Neurophysiology of emotion Flashcards
limbic system- controls?
- emotional behavior
- motivational drives
limbic system anatomy
- hypothalamus
- olfactory areas
- thalamus
- basal ganglia
- hippocampus
- amygdala
- cingulate cortex
hypothalamus
- emotional experience
- physiological responses (connection to ANS)
olfactory areas
-olfaction and emotion are strongly linked
thalamus
- ant nucleus part of Papez Circuit
- other regions involved in both input and output of limbic system
basal ganglia
-nucleus accumbens
hippocampus
- part of Papez circuit
- learning/memory
- memory and emotion are strongly linked
amygdala
- fear
- learning and memory
cingulate cortex
- mostly paleocortex (3 cell layers)
- some parts have full 6 layers
- important feature- many of these neurons show after-discharge
neural circuits for recognizing emotion in others
-also involved in producing that emotion in ourselves
mirror neuron system
-these neurons fire both when you do something and when you see someone else do that same action
basic emotions that are common across cultures/species
- fear
- pleasure
- sadness
- avoidance
- disgust
- anger
2 kinds of fear
- Innate (unconditioned)
- Learned (conditioned)
Fear- neuroanatomical basis
Amygdala
- processing and recognition of social cues related to fear
- emotional conditioning in response to fear
- memory
emotional conditioning in response to fear- 2 pathways
- direct thalamo-amygdaloid pathway (early response)
- indirect thalamo-cortical-amygdaloid pathway (late response
emotional conditioning in response to fear
- inputs (thalamic and cortex) arrive at lateral nucleus of amygdala- integrates the inputs (ex- pairing of sound an electrical shock)
- info is sent to basal and intercalated nuclei
- info from lateral, basal, intercalated nuclei is sent to the central nucleus of amygdala- decides what responses are required and relays info appropriately
- hypothalamus- generates physiologic responses
damage to amygdala
-fear is not perceived- so conditioning related to fear does no occur
Sadness- anatomical basis
-lower sector of anterior cingulate cortex
punishment/avoidance- anatomical basis
- lateral post hypothalamus
- dorsal midbrain
- entorhinal cortex
- designed to oppose the occurrence of a behavior
disgust- anatomical basis
Insular cortex/putamen
- processing/recognizing of social cues related to disgust
- damage (Huntington’s dz) abolishes
anger/rage- anatomical basis
- amygdala
- requires dopaminergic input acting at D2 R’s
inhibition of anger/rage requires?
- neocortex
- ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei
- septal nuclei
Integrating the inputs- Step 1
Anterior Cingulate Cortex
- ventral- affective
- dorsal- cognitive
Anterior Cingulate Cortex- role in emotion
- integration of visceral, attentional, and emotional input
- Regulation of Affect!!- top-down control (controlling our emotions)
- monitors conflict b/w our functional state (right now) and new info that has potential or motivational consequences
- relays info to the pre-frontal cortex
Integrating the inputs- step 2
Pre-frontal cortex
-ventromedial- input from amygdala, hippocampus, temporal visual association area, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Pre-frontal cortex
- reward processing- link new stimulus to a primary reward
- integration of body signals- gut feeling
- top down regulation- esp twds delayed gratification
