Week 11: Emotions

Question 1

emotion

Answer 1

a subjective mental state that is usually accompanied by distinctive behaviours, feelings, and involuntary physiological changes.

Question 2

sympathetic nervous system

Answer 2

a component of the autonomic nervous system that arises from the thoracic and lumbar spinal chord

Question 3

parasympathetic nervous system

Answer 3

A component of the autonomic nervous system that arises from both the cranial nerves and the sacral spinal chord

Question 4

James-Lange theory

Answer 4

The theory that our experience of emotion is a response to the physiological changes that accompany it

Question 5

What are the components to an emotional response?

Answer 5

1. Cognition
2. Feelings
3. Behavioral
4. Physiological

Question 6

Fight or Flight Response

Answer 6

Physiological response to a threat in the environment.
Activation of the sympathetic nervous system.

Question 7

James-Lange Theory Evidence

Answer 7

• Hohman 1966: Spinal cord injured patients
• Critchley et al 2001: Pure autonomic failure(dysfunction of ganglia in ANS) patients
  experience blunted feelings

Question 8

Theories of emotion

Answer 8

• James-Lange Theory
• Cannon-Bard Theory
• Schachter-Singer Theory

Question 9

Facial Feedback hypothesis

Answer 9

• Strack 1988
• One’s facial expression directly affects their emotional experience

Question 10

Mobius syndrome

Answer 10

 Underdeveloped VI and VII cranial nerves; needed for facial movement
 Lack of facial expression, crossed eyes, inability to smile and move head.
▪ Cannot move facial muscles to make a smile but still express “feeling” happy

Contradicts James-Lange theory

Question 11

Cannon-bard theory (aka. Thalamic theory)

Answer 11

the theory that our experience of emotion is independent of the simultaneous physiological changes that accompany it

Question 12

cognitive attribution model/ Schachter-Singer )Two factor theory

Answer 12

The theory that our emotional experience results from cognitive analysis of the context around us, such that physiological changes may accentuate emotions but not specify which emotion we experience.

Question 13

behavioral Activation System (BAS)

Answer 13

• Low to moderate autonomic arousal
• Tendency to approach
• Left hemisphere activation of frontal and temporal lobe

Question 14

Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

Answer 14

• Increased attention and arousal
• Social withdraw, fear and disgust
• Right hemisphere activation of frontal and temporal lobe.

Question 15

Wada Test

Answer 15

(Intracarotid sodium amobarbitol procedure) Study
* Inhibit Right Hemisphere
* Ask patient to recall a distressing memory
* Result:Verbally describe event but unable to recall the emotional experience

Question 16

Alexithymia

Answer 16

Inability to express “feelings” of emotion
* Personality trait (Toronto Alexithymia Scale; TAS-20)
* Problems identifying, describing, and working with feelings
* Difficulty distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal
* May “express” the emotion (e.g., crying), but can’t explain it in terms of feelings
* Interpersonal relationships may suffer
* Right hemisphere disturbance

Question 17

Fear physiological response

Answer 17

Increased HR
E and NE
Freezing

Question 18

Brain regions involved in fear

Answer 18

amygdala
hypothalamus
PAG

Question 19

Urbach-Wiethe disease

Answer 19

• rare genetic condition that causes calcium to build up in the amygdala until it wastes away
• Case study of SM
• Experiences fearlessness that is dangerous to her:
  robberies at gunpoint, physical assaults, no
  inhibition when strangers approach
• Reports feeling angry but not afraid in response to
  these incidents
• Inability to recognize fear or disgust, or report
  reduced intensity
• Willingness to undergo stress challenge (CO2
  challenge) again without a second thought

Question 20

Brain region associated with disgust

Answer 20

insular cortex

Question 21

2 reasons for aggressive behavior

Answer 21

• reproduction behaviors
• defensive behaviors

Question 22

Important players in aggression

Answer 22

• Amygdala
• vmPFC
• Serotonergic system

Question 23

serotonergic system

Answer 23

• Enabling synaptic connections inhibit aggressive behavior
• Destruction of synaptic connection increases aggressive behavior
• Lower serotonin turnover (release and re-synthesis of 5HT)

Question 24

importance of vmPFC

Answer 24

Emotion regulation
Moral decision making

Question 25

mirror neuron

Answer 25

a neuron that fires both when an animal acts and when the animal observes the same action performed by another