NSCI FINAL ( emotions, sleep, conscious, stress)

what are some assumptions of emotions

1. Emotions are all processes that involve the assessment of value- why strong emotions have strong value. Emotions are directed

2. help us seek pleasure and avoid discomfort

3. influence our behaviour because it narrows down the range of our behaviours

4. Emotions are adaptive, so when we have an absence of emotions, it can lead to deficits.

When animals have deficits in emotion-processing areas, they have major impairments in judgement

5. Emotions can be considered the intervening variable between stimulus and response- it modulates and modifies inputs into outputs

6. Emotions can be conscious, but aren’t always consciously identified. You can feel sad but dont know why you are sad

7. Emotions are comprised of subjective, physiological, expressive and behavioural changes. Emotions is not just a feeling, it has changes to our para/sympathetic NS and a chnage in our behaviour

what are some ways we can operationalize emotions

physiological

expressive

subjective

behavioural

cognitive

neural

what is the physiological way of operationalizing emotions

• SCR- skin conductance response

• ECG- heart rate monitor

• and other autonomic measures

why can we use autonomic measures to quantify emotions

because emotions affect the the autonomic n.s

what is the expressive way of operationalizing emotions

EMG

we can code facial expressions and body language from videos

sort images : we can tell ppl to put images showing emotions in separate piles( sometimes we can tell them how many piles or let them freestyle it)

what is the subjective way of operationalizing emotions

self report

brain acitivity ( EEG and fmri)

behaviour( when people are happier they behave differently)

When is self report good and bad

good for happiness

bad when the emotion is considered socially prohibited like anger

what is the common sense view in emotions

Perception of bear leads us to feeling fear and the experience of fear causes physiological response

James Lange view of emotions

Perception of bear drives a change in your physiological response and we interpret these changes as being afraid

so the physiological response drives your psychology

what does the james lange view imply

that each emotion should have its own physiological response

each emotions is discrete and has its own behaviour and physiology

what are some of the evidence that support the Lange’s identity theory of emotion

The polygraph reaction patterns

• in this experiment, we would induce fear in participants by shocking them

• or induce anger in participants

• and the conclusion of the study was that across a wide variety of physiological responses, there would be different physiological patterns for anger vs fear

The nummenma study

This experiment was about feelings and where the feelings are located in the body.

They asked people to imagine where in the body they would feel happy or sad etc.

But in this experiment, you are not inducing emotions, so the participants werent happy or sad

What is the cannon bard view

That the psychology and physiology responses are both driven by sensory processes.

The perception of the fear drives the fear and your physiology independently

what is the evidence that is against the James Lange view and supports minimally the cannon bard view

Better studies on spinal cord damage

• If we separate the viscera ( organs of ANS) from the CNS in animals - you are interfering with the pathway from physiology to the sensation of fear

• what Sherrington and Cannon saw was that the animals still expressed fear, so you can still induce emotion even with no physiological response

• Same changes but different states- how can there be different emotions that have overlapping physiological changes ( this contradicts James Langue theory)

• Viscera is relatively insensitive; we are not conscious of what is going in our body

• The visceral changes are very slow, so they are too slow at driving psychological changes.

• Artificial induction: you can stimulate the viscera and you would expect that to drive an emotional response but it doesn’t

What is the confederate experiment Shacter and singer

There are participants that think they are getting vitamin but it is actually epinephrine. It activates your sympathetic NS.

Now you put each of these participants in a room under different conditions.

What was schacter and singer’s theory on emotion

It is a two factory theory where we are interpreting our physiology ( arousal) using the events around us (the context)

What experiment supports the Two factory theory of emotion

The arousal on capilano suspension bridge

• There was 2 conditions the experimental was the cap. bridge and the control was a 3m bridge .

• They hired an attractive women as an interviewer to stand on the other side of the bridges

• as men walked across the bridge, and she would interview them and gave them her number

• They found 3 things

• men who walked across the suspension bridge were more likely to call the women back

• the stories they told the women was more romantic

• the men were more likely to rate the interviewer on the suspension bridge more attractive vs. the men who walked across the control bridge

from the Capilano suspension bridge what can we conclude

Men who were walking across the cap.bridge had high arousal in the NS and when they met someone attractive, the men would interpret their physiology as being strongly attracted to the person

What is the

What is the only universal expression and how did we find this and proof

What is a duchenne vs non-duchenne smile

Duchenne smile is a true smile and it activates the orbicularis oculi muscles around the eyes and the zygomatic major muscle in our jaw

Non-duchenne smile is a fake smile and it only activates the zygomatic major muscle in our jaw

what are the 3 aspects of affect

1. Temperament

2. mood

3. emotion

What is temperament

it has been present since birth and it is a predisposition of how reactive you are

easy babies- have easy temperament, they eat and sleep better, cry less and are less emotionally reactive

difficult babies are the opposite

so easy babies as an adult are less emtionally reactive, introverted

and difficult babies as an adult are more reactive, extroverted

Mood vs emotion

Mood:

Low intensity and long lasting

it influences our day

not directed

emotions influence how we perceive ( bad mood shapes your overall experience- bad mood = negative perspective)

Emotion:

High intensity and very brief(flashes of anger)

directed

emotions influence how we act( we get angry and leave classroom)

Theories of sleep

-Circadian

-energy

-body restoration

-brain development

-adjust brain circuitry

-brain detox

Types of aggression

Predatory aggression

Affective aggression

What is predatory aggression? Where is it seen? What are the changes to the autonomic N.S?

In this type of aggression:

Animals are quiet

There is no emotional component

Animals are more likely to inflict harm and be violent

It is seen when one species kills another species for food, the attacks are usually aiming to kill

Very little change in the parasympathetic and sympathetic changes

How do we induce predatory aggression and what do we see

Stimulating

• Lateral hypothalamus

• MFB- median forebrain bundle

• VTA

We are not inducing anger here, we are inducing motivated behaviours to kill for food

What is MFB again?

Bundle of axons near the hypothalamus that project from the VTA, so they are axons of dopamine neurons.

What is affective aggression? The point of it and the changes in our autonomic NS

In this type of aggression:

Animals/humans are very loud, animals will start hissing ( related to sham rage)

It is emotional

Animals/humans will not commit much violence or inflict harm

The point is to display a threat, not inflict harm

Very high levels of sympathetic nervous system activity

How do we induce affective aggression

Stimulate the

• Ventromedial/Medial hypothalamus

• Periaqueductal gray- also involved in defensive behaviours

What is the story between serotonin and aggression

It has been seen that when serotonin levels are VERY low, you are more likely to be aggressive

But the correlation between serotonin and aggression is very weak, so their relationship isnt linear, but it suggests that you need a minimum amount of serotonin and when you are below it, there is likely more aggressive behaviours

What is the evidence that shows serotonin levels relates to aggressive behaviours

• If you do selective damage(lesion) to serotonin neurons using 5,7-DHT in rodents, the rats will become very aggressive. Rats are very calm.

• If you use drugs that block serotonin synthesis, animals will become very aggressive

• If you measure aggression levels in monkey colonies, the animals with the most aggression have the lowest serotonin levels

What does active stress mean

When things are done to you- someone pinches you, beats you, abuses you etc.

what does passive stress mean

When you are deprived of things you need for your well being-

maternal negligence, separation, deprivation of food or environmental stimuli

What are controllable stressors

A stressor an animal can influence or control

-when something bad is happening to you, you can do something about it

What are uncontrollable stressors

A stressor you have no control over

ex. Poverty or SES

what is stress immunization and learned helplessness

These are both stress responses that are determined by the type of stress you have been exposed to.

Stress immunization: is when you are more resilient to stress because you are exposed to controllable stressors

Learned helplessness: is when we are less resilient to stress

What happens when we are exposed to controllable stress

When we are exposed to controllable stress, we develop stress immunization and exposure to these stressors help us become more resilient to future stress, even if the future stressors are NOT CONTROLLABLE

What happens when we are exposed to uncontrollable stress

exposure to these stressors make us less resilient to stress and future stress even when the future stressors ARE CONTROLLABLE

How did we figure out stress immuniz. and learned helplessness

what are the 2 pathways of stress

Sympathetic response

and HPA axis

what is the sympathetic response to stress

It is our fast pathway because our neurons are targetting the adrenal medulla of our adrenal glands.

So our sympathetic neurons activate the adrenal medulla, which will release epinephrine and norepinephrine as hormones. This will get our heart racing and etc.

what is the HPA axis

This is our slower response because the signal travels in our bloodstream( endocrine pathway).

The hypothalamus has neuro-endocrine cells which look like neurons but release hormones. These cells release releasing hormones to the anterior pituitary gland which will release tropic hormones, These hormones travel via the bloodstream and target thr adrenal cortex of the adrenal glands.

The adrenal cortex releases cortisol and this is a longer lasting response

is the HPA axis always on

Yes it is part of our circadian rhytym but cortisol release is elevated under stress conditions

what does it mean when we say stress is an adaptive response to threat

The point of getting stressed out is to succesfully deal with a stressor and move on. Our brain thrives in acute stress, but once we are exposed to stress for a awhile and we are in a constant stressful state, it can have adverse affects, our brains weren’t meant for chronic stress

Why is acute stress beneficial

Mild levels of stress are beneficial bc it makes us perform better in aspects of reaction time, cognition, memory and accuracy

what are the costs and benefits of High stress levels

Benefits:

• implicit memory/ skills

• simple tasks, we are even better at them under high pressure

• anything habitual and that is well-rehearsed

• suppresses our immune system temporarily, so you will not be symptomatic.

Costs:

cognitive flexibility

working memory

executive function

Bilateral vmPFC damage: executive dysfunction

It is bilateral damage bc the ventromedial PFC is along the medial line

symptoms:

Most intellectual ability is preserved

• Problems with prioritization

• Emotional dysregulation ( start to see behaviours in inappropriate ways)

eg. acquired sociopathy in some dementia

• Repetition of mistakes despite knowing that the mistake was suboptimal, and they will report they know the optimal strategy but refuse to do it

• Loss of Motivation

• Problems thinking ahead and sequencing steps for a task

• Very poor cognitive flexibility, they are rigid in their thought and actions

• Problems with attention and concentration

What is acquired sociopathy

caused by neurodegeneration in PFC but it is a change in personality

what happens for unilateral vmPFC damage to the right side

Same executive dysfunction as seen in bilateral damage

what happens for unilateral vmPFC damage to the left side

The deficits are subtle not as severe as damage to the right side

People have stable employment and relationships

Their personality is relatively unchanged

Their decision making ability is intact

Not alot of executive dysregulation