Stress and emotions

Why do we feel?

-Emotions have protective quality and play crucial role in promoting survival, allows brain to quickly assess complex situations and generate appropriate responses

-Emotional processing has adaptive role in maintaining psychological integrity within dynamic environment

Emotions

-Bottom-up

-Related to body and physiology

-Automatic and universal physical reactions/responses to change

-Associated w/ limbic brain

Feelings

-Top-down

-Related to mindset

-Mental associations in reaction to emotions or internal info received from sensations in body

-Associated w/ (neo) cortex

-Feelings and emotions affect each other and work together to create holistic experience

Interception

Info-processing about inner state of body

-body has lots of different receptors to assess physical situation at any given point

Exteroception

Info-processing about external world

-uses sensory systems

-info is collected through senses and moves through PNS to CNS. brain processes this info and sends output back to body for regulation and adaptation through various effectors

Evolutionary motivation theory

Connects emotional processing w/ action readiness

-supported by neuroimaging studies showing that emotional experience is often accompanied by motor and sensory cortices activation

What is the motivational function of emotions?

Emotions function based on arousal level and action directionality, driving us to either approach or withdraw.

How do emotional cues impact our social lives?

Emotional cues help us sustain social connections, facilitate effective collaborations, and enable us to understand and predict others' intentions and actions. fundamental for building trust and intimacy in relationships

Why are emotional cues crucial for survival?

Emotional cues are crucial for our survival as they help us navigate social interactions and relationships.

Communicative function of emotions expressions

Rapid, reliable, nonverbal transmission of socially relevant info

Emotional contagion

Natural tendency to mirror emotions of ppl around us

-when processing emotional state of another person, our brains automatically activate neuronal representation of that emotional state- primes physiological responses accordingly

Primary emotional processing

Raw emotional (instinctive and deeply subcortical)

-Involves structures like the periaqueductal gray (PAG) - plays crucial role in generation of core effective sensations (fear, anger, joy, distress)

-Homeostatic drives/motivational experiences (hunger and thirst)

-sensory affects (pain, taste, temperature, disgust)

-raw emotion responses are very rapid, automatic, and essential for immediate survival

Secondary emotional processing

Emotional learning and memory (limbic)

-relating affect to environmental events to generate adaptive behaviors (associative learning, classical/operant conditioning, formation of emotional habits)

-allows for more nuanced emotional responses based on past experiences and learned associations

High order emotional cognition (cortical)

Cognitive functions (thinking, planning, emotional regulation) mediate emotional feelings and cognitive control

-where feelings are born

-PFC plays significant role- allows for complex emotional reasoning, decision making, ability to modulate feelings and effective reactions based on context and long term goals

How does the brain prioritize emotional content?

The brain prioritizes emotional things as important and urgent.

Which two brain structures are synergistically activated during memory encoding and consolidation?

The amygdala and hippocampus.

What role does the amygdala play in memory formation?

The amygdala flags important information to the hippocampus.

What is the effect of amygdala activation on attention?

Amygdala activation is associated with enhanced attention.

What is the relationship between salience-enhanced information and stress hormones?

Salience-enhanced information can be related to the release of stress hormones and neurotransmitters (positive stress).

How do emotional-cognition interactions develop over time?

They are highly interdependent, but connectivity builds over a long time.

Which brain regions are primarily involved in emotional-cognition interactions during childhood?

Limbic and subcortical regions.

What changes occur in emotional-cognition interactions during adolescence?

Connectivity develops from the limbic system to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and vice versa.

What brain regions are involved in emotional-cognition interactions during young adulthood?

Prefrontal cortex (PFC) and cortical regions.

What is a developmental mismatch in emotional-cognition interactions?

Subcortical regions and the limbic system are mature and active while the PFC takes more time to develop.

What happens to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and executive functions (EFs) under serious stress?

They will be the first to suffer and will suffer the most.

How does serious stress affect cognitive abilities?

It limits access to higher cognitive abilities.

What changes occur in hippocampal and amygdala activity under serious stress?

Hippocampal activity is restricted while amygdala activity is enhanced.

Threatening circumstances

When mental, emotional, and/or physical demands exceed regulatory capacity of the organism

-in response, nervous system prepares body to act quickly: release of stress hormones (adrenaline and cortisol) to raise alertness and readiness for action

Stress response

-Amygdala sends distress signal to hypothalamus to activate brain's "survival mode"

-Hypothalamus activates sympathetic nervous system and adrenal-cortical system

-Neural activity combined w/ hormones mediate fight or flight response

Sympathetic system

Uses nerve pathways to initiate reactions in body, creating burst of energy in order to manage perceived danger

-prepares body for action through physiological responses such as increased heart rate/blood pressure, inhibition of digestive system

-secretion of epinephrine and norepinephrine

Parasympathetic system

Calms body down after danger has passed

-freezing: parasympathetic motor inhibition for heightened perception and action preparation, balance between the two systems that allows for flexible response to various stressors, various coping mechanisms, different environmental demands

Positive/protective stress response

Brief and appropriate response that sharpens focus and helps us perform in critical moments

-brief increases in heart rate, mild elevations in stress hormone levels

-body quickly goes back to baseline levels

Tolerable stress response

Serious, temporary stress responses buffered by supportive relationships

-longer period of time

-opportunity to build resilience, part of development and growth and building coping skills

Toxic stress response

Prolonged activation of stress response systems in absence of protective relationships

-leads to harmful outcomes for body and mind

-stress outcomes arise from interacting genetic and environmental influences

How chronic stress alters the brain

-Decrease in hippocampal tissue (reversible)

-Proliferation of amygdala which becomes larger and more reactive (not always reversible)

-Decrease in ability of PFC to flexibly regulate attention, action, and emotion

Adrenal-cortical system

Hormonal pathway to fight-or-flight

-hypothalamus --> pituitary gland -->. adrenal glands

Glucocorticoids

Enhance consolidation of new memories related to survival

Stress and learning

Stressful experience induces physiological, morphological, and cellular changes in learning circuitry

-accompanied by deficits in executive functions

Yerkes-Dodson law

Psychological principle that describes relationship between arousal and performance/learning

Apathy zone

Brain is understimulated, not enough arousal to keep it engaged and sustain attention/be on task

-PFC is underutilized, not ideal for learning

-boredom/stagnation

Stress zone

Hijack of brain by limbic system

-surviving brain, PFC underutilized, not ideal for learning

-overload/anxiety/panic

-demands exceed available resources

High motivation zone

Brain systems can work together in an optimal way to create new connections and engage in learning

-stretch zone

-moderate arousal, high motivation, optimal neuroplasticity, maximum development

Comfort zone

No stress but not enough challenge or arousal for brain to learn

-resources exceed demands, limited opportunities for growth

-no external push to expand current abilities

Zone of proximal development

Challenges slightly exceed abilities but learners can meet these challenges and expand their abilities and resources w/ the right support

What does bottom-up regulation focus on?

Managing physiological and emotional responses directly.

What does top-down regulation involve?

Using higher cognitive processes to influence emotional responses.

What is necessary to effectively regulate stress?

Looking for the source of the stress.

How can cortical worrying be reduced?

Through cognitive regulation.

How can limbic fear/anxiety be reduced?

Through physiological regulation.

Fear

Emotional response to clear and immediate danger

-limbic driven response, activation of survival mode

-avoiding source of threat can take care of fear, physiological relaxation

Worry

Cognitive processing and thinking about negative things that might happen

-emotional < cognitive

-product of cortical activity

-helps us plan and protect as long as its balanced and regulated

-top-down process, more receptive to cognitive regulation strategies

Anxiety

Response to something that might happen

-emotional > cognitive

-both physiological and cognitive, involves mix of physical tension and mental preoccupation

-can be addressed through both top-down and bottom-up regulation strategies but not in midst of attack

Window of tolerance

Zone where intense emotional arousal can be processed and managed effectively

-exposure to controlled stress is a major contributor to building resilience. not fluctuated within window of tolerance = comfort zone

-building resilience is about expanding our window of tolerance

-stress mindset expands or narrows window of tolerance

Hyperarousal

Fight-or-flight response

Hypoarousal

Freeze or shutdown response

Factors that shape stress response

-Nature of stressor (duration, intensity, predictability)

-Nature of person (orchid/dandelion)

-objective demands (task complexity, time pressure) vs available resources (social support, coping skills, physical conditions)

-individual mindset (approach to stress)

Threat-perception response

Activates defensive response and increased threat physiology for survival and protection from harm

-evaluation of the situation as threatening activates survival mode

-demands > resources/ability to cope

Challenge-perception response

Activates adaptive response and efficient energy use for growth, learning, and mastery

-evaluation of the situation as challenging promotes learning and growth

-demands = resources/ability to cope

Stress feedback loop

-Stress-is-debilitating mindset can perpetuate more stress

-Use cognitive control to break the loop

-Stress-is-enhancing mindset can help regulate stress

Resilience

Ability to achieve successful outcome in face of adversity

Brain resilience

Ongoing adaptive plasticity of brain, enabling it to adjust naturally over time

-recovering from emotional or psychological trauma isn't about reversing changes caused by trauma, instead it's about moving forward through neuroplastic adaptation