the amygdala, benzodiazepine still has anxiolytic effects
Cingulate function
Contains sections that processes:
- Pain + contextualises arousal
- Rest + depression
Subgenual cingulate and depression
This area is very involved in processing sadness
- Disruption in this area= depression
Orbito-frontal cortex
- Anatomical connections
- Function
Anatomical connection–> Amygdala
Functional
- Impulsitivity–> Acquired sociopathy
- Impaired smell, taste, flavour, reward, satiety
-
PFC damage consequences [6]
Severely impaired social behaviour
Insensitive to future consequences of actions
Impaired autonomic response to punishment
Deficit in normal basic cognitive function
Psychopathy [impaired social and moral reasoning]
Impaired decision making
Insula function in emotion
- Awareness of the internal bodily state
- Involved in normal response to negative stimulus–> Especially disgust
Role of VTA and NAcc in emotion
Reward system
- Release of dopamine in response to rewarding stimuli [mesolimbic]
