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
Dr. Shaw creates a small a lesion in a specific part of a rat’s brain. The result is that the rat stops eating and soon dies of starvation. Which area of the brain was lesioned?
The lateral hypothalamus
Learning Objectives
Describe the general pattern of associations between emotion experience and well-being.
Identify at least three aspects of emotion experience beyond positivity and negativity of the emotion that affect the link between emotion experience and well-being.
emotions
An experiential, physiological, and behavioral response to a personally meaningful stimulus.
happy
not only pleasant, but is also useful to feel when in social situations because it helps us be friendly and collaborative, thus promoting our positive relationships.
Well being
The experience of mental and physical health and the absence of disorder.
Positive emotions = higher well being
greater…
life satisfaction
increased physical health
greater resilience to stress
better social connection with others
Livethree central aspects of the emotion experience longer lives
three central aspects of the emotion experience
- intensity of the emotion: Positive and negative emotions might not have the same effect on well-being at all intensities.
- emotions fluctuate over time: Stable emotional experiences might have quite different effects from experiences that change a lot.
- the context in which the emotion is experienced: The context in which we experience an emotion might profoundly affect whether the emotion is good or bad for us.
Why might experiencing very high levels of positive emotion be bad?
Makes individuals more likely to engage in risky behaviors, such as binge eating and drug use
*related to experience of mania
*It appears that the experience of positive emotions follows an inverted U-shaped curve in relation to well-being: more positive emotion is linked with increased well-being, but only up to a point, after which even more positive emotion is linked with decreased well-being
*Aristotle: Moderation is key to leading a good life
Why is actively avoiding negative emotions bad?
lower life satisfaction, lower social support, worse college grades, and feelings of worse physical health
*Low levels of negative emotion also seem to be involved in some forms of psychopathology. For instance, blunted sadness in response to a sad situation is a characteristic of major depressive disorder and feeling too little fear is a hallmark of psychopathy
emotional fluctuations
The degree to which emotions vary or change in intensity over time.
greater fluctuations in emotions = worse well being
(proof not rigid)
- linked with depression
- borderline personality disorder
- neuroticism
*strong fluctuations are indicative of emotional instability
At least three different contexts may critically affect the links between emotion and well-being:
- The external environment in which the emotion is being experienced
- the other emotional responses (e.g., physiology, facial behaviour) that are currently activated
- the other emotions that are currently being experienced.
external environment and emotions
“best” emotion to feel in a given situation
sad at funeral
happy at birthday or to collaborate
fear when faced with danger
anger to energize for a fight
*more likely to recover from depression and trauma
Feel what you feel when you’re feeling it, don’t force
emotional coherence
emotion we typically have corresponding behaviors and physiological responses
The degree to which emotional responses (subjective experience, behavior, physiology, etc.) converge with one another.
The more that participants’ behavior and experience cohered in the laboratory session, the lower levels of depressive symptoms and the higher levels of well-being they experienced 6 months later.
In other words (facial expressions…)
experiencing high levels of positive emotion aided well-being only if it was accompanied by corresponding positive facial expressions.
social communication and emotion
successful social communication depends on whether an individual’s emotions are being accurately communicated to others.
positive and negative emotions exist independently and therefor can coexist
For example, how does it feel to win a prize when you expected a greater prize? Given “what might have been,” situations like this can elicit both happiness and sadness. Or, take “schadenfreude” (a German term for deriving pleasure from someone else’s misfortune), or “aviman” (an Indian term for prideful, loving anger), or nostaligia (an English term for affectionate sadness about something from the past): these terms capture the notion that people can feel both positively and negatively within the same emotional experience. And as it turns out, the other emotions that someone feels (e.g., sadness) during the experience of an emotion (e.g., happiness) influence whether that emotion experience has a positive or negative effect on well-being.
*Mixed emotions = better well being
While it is not entirely clear why fluctuations in emotion are linked to worse well-being, one explanation is that strong fluctuations are indicative of…
emotional stability
Learning Objectives
Define affective neuroscience.
Describe neuroscience techniques used to study emotions in humans and animals.
Name five emotional systems and their associated neural structures and neurotransmitters.
Give examples of exogenous chemicals (e.g., drugs) that influence affective systems, and discuss their effects.
Discuss multiple affective functions of the amygdala and the nucleus accumbens.
Name several specific human emotions, and discuss their relationship to the affective systems of nonhuman animals.
Affective neuroscience
An emotional process; includes moods, subjective feelings, and discrete emotions.
aims to understand how matter (brain structures and chemicals) creates one of the most fascinating aspects of mind, the emotions. Affective neuroscience uses unbiased, observable measures that provide credible evidence to other sciences and laypersons on the importance of emotions. It also leads to biologically based treatments for affective disorders (e.g., depression).
Emotions
psychological phenomena that involve changes to the body (e.g., facial expression), changes in autonomic nervous system activity, feeling states (subjective responses), and urges to act in specific ways
neuroscience
The study of the nervous system.
Invasive neuroscience techniques
electrode implantation
lesioning
hormone administration
*more easily used in other animals than humans
*Affective circuits found in other species, particularly social mammals such as rats, dogs, and monkeys, function similarly to human affective networks, although nonhuman animals’ brains are more basic.
noninvasive techniques for human neuroscience
- electroencephalography (EEG)
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) - on studies of individuals with brain lesions caused by accident or disease.
Emotions influence:
perception
cognition
behavior to help organisms survive and thrive
emotional responses involve networks of activation, with many parts of the brain =
= activated during any emotional process.
Primarily responsible for generating basic emotions
Brain circuits located deep within the brain below the cerebral cortex
appetitive processes
wanting
seeking
behavioural activation sensitivity
When the appetitive system is aroused, the organism shows enthusiasm, interest, and curiosity. These neural circuits motivate the animal to move through its environment in search of rewards such as appetizing foods, attractive sex partners, and other pleasurable stimuli. When the appetitive system is underaroused, the organism appears depressed and helpless.
hypothalemus
Part of the diencephalon. Regulates biological drives with pituitary gland.
regions in the desire system
hypothalamus
amygdala
nucleus accumbens
frontal cortex
frontal cortex
A region of the frontal lobes of the brain above the eye sockets.
The neurotransmitter dopamine
Produced in the mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine circuits, activates these regions. It creates a sense of excitement, meaningfulness, and anticipation. These structures are also sensitive to drugs such as cocaine and amphetamines, chemicals that have similar effects to dopamine
left frontal cortex and appetite
left frontal cortex (compared to the right frontal cortex) is more active during appetitive emotions such as desire and interest.
damage to the left frontal cortex
developed depression
damage to the right frontal cortex
developed mania
The relationship between left frontal activation and approach-related emotions has been confirmed in healthy individuals using EEG and fMRI
For example, increased left frontal activation occurs in 2- to 3-day-old infants when sucrose is placed on their tongues, and in hungry adults as they view pictures of desirable desserts. In addition, greater left frontal activity in appetitive situations has been found to relate to dopamine (Wacker, Mueller, Pizzagalli, Hennig, & Stemmler, 2013).
Rewards, desire vs. liking
The amount of desire an individual feels toward a reward need not correspond to how much he or she likes that reward.
*neural structures involved in the enjoyment of rewards are different from the structures involved in the desire for the rewards.
Liking
can be measured in babies and nonhuman animals by measuring licking speed, tongue protrusions, and happy facial expressions
*Liking has been distinguished from wanting in research on topics such as drug abuse. For example, drug addicts often desire drugs even when they know that the ones available will not provide pleasure
Wanting
is shown by the willingness to work hard to obtain a reward
nucleus accumbens
A region of the basal forebrain located in front of the preoptic region.
*sensitive to opioids and endocannabinoids.
orbitofrontal cortex
experience of pleasure
*Neurons in this region fire when monkeys taste, or merely see pictures of, desirable foods. In humans, this region is activated by pleasant stimuli including money, pleasant smells, and attractive faces
fear
freeze
flee
Slight stimulation of the fear-related areas in the brain causes animals to freeze, whereas intense stimulation causes them to flee.
periaqueductal gray
The gray matter in the midbrain near the cerebral aqueduct.
fear circuit
extends from the central amygdala to the periaqueductal gray in the midbrain.
*These structures are sensitive to glutamate, corticotrophin releasing factor, adreno-cortico-trophic hormone, cholecystokinin, and several different neuropeptides. Benzodiazepines and other tranquilizers inhibit activation in these areas
amygdala
Two almond-shaped structures located in the medial temporal lobes of the brain.
fear responses
two pathways send signals to the amygdala from the sensory organs.
Fast pathway
the thalamus also quickly sends the information straight to the amygdala, so that the organism can react before consciously perceiving the snake. The pathway from the thalamus to the amygdala is fast but less accurate than the slower pathway from the visual cortex.
Slow pathway
sensory information travels from the eye to the thalamus and then to the visual cortex. The visual cortex sends the information on to the amygdala, provoking a fear response.
thalamus
A part of the diencephalon that works as a gateway for incoming and outgoing information.
visual cortex
The part of the brain that processes visual information, located in the back of the brain.
Damage to the amygdala or areas of the ventral hypocampus
interferes with fear conditioning in both humans and nonhuman animals
circuits of anger and attack
Anger or rage is an arousing, unpleasant emotion that motivates organisms to approach and attack. Anger can be evoked through goal frustration, physical pain, or physical restraint. In territorial animals, anger is provoked by a stranger entering the organism’s home territory. The neural networks for anger and fear are near one another, but separate. They extend from the medial amygdala, through specific parts of the hypothalamus, and into the periaqueductal gray of the midbrain. The anger circuits are linked to the appetitive circuits, such that lack of an anticipated reward can provoke rage. In addition, when humans are angered, they show increased left frontal cortical activation, supporting the idea that anger is an approach-related emotion. The neurotransmitters involved in rage are not yet well understood, but Substance P may play an important role. Other neurochemicals that may be involved in anger include testosterone and arginine-vasopressin. Several chemicals inhibit the rage system, including opioids and high doses of antipsychotics, such as chlorpromazine.
Love: The neural systems of care and attachment
Important regions for maternal nurturing include the dorsal preoptic area and the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. These regions overlap with the areas involved in sexual desire, and are sensitive to some of the same neurotransmitters, including oxytocin, arginine-vasopressin, and endogenous opioids (endorphins and enkephalins).
preoptic area
A region in the anterior hypothalamus involved in generating and regulating male sexual behavior.
stria terminalis
A band of fibers that runs along the top surface of the thalamus.
The neural networks of loneliness and panic
The neural networks involved in infant attachment are also sensitive to separation. These regions produce the painful emotions of grief, panic, and loneliness. When infant humans or other infant mammals are separated from their mothers, they produce distress vocalizations, or crying. The attachment circuits are those that cause organisms to produce distress vocalizations when electrically stimulated.
The attachment system begins in the midbrain periaqueductal gray, very close to the area that produces physical pain responses, suggesting that it may have originated from the pain circuits (Panksepp, 1998). Separation distress can also be evoked by stimulating the dorsomedial thalamus, ventral septum, dorsal preoptic region, and areas in the bed nucleus of stria terminalis (near sexual and maternal circuits; Panksepp, Normansell, Herman, Bishop, & Crepeau, 1988).
These regions are sensitive to endogenous opiates, oxytocin, and prolactin. All of these neurotransmitters preventseparation distress. Opiate drugs such as morphine and heroin, as well as nicotine, artificially produce feelings of pleasure and gratification, similar to those normally produced during positive social interactions. This may explain why these drugs are addictive. Panic attacks appear to be an intense form of separation distress triggered by the attachment system, and panic can be effectively relieved by opiates. Testosterone also reduces separation distress, perhaps by reducing attachment needs. Consistent with this, panic attacks are more common in women than in men.
Experiences can alter the brain
The responses of specific neural regions may be modified by experience. For example, the front shell of the nucleus accumbens is generally involved in appetitive behaviors, such as eating, and the back shell is generally involved in fearful defensive behaviors (Reynolds & Berridge, 2001, 2002). Research using human neuroimaging has also revealed this front–back distinction in the functions of the nucleus accumbens (Seymour, Daw, Dayan, Singer, & Dolan, 2007). However, when rats are exposed to stressful environments, their fear-generating regions expand toward the front, filling almost 90% of the nucleus accumbens shell. On the other hand, when rats are exposed to preferred home environments, their fear-generating regions shrink and the appetitive regions expand toward the back, filling approximately 90% of the shell (Reynolds & Berridge, 2008).
*Neural plasticity can be summed up in the phrase: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.” Or in other words, when certain emotions are paired with certain contexts, we learn to associate the two together.
multiple functions of brain structures
the amygdala of the nonhuman primate can be divided into 13 nuclei and cortical areas (Freese & Amaral, 2009). These regions of the amygdala perform different functions. The central nucleus sends outputs involving brainstem areas that result in innate emotional expressions and associated physiological responses. The basal nucleus is connected with striatal areas that are involved with actions such as running toward safety. Furthermore, it is not possible to make one-to-one maps of emotions onto brain regions. For example, extensive research has examined the involvement of the amygdala in fear, but research has also shown that the amygdala is active during uncertainty (Whalen, 1998) as well as positive emotions
A structure in the brain associated with liking is the:
nucleus accumbens
Damage to the _______ interferes with fear conditioning in both humans and non-human animals.
amygdala
_______ _______ aims to understand how matter (brain structures and chemicals) creates emotions.
Affective neuroscience
