Neurobiology Of Emotions (Year 3) Flashcards
Give two deficits associated with orbital frontal cortex damage
Failure to perform stimulus-reward reversals
Somatic marker hypothesis
Define stimulus-reward reversals
- Choosing a certain option leads to a reward
- The contingencies then reverse and the subject must learn that to get a reward they have to choose the previously unrewarded object
- Monkeys with OFC lesions show impairments to this task
Define perseverance
An inability to inhibit the response to a previously rewarded object (i.e choosing the option that used to lead to a reward that no longer leads to a reward, as opposed to the other option which is now rewarded)
Describe how OFC damage can cause inflexible behaviour
- inability to modify behaviour when new information arrises (e.g a scammer may build trust initially, but once we realise we are being scammed we modify our behaviour so as not to be scammed)
- may be underlied by the same deficit
Describe the autonomic responses of patients with OFC damage to decision making tasks
- The anticipatory skin conductance reaction was missing in OFC patients
Define the Somatic marker hypothesis
- damasio (1994)
- bodily states corresponding to the emotions produced while evaluating different courses of action (somatic markers)
Explain the role of the OFC in decision making
- storing associations between patterns of environmental inputs and the somatic states the inputs produce
Explain the model of the neuronal mechanisms underlying decision making in the prefrontal cortex
sensory info, affective info, motivational info
↓ ↓ ↓
OFC
Integration of info to derive the value of potential reward outcomes
↕
DLPFC
Construction of plan to obtain reward outcome
Define emotions
Mechanisms to set goals and establish priorities
Criteria helps us differentiate emotions from closely related phenomena, such as moods, sensations, personality and disorders
Explain how emotions differ from moods, sensations, personality and disorders
Emotions are:
- Brief: between 1 and 5 seconds (anything longer is a mood)
- Unbidden: happen to us, emotions are beyond volitional control
- Cross-species: phenomena we see in other mammals, even if they are rudimentary
- Coherent: facial, behaviour, physiology, expression work together
- Involve automatic, unconscious, very fast appraisal of stimuli
- Have quick onset
Give the two approaches to the study of emotions
Evolutionary approach
Constructivist approach
Give and explain the 4 main principles of natural selection
- Principle of natural design for gene replication: evolution operates in genes - genes need to make it to the next generation
- Superabundance: animals and plants produce more offspring than necessary
- Variation: each offspring are somehow different
- Selection pressures: environmental factors that increase/decrease the likelihood that a particular combination of genes make it to the next generation
Give the three types of selection pressures
Natural
Sexual
Group
Define the principle of natural design for gene replication
evolution operates in genes - genes need to make it to the next generation
Define superabundance
animals and plants produce more offspring than necessary
Define variation
each offspring are somehow different
Define selection pressures
environmental factors that increase/decrease the likelihood that a particular combination of genes make it to the next generation
Define intrasexual and intersexual competition
InTERsexual competition: attributes that females and males use to select mates
inTRAsexual competition: occurs within a sex for access to mates
Define environment of evolutionary adaptedness
set of reproductive problems faced by members of a that species over evolutionary time
Explain the emotional consequences of the evolutionary approach
- Vulnerability of babies: has implications for the development of compassion and cooperation
- Development of emotion in infancy: Instead of using energy to outgrow vulnerability, babies divert calories into metabolically costly neurological machinery for eye contact, imitation, emotional expression
Describe the functions of emotions
- Prioritisation: emotions enable rapid orientation to events in environment
- Organisation: emotions coordinate responses
Define social or group selection pressures
organisms who are better able to get along with the group have greater chances to reproduce
Give the three main ways of investigating environment of evolutionary adaptedness
Study close primates
Archaeological records
Hunter and gathers society now
Explain the ‘curse of lucy’
the human gestation period is shorter than it should be because a larger fetus (and larger head) would not be compatible with a birth canal small enough to allow functional bipedalism
Explain how evolution changed human behaviour
- Flattening of social hierachies - hierachies became more egalitarian. Agriculture reintroduced inequalities
- Monogamist bonds: created specific emotions such as the need for face-to-face communication
- Need for collective action: In hunter/gatherer societies every waking moment is collective
- Emergence of caring: In humans there is a lot of caring - why humans can live longer
Give two of the central ideas in evolutionary perspectives
- Emotions are functional. We would know the function of emotions by understanding their elicitors
- Reliable elicitors of emotions
- Systematic consequences
- Universality: if we see universality we can infer something has evolved
Give some examples of evolutionary adaptations
- Pregnancy sickness - solved problem of exposure to toxins when embryo is susceptible to damage
- Baby-face: face arrangement makes parents want to devote themselves to the infant
- Father engagement: (social adaptation) societies want father to be engaged and devote resources so that the child has a better chance of survival
Define social constructionism
- Emotions are constructed within a particular culture, historical moment through language and values
1. Biology has no role in emotion - radically different emotions have the same underlying physiology
2. Emotions are open systems constructed by culture in a culturally idiosyncratic way
3. Culture and emotions make each other up
Constructivist view: emotions have different facets and culture puts them together in radically variable idiosyncratic ways
Explain how emotions are open systems
facial expression, physiological processes, vocalisation and touch patterns, skeletal movement can be arranged by culture into any configuration
Explain how culture and emotions shape each other
- In a bidirectional fashion
- Emotions are social cues
- Emotions shape our culture and culture shapes how we think
Explain how research is done under a constructivist perspective
- Compare cultures
- Ethnography: Live in the culture - Cathy Lutz living with the Ifaluk - they have a radically different emotional life, idea of happiness was different, their central emotion was compassion
- Relativise: The meaning of an emotion is relative - depends on the culture
Compare how evolutionists and constructivists define an emotion
Evolutionist: genetically encoded biological processes that are wired into our nervous system
Constructivist: emotions are languages
Compare how evolutionists and constructivists define how many emotions there are
E: Number of emotions is constrained by biology - there are only so many facial muscles
C: Unlimited number
Compare how evolutionists and constructivists view the system of emotions
E: Closed systems (e.g reflexes)
C: Open systems
Compare how evolutionists and constructivists view where emotions come from
E: Evolutionary adaptation
C: Originates in culture, history, sociological trends
Give two of the main claims of emotional communication
1- Encoding hypothesis: when we feel a state it is encoded in a unique universal pattern.
2- Decoding hypothesis: across cultures we have evolved to be able to quickly judge other people’s emotions
Define co-evolution
Co-evolution: our signaling capacity co-evolved with the capacity of others to interpret and decode those signals
Give the 5 categories of non-verbal behaviour
1- Emblems: non verbal gestures that communicate words in a specific culture: about 800 emblems in different cultures, a good deal of cultural variability.
have a direct verbal translation
are known by almost everybody in a social group
shall have a particular effect on the recipient
2- Illustrators: gestures used to dramatise and to give visual imagery to our speech.
i.e: giving directions
3- Regulators: gestures used to control conversation. Coordinate who speaks and who listens.
4- Self adaptors or manipulators: random behaviours that we emit, touch our hair, move legs, scratch. Nervous outcomes that have no direct communicative value
4- Self adaptors or manipulators: random behaviours that we emit, touch our hair, move legs, scratch. Nervous outcomes that have no direct communicative value
- Affect displays
- affection
What sets apart the facial expression of emotion from other facial expressions?
There are 43 facial motions, and every permutation thereof constitutes a possible emotion – there are thousands of possible facial expressions.
What sets apart the facial expression of emotion from other facial expressions.
1- Symmetry
2- Short duration: 1-5 seconds
3- Involves reliable muscle movements: In anger there is a muscle around the lips that tightens, this muscle is hard to move voluntarily. For sympathy: two muscles that pull the eyebrows up and in. Every emotion has a muscle movement that we can’t fake .
Dynamic facial expressions of emotion are more ecologically valid and salient for emotional communication than static expressions.
Dynamic facial expressions elicit higher emotional arousal than static facial expressions
Describe Eckmans (1965) research on facial expressions
aul Eckman (b. 1934) In 1965 he received a grant to do cross cultural variation of expression of emotion. Based his research on Darwin’s book.
Facial expressions of emotion are not culturally determined, but universal across human cultures and thus biological in origin.
Universal expressions: anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness and surprise.
He developed the Facial Action Coding System(FACS) to taxonomise every conceivable human facial expression.
Ekman found skilled people able to move reliable muscles and took around 3000 pictures,
He took the pictures to other countries (Japan, Argentina, Brazil, Chile),
Presented the pictures with the 6 words for the emotions and asked with word matched the emotion displayed in the picture,
they generally matched 80-90%
Describe issues with Eckman’s research and how this was mitigated
1- Forced choice.
2- Gradient critique: all the expressions should be recognised the same across cultures and they are not, some are well recognised like happiness and others less like fear and surprise.
3- Ecological validity: can you see those faces in the real world, the pictures are extreme, done by actors, like a caricature. People are better at recognising dynamic displays.
Give the new additions to universal facial expressions
Contempt: is asymmetrical tightening of the lips corners or sneer
Exhilaration: Laughter involves the contraction of the muscles surrounding the eyes also appears to be a signal of a distinct emotion.
Give the criteria for documenting emotions beyond Ekman’s six
To document emotional expressions beyond Ekman’s six plus exhilaration and contempt one needs to show that:
1- the experience of the specific emotion correlates with a unique pattern of facial actions (encoding evidence)
2- others perceive that display as a sign of the target emotion preferably in different cultures (decoding evidence)
3- other species show similar expressive behaviours in contexts that resemble those of common interest. DO THEY???
Explain how embarrassment is shown
The antecedents of embarrassment most typically involve violations of social conventions that increase social exposure.
Explain how we differentiate embarrassment from shame
Thought by many as an appeasement related emotion which signals the individual’s lower status in particular transgressions, so as to bring social reconciliation
People can differentiate embarrassment from shame which is gaze aversion and downward head movements
Shame follows the failure to live up to expectations, either one’s own or those of significant others
Guilt appears to follow transgressions of moral rules that govern behaviour toward others.
Explain the evolutionary advantage of expressing our emotions
a) Informative: emotional experience and expression are sources of information about the social world. They indicate the sender’s emotions, intentions and relationship with the target
b) Evocative: they elicit complementary emotion: faces of anger enhance fear conditioning in observers even when the photographs are not consciously observed (Ohman and Dimberg 1978, Esteves, Dimberg and Ohman 1994)
c) Incentive: displays invite desired social behaviours. Displays of positive emotions are displayed by parents to reward behaviour in children thus increasing the probability of those behaviours in the future. Laughter from interaction partners also rewards desirable social behaviour in adults .
Explain sex differences in facial expression recognition
The ability to identify emotional expressions of others shows sexual dimorphism: on average, women outperform men.
Accumulating evidence suggests an underlying role for testosterone
A single administration of testosterone has been demonstrated to reduce emotion recognition abilities in young women
After testosterone administration women show impaired performance on the ‘Reading the Mind in the Eyes’ Test
Explain the role of testosterone in facial expression recognition
The effect of testosterone on the RMET varied with a proxy of foetal testosterone to the2D:4D ratio. In utero testosterone exposure lowers the ratio
A lower 2D:4D ratio predicts greater impairment on the RMET after testosterone administration
Thus, by altering connectivity of the prefrontal cortex with other brain regions,
testosterone can be regarded a modulator of the network involved in emotion recognition
Explain cultural variations of facial expression of emotion
Briggs (1970) found that Inuit (eskimos) do not express anger.
17th century Samurai wives were alleged to smile upon receipt of news that their husbands died nobly in battle.
Members of different cultures vary in their emotional expression in several ways:
1- Ritualised displays: stylised ways of displaying a
particular emotion.
For example: anger involves furrowed brow, glare,
lip tighten and lip press as prototypical actions,
cultures might take the elements and elaborate upon it:
exaggerate, dramatise it
Explain how members of different cultures vary in their emotional expression
2- Regulation of expressive behaviour. Matsumoto et al 1997: American college students and Japanese college students watched a really disgusting film in two conditions, first in private and low light, then with an authority figure in high light.
In private, both students showed, universality in facial expression, exact muscle movement to the exact millisecond.
In public, with the authority figure in US the college student showed more intense expression in Japanese student there was a masking of the disgust expression to a more polite one.
3- Interpreting emotions: Members of different cultures vary in their interpretation of facial expressions of emotion.
Individuals of more individualistic, independent cultures are more accurate judges of facial expressions of emotions.
Americans rated negative emotions as more appropriate than the Japanese did when expressed toward in-group members. The Japanese in contrast rated the expression of negative emotion more appropriate when directed toward out-group members.
Individuals from different cultures differ in the emotional intensity that they attribute to facial expressions of emotions (Matsumoto and Ekman 1998). Japanese participants attribute less intense emotions than Americans to all facial expressions of emotions posed by Caucasians and Japanese except disgust.
Western Caucasian and East Asian looked White and Chinese faces to categorise them into the six core emotional expressions.
East Asian participants made significantly more errors when categorising disgust and fear compared with the Western participants.
Certain emotions are expressed slightly differently in East Asia. They have learned to focus on different facial regions.
Describe the Mauritius Child Health Project
The Mauritius Child Health Project is a prospective longitudinal study of child health and development based on a 1969 birth cohort of 1795 children.
Around 720 ongoing
The were followed up at ages 8, 11, 17, 23, 28 and 35 years, still following up
Extensive autonomic assessments (skin conductance and heart rate) of arousal, orienting and fear conditioning were conducted.
Children with low responses to score higher in psychopathy in adulthood
25% in prosocial jobs that require people less fearful
75% criminal behaviour
Describe the roles of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems
Sympathetic:
prepares for fight or flight.
Parasympathetic:
slows the body down,
house keeping action,
saves energy
Describe the central physiological constraints that suggest that the ANS cannot play a critical role in emotions
1- The ANS is not finely tuned, too general diffuse, cannot distinguish between subtle differences. If you have to give a speech heart rate rises 4 beat x min relax it slows down.
2- The ANS is slow, the blood pressure response, you embarrass somebody and about 15 seconds later is when blood pressure adjusts.
3- James’s hypothesis assumes that we can track all the changes in our body.
4- The changes can be similar in different emotions, there is no physiological signature of an emotion.
In view of Canon criticisms in 1962 Schachter and Singer proposed a two factor theory of emotions
Describe Ekman’s findings of bodily changes and emotions
Important finding: when physiological arousal or anxiety states do not have an obvious source people tend to label and experience their arousal according to what is happening in the current situation.
When Ekman was studying facial expressions he found that moving his facial muscles seemed to change how he felt.
People were asked to move facial muscles to resemble Darwin’s emotions. They were given instructions such as
1- Wrinkle your nose
2- Raise your upper lip
3- Open your mouth and stick out your tongue
This is for disgust but the participants did not know, they had to hold the expression for 10 seconds and measures of autonomic activity were taken
Moving the facial muscles can generate an autonomic response
Describe the three different stages in the evolution of ANS
First stage produced the dorsal vagal complex: present in all species regulates digestion and immobilisation responses
Next to emerge was the sympathetic nervous system involved in fight or flight responses
Last portion is the ventral vagal complex, only present in mammals, it is controlled by the 10th cranial nerve known as the vagus nerve
Describe findings around activation of the vagus nerve
Activation of the vagus nerve promotes altruism.
Individuals with higher vagal activity are more resilient, compassionate, warm and agreeable.
9-10 yrs old have more friends, more cooperative, likely to give, handle stress better, socially adjusted.
Conclusion:
Individuals those with high vagal activity are associate with high social traits.
There traits persist in life.
Describe research findings into elevated vagal activity
Individuals with elevated vagal activity are prone to certain problems in adjustment like manic disorders
2% of population are prone to mania and their vagal activity is very high:
marry two or three people,
overdraft in their credit card,
become interested on strange political causes,
think they can change the world on their own,
hyperactive in terms of caring.
Vagal stimulation improved epilepsy but ALSO Asperger behavioural symptoms
Describe the evolution of the emotional brain
- Rhiencephalon: part of the brain involved with olfaction
- First layer of cells: edible, toxic, sexually accessible, enemy, food
- Second layer: tell the organism what to do: bite, spite, get closer, flew, chase
Describe the evolution of the emotional brain in vertebrates
- The human forebrain includes three distinct systems, each of which developed in a distinct phase of vertebrate evolution. Apart from the hypothalamus, the earliest and most basic part of the forebrain is the striatal region: ventral striatum comprises the nucleus accumbens and olfactory bulb
Describe the evolution of the emotional brain
- The striatal area became enlarged with the evolution of reptiles
- Schedules and generates basic behaviours: preparation and establishment of a home site, marking and patrolling of territory, formalised fighting in defence of territory, foraging, hunting, hoarding, forming social groups including hierarchies, greeting, grooming, mating, flocking and migration.
- Striatum damage in humans: Huntington’s chorea patients become unable to organise daily activities, tend to sit and do nothing. The striatal area was also damaged in patients with encephalitis letragica
What do mammals do that reptiles do not?
- Vocal signaling
- Maternal caregiving with infant attachment
- Play
- All of these are served by the limbic system
- The limbic system developed to enable mammals’ increasing sociality.
Describe the role of the amygdala
The amygdala is part of the limbic system. The amygdala is the central emotional computer for the brain , it is the appraisal mechanism for emotions
Explain amygdala afferents
- Projections from thalamus (auditory cortex and visual cortex) go to lateral amygdala
- Projections olfactory bulb go to corticomedial amygdala
- Taste and visceral messages go to central amygdala
Describe LeDoux’s research into the amygdala
LeDoux removed auditory cortex in rats, and animals well still capable to associate tone to electric discharge and avoid it, which means that the amygdala has the ability to orchestrate a response and create a memory: Emotional conditioning
This means that the amygdala has the ability to store memories that one could be never conscious of.
Emotional conditioning for negative stimuli is quick to be learned and slow to extinguish. One of the reasons why anxiety can be such a severe and long-lasting clinical disorder.
The amygdala is the site of primary appraisal, the automatic evaluation of events in relation to goals and concerns.
Rats will learn to associate CS and US as long as the amygdala and thalamus are present
Describe the difference between the amygdala vs hippocampus
Hippocampus: stores facts. I.e; you almost had a car accident trying to overtake. Hippocampus stores all the factual information.
Amygdala stores emotional climate
To understand the difference imagine that you are telling that story to somebody.
Describe the role of the amygdala in psychopaths
The amygdala seems to be responsible for assigning emotional significance to events that signal dangers and threats, and possibly to emotionally significant events of other kinds
It’s like they’re analyzing emotional material in extra-limbic regions
“Non-psychopathic offenders show lots of activation in the amygdala [to unpleasant scenes], compared with neutral pictures.
Explain study findings which confirm the role of amygdala in processing of emotions
1-The perception of fear and sad faces activates amygdala even when the presentation of the face is subliminal and masked by the presentation of a neutral expression
2- Young black and white participants were asked to look at faces and determine gender.
Increased activation with unfamiliar faces
Activation decreased when watching the same ethnic group
Conclusion:
unfamiliar faces are threatening
faces of own ethnic group become less threatening.
.
However…early social deprivation to race, shapes amygdala function later in life and provides support that early postnatal development may represent a sensitive period for race perception.
3- Several studies suggest a role of increased amygdala activation in depression (Altshuler et al, 1998)
depressives suffering from bipolar disorder have enlarged amygdalas.
depressives have higher amygdala baseline activation
depressive individuals show elevated amygdala activation in response to emotionally evocative stimuli such as fearful faces
Depressives show higher amygdala activation during REM sleep
Activation of the amygdala during REM sleep is related to several clinical conditions such post traumatic stress disorder and mood disorders, especially depression which is accompanied by an increase in REM sleep
Describe Le Doux’s findings on amygdala proccessing
Le Doux: We process information at two different levels of analysis:
First level: unconscious evaluation whether the stimulus is good or bad or rewarding or not
Second level of analysis: conscious processing of the semantic meaning of the stimulus memory, knowledge, what is the meaning or categorisation of the stimulus compared to other
We can have gut feeling before we actually consciously see something.
Some cortically blind patients show amygdala activation in response to facial or bodily expressions of emotion.
In human subjects, the amygdala response to eye contact does not require an intact primary visual cortex.
Describe ways of investigating amygdala damage
Lesion studies: in animals amygdala removal leads to loss of fear (gut feeling is gone), hyperorality, hypersexuality, approaching of dominant individuals without sense of fear.
Klüver-Bucy syndrome
1- Docility
2- Hiperorality
3- Hipersexuality
4- Dietary changes
5- Visual agnosia
Give some of the implications of amygdala damage
Amygdala damage in humans: temporal lobe lobectomy , tumors, strokes, acute herpes simplex encephalitis
Inability to identify feelings in others; emotional blindness.
People who were once aggressive and violent have been rendered quite pleasant
Huge appetite, hyperorality and increase in sex drive
Charles Whitman (the “Texas Tower Sniper“): in 1966 killed 14 and wounded 32 during university shooting
Murdered his mother and wife at home first
Been to doctor, did not know why he was having irrational thoughts, requested post-mortem in suicide note
Describe the case study of SM
S.M. is a female patient first described in 1994.
She has an extremely rare genetic condition called Urbach–Wiethe disease
In her case it lead to exclusive and complete bilateral amygdala destruction
Because of this damage, she has little to no capacity to experiencefear
S.M. who’s been dubbed the “woman with no fear”. She is left unmoved by snakes, spiders, horror films, haunted houses and real-life knife attacks.
SM is almost too friendly.
In healthy volunteers amygdala triggers if sense of personal space is violated
Explain William’s syndrome
- a rare genetic disorder (26 genes missing on chromosome
7) that causes unique changes in social behaviour.
Highly social and empathetic, even in situations that would elicit fear and anxiety in healthy people (no common sense).
They will eagerly, and often impulsively, engage in social interactions, even with strangers.
However, they experience increased anxiety that is non-social, such as fear of spiders or heights (phobias) and worry excessively.
Describe the relationship between amygdala and impulses
The amygdala reacts in half the time than neocortex 12 ms vs 24, does not need to know what exactly the danger is, this was crucial in survival
The emotional mistakes arise from the fact that feelings happen before thought (precognitive emotion)
Describe the evolution of the prefrontal cortex in emotional regulation
After emergence of striatum and limbic system the third large step was the neocortex.
Describe the role of the prefrontal cortex in emotional regulation
PFC has 3 areas of interest
1- Orbito frontal region:
2- Dorsolateral prefrontal region
3- Anterior cingulate and medial frontal regions
PFC has dense and reciprocal connections with the amygdala
PFC has connections with Nucleus Accumbens
Damage: normal language, memory, sensory processes but have problems regulating emotional behaviour. Phineas Gage
PFC seems to get emotional signals and help the individual to act upon them
Explain why patients with OFC damage only hyperexpress negative emotions, they dont’t become generous or help other people
We need to go back in time:
1- Any behaviour that induces dopamine release in the NAcc is perceived as rewarding
2- In order to carry it out again the animal needs to MOVE!!
3- So…. Increases of dopamine in the hypothalamus increase activity
4- The amygdala reacts in half the time than neocortex 12 ms vs 24, does not need to know what exactly the danger is, this was crucial in survival
All true and fine BUT.. What is the problem of these structures left to act????
If you think about all subcortical structures they work perfectly fine but they are completely unaware of consequences
Basically if a behaviour is rewarding you do it again… there is no sense of good and bad
Prefrontal cortex receives information from subcortical structures and inhibits impulsive behaviours.
So basically PFC is always talking to subcortical structures and usually telling them that those behaviours are NOT a good idea
Describe and explain the role of BDNF
BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor) is a growth factor that plays an important role in learning through its influence on neuronal survival, growth, and synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system.
The human genome contains a common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) that codes for a valine-to-methionine substitution which leads to reduced levels of BDNF
A high percentage of psychopaths carry that substitution, as a consequence maturation of some brain areas such as PFC is decreased (thinner grey matter in PFC)
In addition they release less dopamine in response to situations that other people find rewarding
This means that in order to feel pleasure the intensity of the stimuli needs to be bigger
Therefore their use of drugs that enhance dopamine is increased
Describe the role of the left vs right hemispheres in emotional regulation
The right side of the cortex is more closely associated with the processing of emotional events (identification and production)
The left side of the face is more emotionally expressive than the right side
Patients with right cortex damage have difficulty in recognising facial expression of emotions
Patients with damage to left cortex were significantly better than those with damage to right cortex and normal people in detecting whether people were lying or telling the truth on video tape.
Subjects who attend to language were more likely to be misled by words while subjects with poor language ability relied on facial clues.
L: regulates bad emotions
R: stores negative feelings (aggression, fear), working memory
Some mechanisms concerned with experience and expression of + emotions are situated on the left side and those for – emotion on the right side
Describe the left vs right cerebral hemispheres
1- Activation is stable in time, correlation of around 0.7.
2- Lateralisation produce different kinds of depression right hemisphere depression with a lot more negative emotions.
3- If you are a left lateralised person and see amusing film you have bigger positive emotional response if you show right lateralised person negative film clips bigger negative responses.
4- Shy kids (1-2 years of age). Right lateralised activation of the brain
5- Meditation story: Happiest human being ever!!!
Buddhist monk for 30 yrs.
5 SD out left lateralised
No right hemisphere activation.
Explain Matsumotos’s judoka competition research
Matsumoto’s team studied thousands of photographs taken of jūdōka at the Athens Olympics in 2004 just after matches had ended.
The researchers were particularly interested in whether, and how quickly, competitors’ altered their initial facial emotional expressions after winning or losing.
Key findings:
There are cultural differences.
Athletes’ initial emotional expressions were universal, however their subsequent expressions were culturally regulated.
Athletes from collectivist cultures, such as China, tend to mask their emotional expressions more than athletes from individualistic cultures like the UK.
Athletes from more wealthy, densely populated countries tended to be less concerned to mask their emotional expressions than competitors from rural, less populated countries.
Describe research findings into cultural variation of facial expression of emotions
Cultural influences on emotional expressions tended to kick in within one to two seconds of the initial appearance of a facial emotional display.
The initial facial reaction is triggered automatically by subcortical brain structures, before more culturally specific modification is applied by the motor cortex.
Dampening down an emotional expression appeared to take less time than completely masking an initial emotional display with another expression, consistent with the idea that masking requires more neurocognitive resources.
Give the two schools of thought concerning the psychology of smiling
These are:
1. Smiling is primarily an individual act. We smile as a result of an inner feeling of happiness.
2. Smiling is primarily a social act. We smile to let those around us know that we are happy.
Giving research findings into bowling and smiling
4% of bowlers smiled after hitting a strike
42% smiled when they turned round
Give the two types of smiles and explain
- Duchenne and Pan Am smile
- When people smile in a polite way without feelings of happiness is more asymmetrical
- Only 1 in 10 people can fake a Duchenne smile
Explain sex differences in research into smiling
For instance, being a womanmeans you’re more likely to be perceived as warm,but less likely to be seen as dominant.
In this study, students who ratedneutral faces, some of the usual effects of gender and ethnic stereotypes came into play. For example, theyrated Caucasian men lower on the trait of agreeableness than Caucasian women, and they rated Japanese women as less extravert than their Caucasian counterparts.
However…
Personality ratings disappeared or were greatly reduced when those faces were smiling.
“Smiling provides cues related to personality that are strong enough to negate the use of information based on gender or race in forming impressions of others,”
“smiling levels the playing field”.
Describe research findings into vocal emotional expression
Van Bezooijen, van Otto, and Heenan had 4 male and 4 female Dutch native actors saying twee maanden zwanger (Two months pregnant) in neutral voice and voices expressing nine emotions: disgust surprise, shame, interest, joy, fear, contempt, sadness and anger.
Audio recording were played to Dutch, Taiwanese and Japanese subjects. They were able to identify Dutch vocal expressions of emotion beyond chance expectancy
In a review of 60 studies of this kind Juslin and Laukka (2003) concluded than hearers can judge 5 different emotions in the voice: anger, fear, happiness, sadness and tenderness with accuracy rates that approach 70%. Judgements are better when listeners listen to members of their own culture. Some emotions like disgust are not well communicated by voice
Is there evidence for continuity of human emotional vocalisation with that of non- human species? primates show sophisticated communication. Vervet monkeys have three different call for 3 different predators.
Describe how laughter is a vocal expression of emotion
Laughter is clearly an emotional signal.
Very frequent
Probably preceded language in its evolutionary emergence.
It was and it is a primary means for enabling closeness with others.
Can reflect: tension, anxiety, contempt, anger, sarcasm, embarrassment, modesty and sexual desire.
Sometimes laughs do not involve emotions at all and are used to fill empty gaps in conversations, a signal that they are paying attention and encourage the speaker to carry on.
People attracted to each other laugh more (a common reason that women give for being with a long term sexual partner: “he makes me laugh”)
Describe how human laughter differs from animal laughter
Animal laughter is a reflex-like reaction restricted to the behavioural contexts of play and tickling
Human laughter is a more complex behaviour, expressed not only in the context of play, but also in various emotional states
Explain the neural activity related to tickling
There are distinct neural activation patterns during perception of tickling and emotional laughter (anterior rostral MFC in addition to other areas)
Emotional laughter may have evolved and diversified in humans to accommodate increasingly complex social interactions.
While tickling laughter is an unequivocal signal which has a direct impact on the listener and, therefore, imposes only moderate demands on social cognition processes, emotional laughter is an equivocal signal which may incorporate diverse meanings and, therefore, imposes higher demands on social cognition processes.
Explain research findings into laughing with friends vs strangers
Bryant et al. (2016)
Asked pairs of undergraduates (some were friends and some only met that day) to come into the lab and talk about various topics, such as “bad roommate experiences”.
Both individuals wore microphones, and their speech and laughter were recorded.
The listeners (from 24 countries) were able to judge whether the laughter clips came from friends or strangers with a reasonable degree of accuracy
The listeners’ ability to judge which pairs were friends and which were strangers was very similar across cultures, including those with no familiarity with English.
It doesn’t matter where you come from: it seems laughter is a language we all understand
Define tactile communication
Tactile communication: touch is exquisitely sensitive, a lot of the brain is devoted to analysing touch sensation.
Touch is the most developed sensory modality at birth and contributes to cognitive and socio-emotional development throughout infancy and childhood.
Give the reasons why we touch other people
1- To reinforce reciprocity: if a chimp is given a lot of food the chimp is more likely to share the food with a chimp he groomed earlier. Same applies to humans
2- To sooth: when babies undergo painful procedures (heel lance) they cry 82% less if they have physical body to body contact and had lower heart rate.
3- Safety: parents who have a lot of bodily contact with their children tend to have children who are more secure and feel safer in social environments.
4- For pleasure: rub the arm with a piece of velvet and that activates OFC (the same as other rewards as food)
Describe how emotions can be communicated through art
30,000 – 50,000 thousand years ago.
Works of art are often thought of expressions of emotions that attain cultural significance
Freudian view: Art allows us to express emotions instead of attacking each other.
What does expressing emotions through art do?
1- Clarifies our emotions: 5-25 % of our daily emotions are not clear to us. They require the use of art to express themselves.
2- Relieves powerful feelings: powerful feelings drive us to artistic expression : studied the lives of creative people, they report that emotion conflict and stress are catalyst for art. Through artistic expression we gain catharsis. It is an adaptor. The claim is that through artistic expression we gain insight into our emotion.
3- Artistic expressions take the form of our emotional expressions. Music analysis shows that the acoustic matches our emotion related vocalisations.
Described research findings into communicating emotions through music
Fritz et al 2009 played samples of computer-generated piano music to members of the culturally isolated Mafa tribe of Cameroon as well as to Western participants.
The music had been specifically designed to convey either happiness, sadness or fear by careful manipulation of mode, tempo, pitch range, tone density and rhythmic regularity, according to Western conventions.
The tribes-people had never before heard Western music and yet they matched the musical samples to the appropriate (according to Western convention) pictures of facial emotional expressions, with an accuracy significantly above chance performance.
Both them and Western participants relied on the same cues to make their judgements:
for example, pieces with higher tempo were more likely to be rated as happy, whereas lower tempo prompted ratings of fear.
Evidence for the universality of musical enjoyment.
This time the researchers played either Western or traditional Mafa music to Mafa tribes-people and Westerners.
Crucially, they played either unaltered versions of the music or “spectrally manipulated” versions.
This manipulation altered the timing of the music to make it sound more dissonant or lacking in harmony.
The tribes-people and the Westerners both preferred the unaltered versions of both the Mafa and Western music.
