Neuroscience of Emotion Exam 3

mind-body dualism

mind and body are distinct and separable.

cartesian dualism: there is no certainty that the mind is dependent on the body. Consciousness is separate from the physical brain, the mind is the thinking thing. The body is part of the material world, but the two integrate in the physical brain (pineal gland)

Making descisions

having complete information makes the decision easy, all things lead to one answer

rationalist

the brain is treating the decision like a computer. the decision could be automatic, reflexive, and didnt involve much thinking

incomplete information

should i take a job across the country or not? we dont have complete information and thus our emotions must come into play about what decision we will make

somatic marker hypothesis

our decisions arise from our bodies AND our mind

integration peripheral info in our brain guides decisions

feelings point us in the proper direction, our thinking mind is not separate from the body bc the body is affecting our thinking mind

Emotion vs cognition

emotion is hot, bright, and quick. its infused with vivid feelings of pleasure or pain and it manifests in readily discerned changes in the body

cognition is cold, calculating gray and slow. not very motivational

emotion influences cognition

contemporary views favor emotions as often adaptive, directing rather than hidering reason. interconnectness between emotion and cognition

cognition regulates emotion

things go both ways, cognition can regulate emotion and vise versa

although, there is no separate systems for emotion and cognition. they are the same.

snake vs mushroom task

emotion drives attention

usually see the snake in the mushrooms but not the mushroom in the snake, as it draws attention

attention selects,...

the most relevant sources of information while inhibiting or ignoring potential distractions

attention determines

the depth of processing, the speed and accuracy of responding, and the likelihood and accuracy of memory

emotional cues

are processed more deeply in the brain and are more likely to be detected to capture attention and be remembered

hyper-vigilance for threat...

is a key component of both dispositional and pathological anxiety

on average anxious children and adults tend to...

gaze towards threat in free-viewing tasks

more quickly fixate toward threat related targets

difficulty disengaging from threat related distractors in spatial cueing, visual search, and dot probe

dot-probe task

one of the most common lab tools for studying hyper-vigilance

quicker at seeing the dot if its under the emotional response, especially if its threatening

hyper-vigilance in anxiety - dot probe

anxious has more attentional bias to threat when compared to typical youth.

threat bias

the reaction time difference when the dot is behind the emotional cue (congruent) minus when the dot is behind the neutral cue (incongruent)

sustained attention

individuals with high levels of anxiety show trouble disengaging from threat.

work by macleod

attentional bias can be modified through training.

ABMT = attention bias modification training

what if the dot was always under the neutral face?

this may help to reduce depression, by targeting and modifying attention bias for sadness related stimuli. reduce focus on neg information

manipulating vigilance in cognitive behavioral therapy

requires insight into thoughts that trigger anxiety and mentally challenging those thoughts

attention bias modification training (ABMT)

directly modify cognitive biases thru extended task practice

not dependent on introspection

more akin to learning a new motor skill

ABMT showed...

greater reductions in self reported anxiety

behavioral signs of anxiety

physiological measures of anxiety

elicited by a public speaking challenge

similar effects reported for cortisol and exam stress

signif. greater clinician-rated reductions in anxiety relative to control training

ABMT teaches us what

vigilance causally contributes to elevated anxiety

reduced stress to simple cognitive stressors

anxiety ratings and behaviors when delivering a public speech

intrusive, apprehensive thoughts during a worry induction

working memory

limited capacity workspace where information is actively maintained, recalled, and manipulated.

emotion can hijack working memory

threat related cues : working memory

infiltrate working memory and this effect is exaggerated among individuals with a more anxious disposition

anxious individuals allocate excess storage capacity to threat, even if its irrelevant to the task

helps to experience tendency to distress and intrusive thoughts

once in memory, threat related information is poised to bias information processing long after its no longer present

high anxiety and stress in working memory

less working memory. rendering working memory less available to support complex, on going behavior.

potential mechanism for the mild cognitive impairments common in many emotional disorders

the attentional blink

direct targets, letters are mixed in a rapid stream of numbers, the targets are the letters and your job is to notice the letters.

uses rapid stream of visual processing known as RSVP

we usually have subjective blindness to detect targets (T2) that follow a previously identified target (T1).

even more so if the T1 is your own name or an emotional cue

attentional blink : neural correlates

more activity in the frontoparietal attentional network during T2 diminishes the attentional blink, strongly correlated with attentional processing

more processing of the T1 interferes with seeing T2

the more processing the T1 (body selective part of the VC) the more you blink and miss T2 ( scenes)

emotion-induced blindness

if T1 is emotional then the results show even more blindness.

if T2 is emotional the attentional blink is diminished.

greater activity to the emotional T2 is correlated with greater detection of T2

arousal

erotic images often lead to more blindness than aversive images. shows arousal is a critical feature in attentional capture

amygdala lesions in attentional blink

emotional T2 is not present in patients with amygdala lesions. in other words, their attentional blink is not diminished by an emotional T2 they treat it like a normal stimulus

positive emotions

increases the use of heuristics and quick thinking

creative thinking

global focus

broadens attention

promotes making connections, creative thinking and catalyze social connection , induce broad cognitive organization

negative emotions

more analytical thinking, concrete thinking, narrow focus, narrows attention

positive emotion impact attentional breadth: emotion induction

ask people to write an essay about feeling happy and positive or negative and sad.

measure the level of processing to get a sense of the attentional breadth.

mood induction: local vs global

local similarities: the small area of the processing: such as the triangles and not the main shape or the 6 and not the large 8.

sad mood induced local processing/ quicker to notice sadness

brain imaging

key emotional and cognitive processes are co-localized in the brain

canonical territories of the cognitive brain (Dorsolateral PFC) play a central role in regulating and expressing emotion

canonical territories of the emotional brain (amygdala) regulate cognition by governing the focus of attention

take home points

Lay people think emotion and cog are different

emotional cues govern the focus of attention and working memory: emotional traits enhance these effects. longitudinal and intervention work suggests these are cog biases. feelings of anxiety and stress can degrade working memory

cognition can regulate emotion: effects are bi-directional and recursive

emotion and cognition overlap

barrett and other constructionists preclude separation

emotional enhancement of memory

better long term memory for emotional stimuli as compared to neutral

modulation hypothesis

basolateral amygdala enhancing consolidation through noradrenergic projections to the hippocampus. this is the simplified basic model of emotional memory enhancement

events occurring around the time of memory formation are critical not just the moment of memory formation

episodic memory

memory of events that can be recalled consciously (explicitly recalled, the where when what of memory)

coined recently in 1970s by endel tulving. motivated by the idea that certain memories are associated with a sense of self.

mental time travel: the ability to mentally construct the past and imagine future scenarios. this form of memory is impaired with individuals with damage to hippocampus

hallmark of human cognition, although there is evidence that some animals have episodic like memory like birds

(free) recall

" tell me about the pictures from yesterdays experiment. provide as much detail as possible"

level of detail, subject provides, what was forgotten and the order in which people recall info

search their memory, utilizes prefrontal and parietal (attention) networks

easy to measure for a single word or picture. more complex for complex pictures because so many details

recognition

DID you see THis picture yesterday?

old or new identification

measure of confidence- yes i did, maybe i did, no

recollecting something (high confidence) vs being familar ( low confidence)

different regions of the medical temporal lobe, recollection requires the hippocampus, familiarity supposedly involves the perirhinal and parahippocampal cortex (very debated)

memory precision vs generalization

in recognition there are a couple phases of testing:

repeat image : old image

foil image: new image that is slightly similar

lure image: very similar image

important to form new individual episodic memories for similar events(where i parked my care TODAY)

sometimes important to incorporate new info into more generalized knowledge structures (ive never seen this apple before but i know ab animals in general)

pattern separation vs pattern completion

sep: discrete, independent, and precise memories of the past

completion: more generalized representations

distinct parts of hippocampus and surrounding areas that are shown to process info at either fine grained levels of memory precision, versus areas that are more generalized.

pattern separation

dentate gyrus, a subregion of the hippo. widely implicated as an area with aberrant function: PTSD

granule cells

cells in dentate that help pattern sep. through lateral inhibition, whereby the activity in one set of cells inhibits the activity in the other set. this allows neurons to code distinct memories in particular sets of neurons-- lateral inhibition reduces the interference from diff inputs.

disambiguate similar experiences

PTSD: dentate gyrus

smaller dentate volume, stress reduces dendritic complexity and spine density

Pattern separation deficit model of ptsd

PTSD fail to discriminate the present from the emotional past. a deficit in pattern leads to overgeneralization in harmless situation.

deficits in dentate gyrus pattern sep. may be a neural target for intervention

how to help pattern separation in PTSD

physical exercise in one possibility, as it stimulates DG neurogenesis. exercise is correlated with improvements in pattern sep.

antidepressants may also act to spur neurogenesis in dg but this not fully resolved in humans

why do emotional stimuli lead to prioritized long term memory

attention at the time of encoding, and semantic relatedness

attention at the time of encoding

prioritized encoding since we are paying more attention to the emotional stimuli

semantic relatedness and limited thematic content

emotional stimuli are typically constrained to certain categories: disgusting, positive, scary, etc

neural are almost anything: objects, scenes people etc

the content that is a specific thing makes memory retrieval easier, as we narrow the focus of retrieval on types of thematic content we already know.

consolidation

james mcgaugh

we remember all sorts of things that arent emotional. we can increase the chance we remember something by paying more attention when encoding, rehearsing it, or putting ourselves back into the same context to increase retrieval. (encoding-retrieval match, or study test context effect)

what makes emotional memory special are the processes occuring after encoding

consolidation studies

encoding neutral and emotional stimuli to test memory:

at first the same, but over time we remember the emotional better

effect of retention interval on emotional memory was realized very early

selective memory consolidation

selective preservation during sleep! when we sleep the brain chooses memories that are most worthy of remembering, and chooses the emotional ones. " memory triage"

emotion modulates the consolidation

1960s- mcgaugh

increasing arousal after learning improves memory

injecting amphetamine after learning into hippo or amygdala after learning improves long-term memory!

not shown to be effective in the caudate (no spatial memory)

endogenous modulation of memory

arousal released from an emotional experience carries arousal forward in time to affect consolidation processes

neurobiology of memory

emotional arousal activates adrenal epinephrine and adrenal stress hormones ( cortisol), which stimulate release of norepinephrine from the BL amygdala. Modulates activity in the hippocampus to help consolidate memory

HPA axis and memory

hippo and amygdala are dense w glucocorticoid receptors. consolidation is enhanced by admin of cortisol immediately after learning, showing its needed

remembering emotional vs neutral story

experiment showing that subjects remember emotional part of the story much more, in both free recall and recognition if presented with a story

emotional arousal promotes memory

post encoding stress

increased memory for information that was arousing. this was done by putting their arm in ice water to raise cortisol.

post-learning stress hormone interacts w arousal at initial encoding to modulate consolidation

weird as arousing- no coritsol still werent better remembered than neutral - no cortisol

propranolol and emotional memory

propranolol is a beta blocker that stops sympathetic arousal.

there was no impact of emotional arousal on memory in the propranolol vs placebo, but when asked to subjectively rate emotion there was no difference

in amygdala too

neuroimaging shows...

greater activity between amygdala and hippo during encoding of emotional vs neutral, predicting memory advantage. stronger the connection shows more preserved memory

electrical stimulation to amygdala...

enhanced declarative long term memory for specific images of neutral objects\

how can we measure consolidation given that its after encoding?

subjects can lay in the scanner after encoding information. (resting state)

post encoding activity

amygdala communicates with visual cortex after encoding that predicted negative memory biases. the amt of connectivity to the mPFC predicted positive memory

early stage of arousal-mediated memory consolidation that is different for neg and pos

resting period after fear conditioning

stronger functional connectivity during rest period after fear conditioning predicted stronger pupil dilation responses

not predicted by differences in arousal at fear conditioning itself

arousal mediated consolidation for fear con. through amygdala-hippo coupling after learning

is fear conditioning an emotional memory

emotional episodic memory usually is explicitly stated knowledge of details surrounding an emotional experience

classical conditioning is a simple, reflexive, learning process. mainly in amygdala

study on fear conditioning in emotional memory

testing episodic memory for items according to whether a category had predicted shock or not. associating shock with a neutral picture shows boosted memory for other pics in that category

associative fear learning to a category generated a bias to remember other things in that category

what happens to memory for conceptually related items seen around the time of fear learning?

selective and retroactive enhancement of memory

works backwards to novel category objects encoded before emotional learning

synaptic tag and capture

fate of a memory is not always determined at encoding, but by effects overlapping neural ensembles in critical time window

basically say you learn something then a big experience happens, you are more likely to remember the thing that happened before just because it was AROUND the time of a big experience, works with events after big experiences too

how does synaptic tagging work?

some weak activity synapse associated with learning event, this sets learning tag. normally, this activity wouldnt persist into late long term potentiation, so theres no long term memory.

but if there is stronger activity on nearby synapses, it will release plasticity related proteins that capture the learning tag set by the earlier event and now make it a long term memory

behavioral tagging with novel stimuli

normally a really weak memory produces a short term memory, but no long term, such as freezing the next day. but if rats were allowed to explore a NOVEL open field ( STRONG LEARNING EVENT, in hippo), then they froze the next day as if they had learned a really strong contextual fear.

blocking protein syn. in the hippo around the time of exploration got rid of this effect, showing it is due to this

also didnt work if they explored an area they had explored before, needed to be novel

role of dopamine in novelty-enhanced memory

dopamine released is needed for novelty effect, but this may be due to HOW dopamine gets to hippo. long though that dopamine released in tyrosine hydroxylase expressing neurons (TH+) in ventral tegmental

locus coeruleus (LC) has TH+ neurons that project even stronger to hippo. these TH+ neurons have higher firing in novel environment

stimulating LC neurons

sensitive to novel environment.

stimulating 30 mins after learning produces enhancements in hippo-dependent memory, and can mimic effects of the post encoding behavioral tagging. basically stimulating them makes it feel like a novel experience

shows that fate of memory is not just based on events that occur at the time but are modulated by events that transpire around the event

blocking dopamine in hippo

abolishes the effect in mice of this novel experience learning

blocking beta-adrenergic receptors in hippo (propranolol )

no effect suggesting that this effect is driven by dopamine and not noradrenaline

blocking Ventral tegmentum activity

did NOT impair the effects of novelty on memory, although using injections of a2-adrenoceptor agonist (clonidine) did impair the effects of novelty, but this only decreases activity in LC and not VTA

warning signal hypothesis

intrusive memories are about stimuli that through temporal association with the trauma acquired the status of warning signals,

stimuli that if encountered again would indicate danger

PTSD patients indicated intrusive memories often consisted of stimuli that were present Immediately BEFORE a traumatic event had the largest emotional impact

headlights of a car are scary as its what u see right BEFORE a crash

why do we remember emotional events so much better than neutral?

the recollection involves hippocampus

modulated by stress and arousal triggered by HPA axis and amygdala

helps consolidate

each time a memory is reactivated you bring the conscious aspects of the events, but also non-conscious neurochemical cascade that helps solidify the conscious aspects over and over

emotional memories are stronger, but not always the emotional nature of the event, its the neural processes underneath that help keep the memory alive

the veracity of emotional memory

emotional memories are more vivid, last much longer, and accompanied by a sense of recollection than everyday memories.

flashbulb memory

idea that your brain takes a photograph of some important event.

what was flashbulb memory meant to mean?

Originally used for autobiographical memories in which you learned about a public event, rather than witnessing something first hand. Meant to include publicly available facts that can be verified- because you learned ab the event, an external source was involved.

what is it used for now?

broad definition in pop culture for any highly remembered autobiographical event memory.

certain memories in their lives with passion, vividness, elaboration, and confidence.

unique nature of flashbulb memory

researches lead to believe that there was a special mechanism in the brain, for remembering these events so well. your memory is a RECORD of the past

do flashbulb memories really persist?

accuracy of memories really wasnt better than any other memories, although the perceived accuracy was better than normal memories.

we THINK we really remember these memories

confidence vs consistency flashbulb memory

rapid forgetting of flashbulb memories within the first year, but forgetting curves leveled off after that, not significantly changing even after a 10-year delay. Confidence remained extremely high

inconsistently remembered details of FB memories

the inconsistent memory detail can get incorporated into the memory. it is now a detail that is remembered in long term memory.

time slice confusion

people have the tendency to confuse the 2nd or 3rd time they heard ab a major event with the first time. these source confusion errors often get incorporated into the memory. more likely to remember the 2nd time we heard ab an event

maybe due to memory trace from when we first heard before we knew it was significant and it hadnt been consolidated yet

consequentiality and social identity

another factor that could affect FBM. did the event relate to ur social identity(championship of a team u like) or was it a consequence of life (natural disasters)

social identity can have interesting effects on collective memory distortions(day a war started seems like a worse day of weather than it was)

incidental encoding task

subjects did not know their memory would be tested later. They viewed pictures and either judged the picture for complexity based on how many colors or details of the picture

surprise recognition test- Half the pictures immediately half the next day

source memory

a contextual detail of an event

conclusion of incidental encoding task

despite having better recognition memory for the pictures, subjects no better at remembering additional contextual details of whether the picture was encoding while they were judging the picture on color or detail

emotion does not provide a general enhancement of recollection, rather it boosts aspects of recollection in a selective manner. Emotional stimuli bring a strong subjective sense of recollection that may not be reliable

confident memory

remembering an everyday memory with high confidence is associated with accuracy, this boost in accuracy is not stronger for emotional memories, for which we are usually much more confident. Emotions overinflated our subjective sense of recollection

amygdala vs hippo memory retrieval

there is a dissociation between amygdala and the parahippocampus during memory retrieval of emotional vs neutral photos

why are we so confident in FBM?

consequentiality and social identity in which we dont want to acknowledge that might be wrong. the memory is part of our identity so we are confident against the possibility than our memory might not be stronger than an every day event. a vivid memory makes us feel like it has to be true

why overconfident in emotional memory?

may confer some advantage, knowing an important event or remember information to stay alive/get a reward. guide behavior! we rehearse these memories a lot more too.

weapon focus

we focus on central emotional details at the expense of memory of the surrounding peripheral details.

a victim of a sudden violent crime will be staring at the gun and not the culprits face

our attention is drawn to the emotional part of the experience, leaving little attention to other details

emotional memory trade off effect

memory for the central object of a scene is better when its emotional, but we lose memory of the background. the tradeoff is magnified after sleep. selective to negative stimuli

personal experiences and circuitry

subjects close to the world trade center showed selective amygdala activity when recalling 9/11 but subjects in midtown did not