PSYC 351C: Midterm 3 Review (Social Cognition)

Two dimensions that emotion can be defined

Valence - positive (approach) / negative (withdraw)

Arousal - low (calm) / high (excited/agitated)

What are the 3 major bodily sensations/physiological changes that accompany emotion

1. Heart rate increase/decrease

2. Sweating

3. Increased adrenaline

How does emotion interact with cognition

Emotion can be regulated or rationalized by cognition, and emotions can impair cognitive functioning

Emotion is also social

What does the limbic system do with regard to emotion

Originally thought to be devoted to processing emotion, now thought to be developed to manage stress response

What are the 4 original and 2 added components

Original:

1. Hypothalamus

2. Hippocampus

3. Anterior Thalamus

4. Cingulate

Added:

1. Amygdala

2. Olfactory bulb

HPA Axis

Includes hypothalamus, pituitary and adrenal cortex, involved in arousal

Note that adrenal cortex is located above kidney’s

How does the HPA axis work

1. Amygdala acts on the hypothalamus

2. Hypothalamus releases corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) to the interior pituitary gland

3. Pituitary gland releases hormones into blood mostly adrenocorticotropic releasing hormone (ACTH)

4. Hormones travel through body to influence release of cortisol and adrenalin

Role and location of amygdala

Plays an important role in detection of emotional information and learning about significance or reward, 3 sub-structures

Located just anteriorly to the hippocampus (since memory and emotion intertwined)

Why are positive stimuli typically not studied in the Amygdala

Because they lead to a much weaker response, so much harder to study

Amygdala is involved in positive emotion

What are the 3 major deficits seen due to damage to the Amygdala and why

Occurs due to HPA axis not being able to be activated

1. Inability to detect adverse stimuli

2. Judge unfamiliar faces as more trustworthy

3. Impaired rapid threat detection

Kluver-Bucy Syndrome

Caused by damage to amygdala in Monkey, 2 major characteristics:

1. Monkey attempts to engage in sexual behaviours with other species

2. Attempts to ingest objects indiscriminately

What 3 things cause activation in amygdala

Increased response to fearful face compared to neutral pattern

Items in one’s phobia are seen in the same area as other threatening activity

Activity with subconsiously presented items

What happens with face viewing if the amygdala is damaged

One will alter their face viewing pattern, where they reduce viewing areas that display emotional info

Possibly implicated in ASD

Fear condition experiment

Rats placed in a box and shown a blue, then a yellow light.

Blue light is repeatedly paired with electric shock

Rat will freeze when presented with just blue light

Evidence of fear response

Amygdala and Hippocampus fMRI experiment

Fear condition people, either controls, hippocampal damage, or amygdala damage

Following training participants were asked if they recognized the fear association, and if they showed the response

Findings of Amygdala and Hippocampus fMRI experiment

1. Controls - healthy people show intact fear condition and declarative memory

2. Amygdala - Cannot be fear conditioned, but have intact declarative memory

3. Hippocampal - Can be fear conditioned, but do not have any declarative learning

What do the findings of Amygdala and Hippocampus fMRI experiment suggest

That although fear responses and memory are linked, they are not the same and can be dissociated

What are the two paths of the amygdala

1. Fast - direct from visual thalamus to HPA activation (coarse representation)

2. Slow - Information passed through ventral visual stream (fine representation)

What is the reason for the two paths of the amygdala

Fast route allows for quick reaction to potentially life threatening scenarios, while the slow route is used to distinguish if one is actually in any danger

Where does reward learning take place

Mostly in the dopamine system involved with the basal ganglia

What are the 3 subsystems that transport dopamine, and from where to where

Nigrostriatal - substantia nigra to caudate and putamen

Mesocortical - ventral tegmental area (VTA) to prefrontal cortex

Mesolimbic - VTA to nuclues accumbens

Old’s rat study

Implanted electrodes into mesolimbic pathway of rats and gave them a lever that would stimulate said pathway

Rats would self-stimulate to death with 2000 presses/hr for 24 hours (would not do anything else)

What was concluded based on Old’s rat study

That mesolimbic system is involved in pleasure, so dopamine must be linked to pleasure

Sometimes the mesolimbic system is called the pleasure centre

Why is it wrong to say that the mesolimbic system is the pleasure centre

Because blocking dopamine in rats does not stope hedonia (feelings of pleasure), but stops their pleasure seeking behaviours

Why is it said that nucleus accumbens is associated with pleasure

NAc core - wanting

NAc shell - liking

What is dopamine actually used for

Involved in reward learning based behaviour, not pleasure/enjoyment

Rat reward study

Animals have single cell recording in dopaminergic neurons and given rewards either while conditioned or not

What are the 3 findings of the rat reward study

Positive prediction error - an unexpected reward leads to increase in phasic firing

No prediction error - When animal is conditioned to receive reward, presentation of CS then reward will increase firing only at CS presentation

Negative prediction error - Animal is conditioned to receive reward and does not receive reward following CS, see suppression of tonic firing

Insula

Area of the cortex insulated by frontal and temporal cortex (inside sylvia fissure), important for introception

How do we know that the insula is involved in introception

Look at activity in insula when individual asked to detect their heartbeat

T or F: The insula is involved with disgust

T, damage leads to deficits in feeling of disgust or detection of disgust in others

Why is it said the insula is heterogenous

Works differently for different regions

Anterior - more related to integrated sensation with awareness (e.g. disgust)

Posterior - more related to taste

What happens if one’s anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is damaged

One will experience apathy, inattention and emotional instability

T or F: Small regions in the ACC can help treat chronic pain

T, some regions respond to pain, but lesions do not eliminate pain, just make it more managable

Two regions of the ACC and what do they do

Ventral - emotional processes

Dorsal - cognitive processes

What 4 regions are implicated in the ventral region of ACC

1. Amygdala

2. Hypothalamus

3. Nucleus accumbens

4. Fornix

How is the ACC implicated in depression

Electrode insertion to the subegneal portion (BA25) is used for treatment resistant depression as it sometimes relieves symptoms

Depression experiment

Electrodes placed in BA25 to help treat depression, participants underwent brain scans immediatly after and 2 years later

grouped based on if they responded to treatment or not and adjusted electrode based on findings for non-responders

What was found in the depression experiment with the responders, and non-responders who had the elctrode adjusted

Responders - Larger amount of activation WM tracts, had electrode in more precise areas

Non-responders - initially had less precise electrode, adjustment lead to more active WM tracts

What was found with grey matter in the depression experiment

Did not change much depeding on responding or lack therefore

So connections being stimulated more important than the region

What is the dorsal ACC import for integrating

Important for integrating cognitive, emotional and physiological processes together

Orbitofrontal cortex

Involved in understanding reward/punishment to guide behaviour

Interconnected with amygdala, hypothalamus, insula and ACC

Reversal learning experiment

Tested controls and those with damage to the orbitofrontal cortex

Participants learn association between stimulus and reward (e.g. press left button for red light, press right button for blue light)

Soon after the association is reversed (e.g. press left button for blue light and right button for red light)

What did those with orbitofrontal damage demonstrate in the reversal learning experiment

Could not learn the reversal learning, but could learn the original rule fine

Car study

Particiapnts asked two pick between two arbitary choices (differntly coloured cars), then validated for their choice or told it was wrong

Validation lead to relief

Correction lead to regret

What is found with feelings of relief and regret with regard to activation in the orbitofrontal cortex

More regret leads to greater activation in the OFC, and more relief leads to less activation

Helps to explain reversal learning

Emotional regulation

Modification of one’s emotional experience at different stages of emotional/cognitive processing

Includes emotions one has, why they occur and how they are experienced/expressed

Disgusting Experiment

Participants viewed 15 second movie clips in fMRI (that were really gross) and rated how negatively they felt while watching

Either told to use cognitive reappraisal or emotional suppression (change viewpoint or suppress facial expresions)

What was found regarding reappraisal and suppression during the disgusting experiment

Reappraisal - increased activity in dlPFC and OFC at beginning (0-5s) of clip, and decrease in insula/amygdala activity at the end (10-15s)

Suppression - no change in amygdala response, increased activity in dlPFC and insula at the end

What do the findings of the disgusting experiment suggest

That suppression is more of a distraction, helps explain why it does not work long term

What are the 4 structures relevant for social cognition

1. Tempo-parietal junction (TPJ)

2. Temporal poles (TP)

3. Superior temporal sulcus (sTS)

4. Medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC)

What is theory of mind (TOM) and how is it tested

Cognitive representation of other people’s mental states as separate from our own

Tested using 5 step TOM scale (for children)

What are the 6 things children learn about others as they develop theory of mind

1. People have diverse beliefs

2. People have diverse desires

3. People have differing knowledge levels

4. People hold false beliefs

5. People hid emotions

False belief task

Children see a scenario in which something is hidden by person A, then person A leaves, then person B appears and moves object to new location, then person A comes back

Child asked where person A will look for object, will say it should be secondary hidings spot

What is the Heider-Simmel Illusion and how is it tested

Despite our knowledge that inanimate objects do not have feelings/goals, we attribute mental states to object when they move in suggested way

Show shapes moving randomly, then same shapes moving in human like ways, thus mental states attributed

What 3 areas are activated on the false belief task and Heider-Simmel illusion

1. mPFC

2. TP

3. TPJ

All implicated in the default mode network (DMN)

Movie experiment and conclusion drawn

Participants undergo fMRI while

1. Watching a movie

2. Recalling the movie as if explaining it to someone else

3. New person listening to the audio recording of original persons’ recalling of the movie

DMN activated for all 3 parts, concluded network is involved in mentalizing

What is the problem with conclusion regarding the DMN

Is always based on averaged MRI results from lots of participants, so could be that the mentalizing (TOM) and DMN are not the same network, but very similar so seem the same when results are averaged

How were the TOM and DMN networks separated

Researchers extensively studied 6 participants in MRI based on episodic projection (past/present) and TOM (false belief/pain) tasks

Found that although networks do overlap partially, they are distinct (may be shared early in childhood)

3 subcomponents of empathy

1. Emotional contagion - feeling as another feels

2. Cognitive perspective taking - understanding another’s point of view

3. Pro-social action - helpful behaviour for those in need

Exclusion experiment

Had participants undergo fMRI while being shown social exclusion with a friend or a stranger

What areas were activated in the exclusion experiment for friends and stranger and what did it suggest

Friend - increased activity in regions associated with interoception (dACC, insula) with an increase for those known better

Stranger - Increased activity with regions associated with mentalizing (TP, mPFC)

Suggests distinction between emotional sharing and perspective taking

Positive social experience study

2 tasks:

1. Participants were asked to imagine a social or non social reward while they underwent fMRI

2. Participants engaged in ice bath (stressful behaviour) and then asked them to recall memories of people they were socially close/not close to

Findings on the 2 tasks in the positive social experience study, and the researchers conclusion

1. Social reward lead to increased activity in reward centers (nucleus accumbens)

2. Participants cortisol increased less when recalling memories of people they were socially close to

Conclusion - Social rewards are a special kind of reward that are distinct from regular rewards