Week 17: Motivation and Emotion Flashcards
What are drive states?
Affective experiences that motivate organisms to fulfill goals beneficial to survival and reproduction.
What is the primary biological goal accomplished by drive states?
To fulfill physiological needs that maintain homeostasis.
Give examples of drive states.
- Hunger
- Thirst
- Sexual arousal
What is homeostasis?
The tendency of an organism to maintain stability across various physiological systems.
What are the two key factors that maintain homeostasis?
- Monitoring the state of the system
- Mechanisms for restoring the set point
True or False: Drive states can only be triggered by internal cues.
False
How do drive states affect attention?
They narrow attention towards elements and activities that satisfy biological needs.
What happens to attention towards non-essential outcomes during intense drive states?
Non-essential outcomes lose their value.
Fill in the blank: The narrowing of attention during drive states often leads to __________ toward the present.
impatience
What is satiation?
The decline of hunger and the eventual termination of eating behavior.
What part of the brain is primarily responsible for hunger?
Lateral hypothalamus (LH)
What role does the ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH) play?
It is involved in satiety and termination of eating.
True or False: Hunger and satiation are controlled by the same circuits in the brain.
False
What triggers hunger?
Low glucose levels in the blood and various internal and external cues.
What is the reward value of food influenced by?
The level of hunger experienced by the organism.
What is sexual arousal?
A drive state resulting in thoughts and behaviors related to sexual activity.
Which brain region is primarily associated with male sexual arousal?
Preoptic area of the anterior hypothalamus.
What role does the ventromedial hypothalamus play in female sexual arousal?
It regulates sexual receptivity through the excretion of estradiol.
Fill in the blank: Drive states can lead to __________ behavior, undermining altruism.
selfish
What physiological effect does hunger have on the cognitive process?
It directs attention and influences psychological processes like perception and motivation.
What is the relationship between hunger and the sensory cortices?
Sensory cortices help identify food items but do not provide hedonic evaluations.
What happens to the desirability of food when the lateral hypothalamus is stimulated?
Desirability of food increases, and non-food-related items decrease in value.
What hormone is regulated by neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus that influences sexual receptivity?
Estradiol
Estradiol is an estrogen hormone that plays a significant role in female sexual behavior.
What behavior is initiated during sexual arousal in females due to weakened defensive responses?
Lordosis behavior
Lordosis is a physical sexual posture that serves as an invitation to mate.
Which area of the brain is responsible for encouraging male sexual activity?
Preoptic area
The preoptic area is involved in generating and regulating male sexual behavior.
True or False: Areas of the brain important for male sexuality overlap with areas associated with nurturance.
False
Areas important for male sexuality overlap with areas associated with aggression, while female sexuality overlaps with nurturance.
What brain region plays a key role in sexual pleasure for both males and females?
Septal nucleus
The septal nucleus is involved in sexual pleasure and shows activity during sexual orgasm.
What effect does stimulating the septal nucleus with acetylcholine have in humans?
Produces a feeling of imminent orgasm
This has been reported in studies involving electrical stimulation of the septal nucleus.
What are drive states?
Evolved motivational mechanisms designed to ensure self-beneficial actions.
Drive states include hunger, sexual arousal, and many others that affect human behavior.
List three examples of drive states other than hunger and sexual arousal.
- Fear
- Thirst
- Drug cravings
Each drive state has unique features that fulfill its evolutionary function.
Fill in the blank: Thirst is induced by decreased fluid levels and an increased concentration of _______.
Salt
This highlights the physiological triggers of thirst.
What is homeostasis?
The tendency of an organism to maintain a stable state across all physiological systems.
Homeostasis is crucial for the regulation of various bodily functions.
What is a homeostatic set point?
An ideal level that the system being regulated must be monitored and compared to.
This concept is essential for understanding how organisms maintain equilibrium.
What is satiation?
The state of being full to satisfaction and no longer desiring to take on more.
Satiation is a critical aspect of hunger regulation.
What are the potential real-world consequences of drive states?
They can lead to behaviors ill-suited to modern life, such as obesity and addiction.
Examples include the obesity epidemic and issues arising from unrestricted sexual arousal.
True or False: Drive states are unique to humans and do not exist in other animals.
False
Drive states are shared with other animals, including monkeys, dogs, and rats.
What is reward value in neuropsychology?
A measure of an outcome’s affective importance to an organism.
Reward value influences motivation and behavior.
What role does the hypothalamus play in the body?
Involved in hormone secretion and regulation of hunger and sexual arousal.
The hypothalamus is crucial for maintaining homeostasis.
What is the general relationship between emotions and well-being?
Experiencing positive emotions is generally good for well-being, while negative emotions can be harmful.
However, this relationship is complex and not always straightforward.
Name three aspects of emotion experience that affect the link between emotion and well-being.
- Intensity of the emotion experienced
- Fluctuation of the emotion experienced
- Context in which the emotion is experienced
True or False: Experiencing only positive emotions is always beneficial for well-being.
False
Recent research suggests that both too much positive emotion and too little negative emotion can be detrimental.
What does the term ‘emotion experiences’ refer to in psychological research?
The feelings that contribute to well-being and influence cognition and behavior.
What are some benefits of experiencing more frequent positive emotions?
- Higher life satisfaction
- Increased physical health
- Greater resilience to stress
- Better social connections
- Longer lifespan
Fill in the blank: Experiencing very high levels of positive emotion may lead to _______.
[risky behaviors such as binge eating and drug use]
What does the inverted U-shaped curve in relation to positive emotion suggest?
More positive emotion is linked with increased well-being up to a point, after which more positive emotion is linked with decreased well-being.
How does emotional fluctuation relate to well-being?
Greater fluctuations in emotions are generally associated with worse well-being.
True or False: Psychological flexibility is linked with better well-being.
True
The ability to adapt emotions to changing situations is beneficial.
What role does context play in emotion experience?
The context influences whether a given emotion is beneficial or detrimental to well-being.
Name three contexts that can affect the link between emotion and well-being.
- The external environment
- Other emotional responses
- Other emotions currently being experienced
What is one potential benefit of feeling emotions that match the context?
Better recovery from depression and trauma.
Fill in the blank: Experiencing _______ emotions that fit the context is associated with greater well-being.
[emotions]
What might happen when individuals pursue emotions without regard to context?
They may experience lower subjective well-being, more depression, greater loneliness, and worse grades.
What is emotion?
An experiential, physiological, and behavioral response to a personally meaningful stimulus.
What does emotion coherence refer to?
The degree to which emotional responses (subjective experience, behavior, physiology, etc.) converge with one another.
What is emotion fluctuation?
The degree to which emotions vary or change in intensity over time.
Define well-being.
The experience of mental and physical health and the absence of disorder.
How does context influence emotional well-being?
The context in which an emotion is experienced critically influences whether the emotion helps or hinders well-being.
True or False: Experiencing emotions without regard to context can lead to lower subjective well-being.
True.
What physiological response often accompanies the emotion of amusement?
Laughter.
What is the relationship between emotional experience and corresponding behaviors?
These different responses often travel together, indicating emotion coherence.
What was found about participants’ coherence in emotional responses?
Higher coherence was associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms and higher levels of well-being.
Why is coherence of emotional responses important?
It aids in social communication and helps individuals appear authentic to others.
True or False: People who habitually suppress their emotions experience better social relationships.
False.
What does it mean to experience mixed emotions?
Experiencing positive and negative emotions simultaneously.
Provide an example of a situation that can elicit mixed emotions.
Winning a prize when you expected a greater prize.
What did the study of bereaved spouses reveal about mixed emotions?
Participants expressing both positive and negative emotions recovered more quickly from their loss.
What benefits do individuals experience when they can feel positive emotions amidst negative emotions?
They are more likely to cope successfully with stressful situations.
What is a key component of well-being according to the research?
The ability to ‘take the good with the bad’ in emotional experiences.
According to Robert Solomon, what is not the sole definition of a happy life?
Maximizing good feelings and minimizing bad feelings.
Fill in the blank: Emotions are integral predictors of _______.
well-being.
What is affective neuroscience?
Affective neuroscience examines how the brain creates emotional responses.
Name the techniques used to study emotions in humans and animals.
- Electroencephalography (EEG)
- Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)
- Invasive techniques (e.g., electrode implantation, lesioning)
- Studies of individuals with brain lesions
List five emotional systems and their associated neural structures.
- Desire: lateral hypothalamus, amygdala, nucleus accumbens
- Fear: amygdala, periaqueductal gray
- Anger: medial amygdala, hypothalamus
- Love: dorsal preoptic area, bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
- Grief: midbrain periaqueductal gray
Give examples of exogenous chemicals that influence affective systems.
- Cocaine
- Amphetamines
- Benzodiazepines
- Opioids
What are the multiple affective functions of the amygdala?
- Fear responses
- Emotional processing
- Emotional memory
What is the relationship between human emotions and nonhuman animals’ affective systems?
Specific human emotions share similarities with affective systems in nonhuman animals.
Fill in the blank: Affective neuroscience aims to understand how _______ creates emotions.
[brain structures and chemicals]
True or False: Emotions are solely located in a single structure of the brain.
False
What neurotransmitter is primarily involved in the feeling of desire?
Dopamine
Describe the differences between ‘liking’ and ‘wanting’.
‘Liking’ relates to enjoyment of a reward, while ‘wanting’ pertains to the desire for that reward.
What brain area is associated with pleasure and enjoyment?
Orbitofrontal cortex
What triggers the fear response in the brain?
The amygdala and its connections to sensory organs.
Fill in the blank: The neural system for anger extends from the _______ to the periaqueductal gray.
[medial amygdala]
What neurotransmitter may play an important role in rage?
Substance P
What are the key regions involved in maternal nurturing?
- Dorsal preoptic area
- Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis
What is the role of oxytocin in attachment?
It is sensitive to attachment and nurturing behaviors.
What is the relationship between separation and grief in terms of neural circuits?
The same attachment circuits involved in attachment are also involved in grief.
True or False: Panic attacks are unrelated to the attachment system.
False
What chemical substances can artificially produce feelings of pleasure similar to social interactions?
- Morphine
- Heroin
- Nicotine
What neurotransmitters prevent separation distress?
Oxytocin, prolactin, and others
These neurotransmitters play a role in emotional bonding and stress relief.
What is the effect of opiate drugs like morphine and heroin?
They artificially produce feelings of pleasure and gratification
This effect is similar to those produced during positive social interactions.
How do panic attacks relate to separation distress?
They appear to be an intense form of separation distress triggered by the attachment system.
Which hormone is suggested to reduce separation distress?
Testosterone
What is the main idea of neural plasticity?
Neurons that fire together, wire together.
What happens to the nucleus accumbens in stressful environments?
Fear-generating regions expand toward the front, filling almost 90% of the shell.
What occurs to the nucleus accumbens in preferred home environments?
Fear-generating regions shrink and appetitive regions expand toward the back.
How is the amygdala structured?
It can be divided into 13 nuclei and cortical areas.
What is a limitation of human neuroimaging techniques like fMRI?
They are unable to examine the activity of individual nuclei.
What is the function of the central nucleus of the amygdala?
Sends outputs involving brainstem areas for innate emotional expressions.
True or False: The amygdala is only involved in fear responses.
False
What does research in affective neuroscience contribute to?
Understanding emotional, motivational, and behavioral processes.
How do studies of nonhuman animals inform our understanding of human emotions?
They provide information about the organization and development of complex human emotions.
What are some psychological disorders influenced by findings in affective neuroscience?
Panic disorder and drug use/abuse.
Define ‘Affect’.
An emotional process; includes moods, subjective feelings, and discrete emotions.
Where is the amygdala located?
In the medial temporal lobes of the brain.
What is the role of the hypothalamus?
A brain structure located below the thalamus and above the brain stem.
What does neuroscience study?
The nervous system.
What is the nucleus accumbens?
A region of the basal forebrain located in front of the preoptic region.
Fill in the blank: The _______ is located above the eye sockets.
Orbital frontal cortex
Where is the periaqueductal gray located?
In the midbrain near the cerebral aqueduct.
What is the function of the stria terminalis?
A band of fibers that runs along the top surface of the thalamus.
What is the thalamus?
A structure in the midline of the brain located between the midbrain and the cerebral cortex.
What is the visual cortex responsible for?
Processing visual information.
