Motivation and Emotion

17

drive state

affective experiences that motivate organisms to fulfill goals that are generally beneficial to their survival and reproduction

which is not an example of a drive state

shopaholic tendencies

drive states are triggered by

internal and external cues, but the combinations differ between drives

how does attention change as drive states intensify

you can lose focus on almost all other things as your brain is locked in on satisfying the drive states, and thus your attention is directed towards elements, activities, and forms of consumption to satisfy the biological needs associated with the drive

hunger cues

tell the body when it should feed again, can provoke the eating of specific foods that contain high amounts of the vitamins you’re lacking

how does the hypothalamus play a role in eating behaviour

through synthesizing and secreting various hormones, and regulating bodily drives with the pituitary gland

satiation

refers to the decline of hunger and the eventual termination of eating behaviour, different process than hunger in that is is controlled by different circuits in the brain and triggered by different cues

reward value

neuropsychological measure of an outcome’s affective importance to an organism, the hungrier you are, the greater the reward value of the food

sexual arousal as a drive state

is critical to reproduction, results in thoughts and behavioours related to sexual activity

where in the male brain is sexual arousal linked to

in the preoptic area, in the anterior hypothalamus

where in the female brain is sexual arousal linked to

the ventromedial hypothalamus

how does the septal nucleus play an important role for both men and women in their sexual arousal

receives reciprocal connections from many other brain regions, that shows considerable activity, specifically during an orgasm

lordosis

physical sexual posture in females that serves as an invitation to mate

emotions

an experiential, physiological, and behavioural response to a personally meaningful stimulus

well-being

the experience of mental and physical health and the absence of disorder

three reasons that we cannot only have good emotions and never feel bad emotions

negates the intensity of the emotion, how emotions fluctuate over time, and the context in which the emotion is experienced

people who aim to not feel negative emotion are at risk

for worse well-being, lower social support, worse college grades, and feelings of worse physical health

emotion fluctuations

the degree to which emotions vary or change in intensity over time

anger

can energize people to compete or fight with others, and thus fits specific contents

emotion coherence

the degree to which emotional responses converge with one another

affective neuroscience

examines how the brain creates emotional responses, how brain structures and chemicals creates emotions, uses unbiased, observable meaasures that provide credible evidence on the importance of emotions

specific emotions

are not located in a single structure of the brain, and brain circuits involved in emotional reactions include nearly the entire brain

desire

the neural systems of reward seeking, with wanting, seeking, and behavioural activation sensitivity

the part of the brain that is more active during appetitive emotions such as desire and interest

left frontal cortex

liking

research focused on this emotion i focused on a small area within the nucleus accumbens and on the posterior half of the ventral pallidum

fear

emotion that motivates the avoidance of potentially harmful situations, this circuit extends from the central amygdala to the periaqueductal grat in the midbrain

love

attachment to other members of the same species produces positive emotions of attachment

grief

neural networks involved in infant attachment are alo sensitive to separation

plasticity

the responses by specific neural regions may be modified by experience

motivation

a general term for a phenomena that affect the nature, strength, and persistence of an individual’s behaviour

homeostasis

tendency of an animal to regulate its internal conditions by a system of feedback controls

non-regulatory drives

indirect evolutionary purpose

nucleus accumbens

part of the striatum (reward region)

orbitofrontal cortex

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

allows us to override distractors and stay focus on reward learning

dopamine

neurotransmitter associated with excitement, meaning, and anticipation

mesolimbic

ventral tegmental area to nucleus accumbens

mesocortical

VTA to prefrontal cortex

goodness of fit

emotions serving a purpose in our situation

context

emotional coherence, the correspondence between the subjective emotion and the behaviour

experiencing mixed emotions is associated with

more rapid recovery among people grieving lost loved ones, coping in stressful situations