Psychobiology of emotion

Question 1

What are emotions?

Answer 1

Transient events, produced in response to external or internal events of significance to the individual, characterised by attention to the evoking stimulus and changes in physiological arousal, motor behaviour, feelings and engender a biasing of behaviour

(Triangle: physiological response, feelings, readiness to act in specific ways)

-Disturbance involved in almost all psychiatric disorders

Question 2

Visiting a doctor evokes emotion (fear/sadness/surprise/happiness)

How can this influence outcome?

Answer 2

Fear- delayed presentation

Disgust- disease avoidance

Anger- poor engagement

Sadness- poorer outcomes (diabetes, surgery)

Question 3

Plutchik identified 8 basic emotionsand arranged them in pairs. What are they?

How are they identified?

Answer 3

Joy/sadness
Trust/disgust
Fear/anger
Surprise/anticipation

Identified by decoding and defining emotional expressions

Question 4

Frijda said that classification of emotions is based on predisposition to specific actions.

What is the JAMES-LANGE theory?

Answer 4

Physiology –> emotion

Percieve frightening situation
/ \
Run away/ freer AND heart racing sweating, dry mouth

Both lead to feeling of fear

Question 5

Frijda said that classification of emotions is based on predisposition to specific actions.

What is the CANNON-BARD theory?

Answer 5

Percieve frightening situation

Lead to feeling of fear

Which gives rise to runing away/freeze or heart racing, sweating, dry mouth. The latter faciliates the former

Question 6

What did SCHNACTER & SINGER experiment say about emotion?

Answer 6

2-factor theory of emotion: cognitive interpretation of physiological response

Infection of ‘Suproxin’ –> gives information of side effects (either informed, misinformed or ignorant)

–> Those exposed to euphoric condition: The happiest were the misinformed, then the ignorant, then the informed (as they understood)

–> Those exposed to anger condition: The angriest were those that were ignorant, then the misinformed, then the informed

Question 7

What is the clinical relevance of the work schnachter and singer did?

Answer 7

Bodily sensations are wrongly appraised as evidence of impending catastrophic illness (My hearts racing, im having an MI)
-Induces anxiety –> exacerbates physiological effects–> falsely interpreted (positive feedback)

IN PANIC DISORDER

Question 8

How does the brain generate emotions?

Which structures are involved?

Answer 8

Learning from the visual system

Limbic system (cingulate, fornix, hippocampal complex, amygdala, mammillary bodies, hypothalamus, OFC)- responsible for emotion, memory, bias

PFC- dense interconnections
Hypothalamus- peripheral interface, viscer-endocrine effector, homeostasis
Paralimbic cortices e.g. Insula -Taste
Ventral striatum (NAcc and mesolimbic dopaminergic system)- reward, addiction, motivation

Question 9

Where do positive emotions arise from?

What did Olds and Milner (1954) discover?

Answer 9

Ventral tegmental areaa –> NAcc

• mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway
• reward prediction error signals
• “wanting”

Orbito/medial prefrontal cortex-reward value, olfactory satiety (room for dessert?)

Olds and milner (1954)- Electrical stimulation (from VTA to NAcc) results in rats returning to the place where they receive the stimulation

Question 10

How is dopamine implicated in emotion?

Answer 10

• Abundant in NAcc, VTA, Striatum, PFC
• modulates many kinds of nerve activity in the brain
• Activity manipulated in antipsychotic drugs
• Involved in mechanisms of drugs of abuse

Drugs for ADHD
-Suppression of DA transmission in humans who take pleasurable drugs doesn’t cause suppression of reported drug pleasure (even when it decreases drug craving)

Opioid NT’s –> hedonic affect/ “liking” for a drug
=>REWARD DOESNT EQUAL PLEASURE