Social and Affective Neuroscience Final

Skinner

Behaviorism

Freud

Mind/Freudian Psychology

Brodmann

Brain/Brodmann areas

Social and Affective Neuroscience looks at ALL three

• Mind = output of the brain’s activity

• Behavior = shaped by our minds

• Amnesia ←→ memory ←→ hippocampus

• Impulsive behaviors ←→ executive function ←→ PFC (Phineas Gage)

• Avoidance ←→ fear ←→ amygdala

Social and Affective Neuroscience

Study of how the mind, brain, and behavior interact to process and respond to social and emotional information

Basic Principles of the Discipline 1. Evolution

Genes build brains → study other animals

Comparative psychology: comparing human and animal behaviors

Economy of Action

Getting the most value or impact from a limited set of available actions

Emotions that promote economy of action 

Homologies

Shared structures or traits that arise from common evolutionary origins

• Dogs use their tails for balance when they run

• Leopards use their tails for balance when they climb

Analogies

• Shared structures or traits that arise from distinct evolutionary origins

• Ex: bird/human song, octopi/humans both turning red

• They DID NOT emerge from common evolutionary roots

Exaptations

• Different structures or traits that arise from common evolutionary origins

• Ex: Elephant trunks

• Researchers think it may have originally been for snorkeling, but it was exapted to be used for various other functions

Basic Principles of The Discipline

1. Evolution: Genes build brains

   1. Study other animals

2. Materialism: The mind is what the brain does

   1. Study the brain

3. Idealism: Brains construct the world

   1. Study subjective experience

4. Sociality: The social world shapes brains

   1. Study social behaviors

5. Emotionality: Emotion is what mattering means

   1. Study emotion

Basic Principles of the Discipline 2. Materialism

• The mind is what the brain does → study the brain

  • Ex: optogenetic stimulation: uses light to control genetically modified cells (neurons)

Basic Principles of the Discipline 3. Idealism

• Brains construct the world

  • Mind makes reality – the brain does not always faithfully deliver information from the world

  • We see a full world despite the blind spots in our retinas

  • We don’t see a black hole in our vision

  • Our minds “fill in” that blank space

Emotion

A central state that is triggered by specific stimuli and encoded by the activity of particular neural circuits that give rise, in a causal sense, to externally observable behaviors, and somatic physiological, and cognitive responses

Why are emotions useful?

Emotions are persistent

Emotions are flexible

Emotions facilitate learning

James-Lange Theory