emotion

behavioral, autonomic, hormonal

three components of emotional response

behavioral

motor system response; approach, avoidance, freezing etc.

autonomic

activation of sympathetic nervous system; always active, but increases activity to drive our fight or flight response; inhibition of parasympathetic nervous system; measured by heart rate and skin conductance

hormonal

contribute to the autonomic response to help quickly deliver messages to the body; chemical epinephrine and neurotransmitter norepinephrine play large role in this process; epinephrine and norepinephrine help to recruit skeletal muscles and systems involved in energy homeostasis in order to prepare the body response more effectively; measured by cortisol and dopamine

conditioned emotional responses (cers)

learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus cue that elicit some form of “emotional” response

lateral nucleus of the amygdala

involved in learning the conditioned emotional response (in learning cues that have been paired with a negative event

periaqueductal gray

produces aggressive behavior; pag, hypothalamus, amygdala; contains serotonin neurons and has led to the suggestion that serotonin plays important role in aggression

low serotonin

in humans correlated with assault, arson, murder, child abuse, aggression; behaviors have a hereditary component that correlates with serotonin levels; drugs that elevate serotonin decrease

ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC)

damage changes specific aspects of behavior; general logic is not affected; emotional responses in the moment lead to poor decisions

damage to the right prefrontal cortex

causes greater problems recognizing or producing emotions; descriptions of emotions are processed mainly in the left prefrontal cortex

lesions of the amygdala

causes problems with recognition of emotional facial expressions (especially fear; less activation occurs for positive emotions

mirror neurons

fire when we experience an emotion and similarly when we see others experiencing an emotion, such as happiness, fear, anger, or sadness