Emotion W3

Autonomic specificity

* in line with James-Lange
* = each distinct patterns of ANS activation lead to experience of different emotion
* prove from recent research:
* →over a dozen of distinct ANS pathways tht actitivate different regions of body
* →different ways in which components of ANS could combine

Embodiement

* higher order thought processes (emotion and cognition) are largely influenced by bodily processes
* they are embedded in bodily representations
* emotions and body are intertwined

Cannons Criticism on James

* ANS response not specific enough to differentiate between emotions
* Changes in bodily sensation to diffuse
* Changes to small to be meaningful
* ANS to slow to be source of emotion
* ANS response appear also regardless of emotion (fe: fever)
* We are not sensitive to all ANS responses

**Bart and cannon hypothesis: NS in 3 levels**

1. hindbrain, reflex pathways for simple functions such as movements
2.  structures involved in emotion
3. cerebral cortex which controls and inhibtits lower levels

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Prove:

* children are not fully able to control emotions as cortex is not fully developed yet


* no reduction of emotion occurs:
* if viscera is served (part of brain where James thought emotion would arise) and if disconnection between guts and brain → Critique on James)
* but if there is a disconnection between cortex and subcortical regions → emotion changes \n → his theory cortex inhibits subcortical regions

Cannon Bard Theory

* Look at model in picture
* Brain(thalamus) registers stimulus → produces the arousal and the emotion
* bodily sensations co-occur with emotions, yet independent
* autonomic specificity doesn't exist (one-arousal-fits-all model)

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Facial action coding system (by Ekmann et al.)

=Muscle by muscle instruction to configure  face in a specific emotion

\-> while that ANS was measured

results

* moving facial muscles change emotional experience
* different autonomic reactions (galvanic skin response and increasing heart rate differ) to different negative emotions (fe between anger and sadness)
* different autonomic reactions to different positive emotions

\->supports Autonomic Specificity

Hohmann vs Bermond

Hohmann: participant with paralysis (as a result of spinal cord lesion)

* reduced fear and anxiety

→evidence for Autonomic Specifity

Boermond: If Hoehmann is right then all emotions should be reduced

also observed participants with paralysis:

* normal experience of sadness and happiness


* heightened fear and anger

→Increase post in-jury and not decrease

__experiment: adrenaline injections__

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some participants received info about effect on behavior some not

→ p who did not know about effect were influenced by behavior of accomplice of researcher who either behaved euphoric or angry

* different contexts elicit different emotions

→ no support for Autonomic specificity
* results not replicated

Schachter and Singer influence

→their model is used today

* added to the interest in appraisal and in **misattribution of arousal** =when arousal does not have an obvious source people tend to label arousal accounting to situation
* **transfer of excitation= a**rousal can be transferred to other situations which can effect emotional experience in social world

Bodily sensation map

* shows decreased and increased activity of body parts associated with an emotion
* each map of body is associated with different emotion

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Bodily reverberations

term introduced by James

they are product of:

* ANS
* endocrine system
* immune system
* (=including breathing, blood flow, heart palpitation, trembles, goosebumps, lacrimal glands that produce tears, and different muscle movements)

endocrine system

responsible for synthesis and distribution of hormones in body

(Pineal gland, Pituitary gland, Hypothalamus, Adrenal glands…)

Autonomic nervous system

ANS

* cortex -> limbc system + hypothalamus -> ANSS and body parts -> send feedback
* Regulate internal conditions of body: control digestion, blood flow, temperature, behaviour related to emotion (such as defensive behavior, aggression and sexual behavior
* maintains homeostasis of body in order for individual to adapt to fluctuations of environment
* originate from parts of spinal cord and are controlled by neurotransmitters
* two parts of the system

2 Parts of the ANS

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* **parasympathetic branch: responsible for restorative proces**s -> makes us relax

→ reduce heart ,rate blood pressure...

\+ activation of digestive processes

* **sympathetic branch: prepares individual for fight or flight response** (physically demanding activities) increasing processes that provide energy for body:

→increasing heart rate, blood pressure and cardiac output

\+ stops digestion

\+decreases activity of immune system by reduding natural urotransmitters

HPA Axis

* Hypothalamic-Pituitary-adrenal Axis →stress response system and part of endocrine system
* Linked to fear but large individual differences
* can have positive effects: increased focus performance generally

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Cortisol

increases gluose production (needed for metabolically demanding action fight- flight)

increases heart rate and blood pressure-> blood supply to relevant muscles

suppresses immune system

Trier social stress task

 P must perform a spontaneous speech in front of a critical audience ->stressful event

* ACTH increase right afterwards and than bit later also cortisol increase (timeframe individually)-> proves that both are related to each other and to stressful task
* elicts emotion fear -> recent study show that cortisol is more correlated to anger than fear

HPG axis

Hypthalamic-Pituritary-Goand-axis

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testestorone

siehe pic

HPG vs HPA axis

siehe pic

Discovery of Neurochemicals by Galvani:

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If electricity is passed onto dead frog legs they contract

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Discovery of Neurochemicals: Loewi

First experiment

* Electrical stimulation of a heart 1 → heart rate slows down
* heart 2 (is in same fluid as heart 1) → heart rate also slows down

→ he hypothised this happens bcs of neurochemicals

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Second experiment


1. stimulation of vagus nerve of donor heart


2. donor heart rate slows down
3. Remove fluid sample from donor heart
4. add it to recipient heart
5. Recipient heart rate slows down

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Neurochemicals:

 =located in different brain regions and related to behavior

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1. Neurotransmitters

* Communication between neurons
*  Norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, GABA

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2. Hormons

* Communication via blood circuit
* take longer to act then neurotransmitters, but effects last longer
* Adrenaline, cortisol, peptides
* controlled by pituitary which is influenced by hypothalamus

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3. neuromodulators

* Signal enhancers/ diminishers
* Most are peptides (like endogenous opiates) which modulate pain system

Serotonin

* essential to emotional experience
* Processing of affective info of faces
*  involved in processes that balance
* Heuristic processes/fast thinking in subcortex
* Deliberate procesess/ slow thinking in frontal lobes

\->when serotonin levels are low fast and intuitive levels weigh more

* Low levels of serotonin
* antisocial tendencies (-> dysregulation of frontal lobes of aggressive tendencies)
* Depression (frontal lobes not regulating negative emotions)
* ASD
* low levels of agreeableness and constraint high levels of neuroticism
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Serotonin and Depression

SSRI increase serotonin levels in synaptic cleft by blocking its reuptake

→ less negattive affect im depression

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early theories: insufficient serotonin might cause depression

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Oxytocin

* Hormone produced in hypothalmus

__*Oxytocin release has effect on*__

* **social processes:** involved in lactation, maternal (mütterlich) bonding, sexual interaction, promotes  social sensibilities to silent social cues and in Group prosocial behaviour
* **cognitive processes:** social and olfactory memory, also emotional memoories (because it makes certain experiences more emotional)
* **neurendocrine**: reduces activity of HPA axis→ less Cortisol produced if Oxitocin present, supresses hunger
* **autoregulation:** autoexcitation during birth and suckling
* **emotional:** reduces anxiety (by enhancing prefrontal circuits which inhibit limbic system) and increases pos. mood
* might increase generoyity and empathy

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Noreadrenaline/ Norepinephrine

= Neurotransmitter synthesised in Locus Coeruleus (LC)

→ 90% of neurons are noradrenergic

__*has widespread in projection:*__ variety of processes

* wakeful/sleep
* attention

→ higher order area

* pupil response: high LC activity pupils dilate, Less LC activity pupils constrict


* arousal

→subordinate areas

noradrenaline cortical enhancer

Emotional arousal -> activation of LC -> increase noradrenaline -> noradrenaline modulates cortical circuits to enhance certain processes

Yerkes Dodson Curve

Low arousal on easy tasks -> no good performance

Low arousal on difficult task good performance

High arousal on easy task -Y good performance

High arousal on difficult tasks ->no good performance

Noreadrenaline and Emotion

Pupil size increases during arousal

cognitive effortful tasks also influence pupil size

Noradrenaline: signalling accumulation of evidence (=thinking about evidence for other persons felt emotion )

Pupil dilation reflect the confidence in decision and predicts decision about pos/neg emotion

MacLean

* Forebrain and three distinct systems → “1 mind, 3 brains”


* sensory impulses from body and outside world reach thalamus and are directed into 3 main pathways
* each has a different evolotionary stage and species dependent functions

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MacLean-Panksepp conjunction:

* each distinct type of emotion is based on particular part of limbic system brain circuity
*  creating set of species characteristic brain systems and behaviors

limbic system

* Centre of emotions
* Includes thalamus, hippocampus and amygdala
* Closely connected to hypothalamus controls, 

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Amygdala Fear Centre

* Early theories brains centre of fear
* helps to ensure survival
* amygdala damage no behavioral & physiological response to threat
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Amygdala sonstiges

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* depressive individuals have heightened amygdala activity
* plays role in emotional memory and in assessing valence (goodness or badness of stimuli)
* More intense stimuli-> higher activation of amygdala
* emotional profile predicts intensity of amygdala activation in response to intense stimuli fe: looking at life in pos way -> greater activation to intense pos stimuli and

Amygdala anatomy

Basolateral amygdala

**Basolateral amygdala**

input - linked to prefrontal cortex

learning processes: **treat conditioning** (with Conditioned Stimulus - unconditioned stimulus associations) + **stimulus outcome**

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Central Nucleus

output produce fear response:

* ANS
* startle (erschrecken) reactions
* activation of neurotransmitter systems noradrenaline
* arousal

amygdala functions

Emotions

Fear/Defensive processing

* Pavlovian learning (dog) (stimulus-outcome)
* Instrumental learning (reward) (stimulus-response)

→ Fear conditioning acoustic startle and skin conductance

Attention

Autonomic reactions

Social cognition

* Emotions from faces, relevance

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LeDoux Amygdala

* detection of fear, but no role in concious experience of fear
* Subjective responses (fear and anxiety are produced by higher-order brain circuits (prefrontal cortices)

Evidence: Damage to amygdala eliminates response, but not feeling of fear

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* emotional conditioning is possible: especially connections between negative stimuli is quickly made and slow to extinguish

before LeDoux the fear centre view of amgdala function

Le doux 2systems view of threat processing

LeDoux Rethink fear

Fear vs Anxiety

anxiety today

* modern society requires active monitoring of potential harm
* new threats: financial security, politics, meaning of life
* (interplay of concious (LeDoux) underlies anxiety)

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different meausurments to determine activity of ANS

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* galvanic skin response measurement: measures electrodermal skin response fe sweating
* Facial action coding systems
* Blood flow of different parts of the body or temperature throughout the body

ventral vagal complex/ vagal branch

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* controlled by the ventral vagus nerve
* part of parasympathetic nervous system
* is involved in compassion and love
* is unique to mammals and regulate facial muscle actions, head movements, vocalizations and heart rate declarations
* activity of vagus nerve = vagal tone is measured by measuring relationship between heart rate and respiration (Atmung
* compassion is associated with an elevated vagal tone 

blushing

has highly social = showing reception (empfang) of a mistake to produce more positive responses in others

* *(Darwin:)* product of self focused attention: while we are ashamed we direct our attention to the face, which causes blushing
* *(Larry et al.:)* product negative self focused attention: we blush when we are object of undesirable attention

chills

goosebumps and piloerection (= contraction of small muscles surrounding hair )

 triggered by awe-related experience or by experiences of horror

flash

non social response

associated with physical arousal, temperature changes or alcohol

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regions involved in emotion

cortical

* Prefrontal cortex
* Visual cortex
* (midline and) Anterior cingulate)

subcortical

* Amygdala
* hypothalamus
* Periaqueductual gray
* ( hippocampus)
* (Ventral striatum)

hindbrain

regulates basic physiological processes

* medulla ->  cardiovascular activity
* Pons  sleep breathing
* cerebellum ->motor coordination and automatic movement

Forebrain

* thalamus -> integrating sensory memory
* hippocampus -> memory
* hypothalamus -> biological functions/ emotionladen behavior (eating, sexual behaviour, aggression body temperature) +controls ANS via pituitary glands and controls hormonal system
* Limbic system

Lateralization Approach/Withdrawl

* looking at Emotion in term of approach or withdrawal
* approach → left regions (language located here central to goal directed behavior)
* withdrawal → right regions

Evidence:

* perception of happy faces activates left side
* perception of disgust activates right

anterior cingulate cortex

=brains alarm system

* active during physical pain and activated in social pain (fe when socially rejected)

opiates used for physical pain can also relieve social pain

opiod and dopamine

* nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area =dopamine rich networks)
* Reward circuit: ventral stratium receives input from prefrontal cortex, amygdala, hippocampus than sends info to hypothalamus

→ dopamine essential to wanting

→opioid receptors essential for liking