Unit 10 Biopsychology of Emotion Flashcards
What are emotions
A subjective mental state that is usually accompanied by distinctive cognitions, behaviours, and physiological changes.
What is the evolutionary case for emotions and the core set of emotions
Emotions serve to coordinate and drive adaptive responses to a variety of situations and key survival issues
What was Paul Ekman’s study
Ekman proposed there are 8 core emotions that are universally expressed and recognized through facial expressions
What is the control of facial expressions in emotions
They are muscles of the face and are critical for generating facial expressions
What are some fear conditioning experiments used to study the anatomy of fear
foot shock + tone conditioning is shown – this pairing causes the rats to fear the tone
What evidence supports a role for the amygdala in fear
People missing the amygdala are not as receptive to fear as people with a working amygdala
What is the neuroanatomy surrounding the amygdala that controls a fear response
The ‘low road’ and ‘high road’ of sensory information from the thalamus to the amygdala
What is the general understanding of endocrine signaling
Is a form of cell-to-cell communication and doesn’t require physical proximity between communicating cells
What are the elements of the fast stress response
The sympathetic division reacts quickly to stimulus and tells the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine
What are the elements of the slow stress response
- The hypothalamus releases corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH)
- The anterior pituitary gland releases adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)
- The adrenal cortex releases glucocorticoids and cortisol
What is the concept of stress immunization and how it relates to the Liu et al 1997 paper. Does early exposure to stress reduce the adult stress response or is it something else?)
The concept was developed after studies on rats revealed that brief periods of stress early in development lead to adult rats that displayed reduced responses to a variety of stressors
What have Studies using lesions and brain activity measures revealed?
that a number of brain areas are involved in the experience of emotion
What critical regions are associated with emotional experience
prefrontal cortex, the limbic system, the cingulate cortex, amygdala, insula
What are facial expressions role in the experience of emotion
Facial expressions help us communicate our emotions and understand the emotions of others
What is the facial nerve nucleus
the location of the cell bodies of the facial nerve motor neurons. It receives input from motor and limbic areas.
How does high road sensory information reach the amygdala
Information from the thalamus goes to the sensory cortex and hippocampus before going to the amygdala
How does low road sensory information reach the amygdala
Information goes directly from the thalamus to the amygdala
What is the understanding of the negative feedback in endocrine signaling
Negative feedback regulates all adrenal hormone release. For example, circulating cortisol reduces the release of more cortisol.
