Week 17: Motivation and Emotion Flashcards
Learning Objectives:
Identify the key properties of drive states
Describe biological goals accomplished by drive states
Give examples of drive states
Outline the neurobiological basis of drive states such as hunger and arousal
Discuss the main moderators and determinants of drive states such as hunger and arousal
Drive state
Affective experiences that motivate organisms to fulfill goals that are generally beneficial to their survival and reproduction.
*unique in that they generate behaviors that result in specific benefits for the body. For example, hunger directs individuals to eat foods that increase blood sugar levels in the body, while thirst causes individuals to drink fluids that increase water levels in the body.
Homeostasis
Two key factors
The tendency of an organism to maintain a stable state across all the different physiological systems in the body.
- The system being regulated must be monitored and compared to an ideal level, or a set point.
- There need to be mechanisms for moving the system back to this set point—that is, to restore homeostasis when deviations from it are detected.
set point
An ideal level that the system being regulated must be monitored and compared to.
Molecular punishments and rewards
When we are too far from the homeostasis set point our bodies urge us to get back to the set point.
Punishment
Ex. uncomfortable when too hot or cold outside
Reward
Ex. putting a cold hand in warm water
Three Attention Narrowing Aspects of Drive States
- As drive states intensify, they direct attention toward elements, activities, and forms of consumption that satisfy the biological needs associated with the drive. Hunger, for example, draws attention toward food.
- A collapsing of time-perspective toward the present. That is, they make us impatient. While this form of attention-narrowing is particularly pronounced for the outcomes and behaviors directly related to the biological function being served by the drive state at issue (e.g., “I need food now”), it applies to general concerns for the future as well.
- thoughts and outcomes related to the self versus others. Intense drive states tend to narrow one’s focus inwardly and to undermine altruism—or the desire to do good for others. People who are hungry, in pain, or craving drugs tend to be selfish.
Ariely and Loewenstein
Sexual Arousal
being sexually aroused made people extremely impatient for both sexual outcomes and for outcomes in other domains, such as those involving money.
Literally man’s head gonna explode, both of ‘em
Giordano et al. (2002)
Heroin
more impatient with respect to heroin when they were craving it than when they were not. More surprisingly, they were also more impatient toward money (they valued delayed money less) when they were actively craving heroin.
HUNGER
Trigger: low glucose levels
*Fat internal cue: when fats are broken down in the body for energy, this initiates a chemical cue that the body should search for food
*Time of day external cue: estimated time until the next feeding (hunger increases immediately prior to food consumption),
*Other external cues - the sight, smell, taste, and even touch of food and food-related stimuli
THE BODY KNOWS WHAT IT NEEDS:
while hunger is a generic feeling, it has nuances that can provoke the eating of specific foods that correct for nutritional imbalances we may not even be conscious of. For example, a couple who was lost adrift at sea found they inexplicably began to crave the eyes of fish. Only later, after they had been rescued, did they learn that fish eyes are rich in vitamin C—a very important nutrient that they had been depleted of while lost in the ocean
Hypothalemus
(for hunger)
Part of the diencephalon. Regulates biological drives with pituitary gland.
*(located in the lower, central part of the brain) plays a very important role in eating behavior. It is responsible for synthesizing and secreting various hormones. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) is concerned largely with hunger and, in fact, lesions (i.e., damage) of the LH can eliminate the desire for eating entirely—to the point that animals starve themselves to death unless kept alive by force-feeding
*artificially stimulating the LH, using electrical currents, can generate eating behavior if food is available
satiation
The state of being full to satisfaction and no longer desiring to take on more.
*Makes you stop eating, complete fullness
ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)
plays an important role in satiety
sensory cortices (for eating)
(visual, olfactory, and taste), for example, are important in identifying food items.
*These areas provide informational value, however, not hedonic evaluations. That is, these areas help tell a person what is good or safe to eat, but they don’t provide the pleasure (or hedonic) sensations that actually eating the food produces.
Reward value
A neuropsychological measure of an outcome’s affective importance to an organism.
*The hungrier you are, the greater the reward value of the food. Neurons in the areas where reward values are processed, such as the orbitofrontal cortex, fire more rapidly at the sight or taste of food when the organism is hungry relative to if it is satiated.
SO FOOD DOES TASTE BETTER WHEN YOU’RE HUNGRY
Andes Flight Disaster
Boil leather of shoes and belts because so hungry.
*eat cigarette tea? LOL
They ate the people who died in the plane crash because they were so hungry
“Anthropology” means eating human meat
Drive states
- emotional states
- motivates us to approach or avoid
- triggered by internal and external cues
Homeostasis
self-regulation to keep all physiological systems stable to allow survival
Homeostatic mechanism
brings us back to set point
Out of balance set point influences (3)
- attentional bias and capture
- all focus on drive satiating cues
- hard to think about anything else - Time expansion & Delay discounting
- time goes slower
- impatience, I want now - Egocentrism
- more selfish, all about self-preservation
Hypothalamus
Lateral (LH)
Hunger
*lesions in rats made them starve to death
*Stimulation caused infinite eating til death
Hypothalamus
Ventromedial (VMH)
Satiety
*Lesions = hyperphagia, obesity
* Stimulation = reduced feeding, fat
loss
Hunger cycle
- low glucose
- LH activity, so we eat
- after eating, increased glucose
- Increased VMH activity, so we stop eating
Soylent
by Rob Rhinehart as meal replacement
meal replacement
*Basically astronaut food
Hedonic hunger
*we enjoy about pleasure of food rather than just homeostatic mechanisms
Palatability = hedonic value of food when consumed
Reward System
Eating sugar and fat increases dopamine by 130% to 160%
*Historically hard to get these foods so our bodies reward us
Food specific hunger
drive to consume food with specific characteristics
Salt-specific hunger
sodium depletion = hedonic shift
we need sault for physical activities
Hunger & Visual Attention
Sawada et al., 2019
Hungry/Fed
* Target types: High-fat (fast) food, low-fat (Japanese) food, non-food
(utensils)
- DV: Same/different judgement accuracy & reaction time
Faster response to pick out food because hungry.
Food always grabs attention, even more when hungry
*High fat for REALLY HUNGRY
Hunger and emotions
Ackermans et al
YOU’RE NOT YOU WHEN HUNGRY
*hunger = negative >
positive emotions
IV: food deprived vs. satiated women at health
weight
DV: self-reported moods on the scale
Results: more tension, anger, fatigue, confusion & less pride, competence, and vigour
Emotions
- Organized around survival and reproduction
- Influence and reciprocal with cognition & behaviour
Positive feelings lead to approach/repeating action in future to elicit a same affective state
Negative feelings can lead to avoidance behaviour, and preventative actions, or can alert us to something being wrong
- E.g. feeling lonely might help us reach out to others, promote social engagement
- Rely on neural networks
- Not isolated areas
- E.g. the Reward Network
The Reward Network
Structures
- Neural structures involved in incentive salience
- Activated by rewarding stimuli
- Produce specific feelings & behaviours
- Wanting, desiring, craving
- Enthusiasm, excitement, anticipation, interest, curiosity
- Seeking, approach (aka appetitive) behaviours
- Can override homeostatic mechanisms
- i.e., eating highly palatable food when not hungry
Structures:
Amygdala
Nucleus accumbens
Frontal cortex (i.e., prefrontal cortex)
Hypothalamus (e.g. LH)
Communicate via neurotransmitter dopamine
The greater the incentive salience, the more dopamine involved
Help cement the current experience in memory
Left frontal cortex
addiction
- More active during appetitive emotions e.g. desire, interest
- E.g. activated in days-old infants tasting sweet
- When hungry adults see food
- Activation positively associated with dopamine
release
damage to this area associated with depression
Sexual Arousal (Drive State)
Results in thoughts and behaviours related to sexual activity
internal and external mechanisms that are triggered either after the extended absence of sexual activity or by the immediate presence and possibility of sexual activity (or by cues commonly associated with such possibilities).
*Unlike hunger, varies between men and women
Pre-optic area - Male
A region in the anterior hypothalamus involved in generating and regulating male sexual behaviour.
If damaged: male sexual behavior is severely impaired
Example: rats that have had prior sexual experiences will still seek out sexual partners after their preoptic area is lesioned. However, once having secured a sexual partner, rats with lesioned preoptic areas will show no further inclination to actually initiate sex.
Maybe when her friends call him a rat, they’re right! LMAO
Pre-optic area - female
Less for sex, more for other eating behaviours
ventromedial hypothalamus (the lower, central part) - female
Excretion of estradiol, an estrogen hormone that regulates sexual receptivity
(or the willingness to accept a sexual partner)
periaqueductal gray (a region in the midbrain)
neurons for defensive behaviors, such as freezing immobility, running, increases in blood pressure, and other motor responses
*during sexual arousal, these defensive responses are weakened and lordosis behavior, a physical sexual posture that serves as an invitation to mate, is initiated
neural modules - males
Areas of the brain that are important for male sexuality overlap to a great extent with areas that are also associated with aggression.
neural modules - females
Areas of the brain that are important for female sexuality overlap extensively with those that are also connected to nurturance
septal nucleus
Region of the brain that seems to play an important role in sexual pleasure for both males and females
- area that receives reciprocal connections from many other brain regions, including the hypothalamus and the amygdala (a region of the brain primarily involved with emotions). This region shows considerable activity, in terms of rhythmic spiking, during sexual orgasm.
*In humans, placing a small amount of acetylcholine into this region, or stimulating it electrically, has been reported to produce a feeling of imminent orgasm
The tendency of an organism to maintain a stable state across all the different physiological systems in the body is called ______.
Homeostasis
