Emotions FBBC

What is the 1st theory of emotion?

The bottom-up theory of emotion. The James–Lange (1890) theory proposed that we experience emotion in response to physiological changes in our body. So because your heart rate increases, your muscles tense, and your face becomes hot and flushed → this means that you are angry

What is the 2nd theory of emotion?

The top-down theory of emotions. Cannon–Bard (1929) highlighted that the physiological reactions were the same for many emotions (anger, fear, and surprise); essentially activation of the sympathetic nervous system. Therefore, they concluded that the central nervous system “decides” what emotion is an appropriate response to a stimulus and then simultaneously produces the ANS activation and the emotional perception. They believed the purpose of emotion was to help us deal with a changing environment

What is the 3rd theory of emotion?

Schachter’s theory states: individuals interpret physiological responses in terms of the eliciting stimuli, the surrounding situation (influence of others), their cognitive state, and past experience. This is the two-factor theory of emotions because it involves cognitive and physiological responses

What experiment demonstrates that cognition plays a role in the experience of emotion?

A) Schachter and Singer found that study participants’ emotional experiences after having been (unknowingly) injected with epinephrine could vary depending on how people around them were acting. B) These results suggest that cognitive analysis of the situation affects what emotion we experience. Thus, sympathetic activation may increase the intensity of emotion we experience, but it does not completely determine which emotion we experience

What did Charles Darwin hypothesize about emotions?

Emotions are an innate ability and nonhuman primates have similar facial muscles as humans

What did Redican describe facial expression for nonhuman primates?

Grimace—like fear or surprise in humans; tense mouth—like anger; play face—like the human laugh

What are the 6 universal facial expressions of emotions?

Happy/sad, anger/fear, surprise/disgust

What is innervated by CN 7?

The superficial muscles of facial expression that are connected with the skin

What is innervated by CN 8?

The deep muscles connecting to the skeleton that move the jaw

What is the facial feedback hypothesis?

When you hold a whistle in your teeth you feel happier than when you hold a whistle in your lips. The two postures cause contraction of the muscles associated with smiling and frowning, respectively. The research backs this up

What happens to patients with unilateral lesions of the motor cortex?

Unable to move one side of their face; however, when they are expressing emotions they can move both sides of their face

What happens to patients with subcortical lesions, such as Parkinson’s disease?

Can voluntarily move their face, but do not express facial emotions (flat affect)

What happened to Phineas Gage?

Due to an explosion a steel rod went through his head.

there is _____ place in the brain that is associated with each emotion but there is a lot of ____.

"NO ONE", "overlap"

What are the 4 brain regions that are involved in what 4 emotions?

Insula, amygdala, cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex, that are involved in sadness, happiness, fear, and anger

Physiological responses typically ____ the awareness of feeling an emotion.

“Precede”

What is Brain self-stimulation?

Where the animal will perform a task to receive stimulation of some part of the brain

What does brain self-stimulation allow for?

Allows for the study of the neuroanatomy of emotions

What is the Medial forebrain bundle?

It is a tract that rises from the midbrain through the hypothalamus and contains many sites for self-stimulation. The nucleus accumbens, involved in the dopaminergic circuit, is an important target for the medial forebrain bundle, and stimulating the nucleus accumbens is considered pleasurable

James Papex proposed what system?

Proposed a subcortical circuit of emotion: (mammillary bodies, anterior thalamus, hypothalamus, cingulate cortex, hippocampus, parahippocampal gyrus and fornix) = Papez circuit

What was added to the papez circuit that created the limbic system?

In 1949, Paul MacLean added the amygdala, the olfactory bulb, and basal forebrain nuclei to the Papez circuit

What is the limbic system involved in?

The emotional expression but also the experience of the emotion

Support for the limbic system as a model for emotion came from ____ studies.

“Brain lesion”

What is decorticate rage?

A sudden intense rage in dogs with their cortex removed, suggesting that the cortex inhibits rage

What is Klüver–Bucy syndrome?

A syndrome that is characterized by reduction of fear and anxiety, oral tendencies, hypersexuality; results from bilateral removal of large portions of temporal lobe

What is the amygdala a key structure for?

1. Mediation of fear. Interconnections within the amygdala are important for fear associations.

2. Lesions abolish fear, but they do feel fear in response to epinephrine and hypoxia. The brain must rely on other systems for internal threats.

3. Crucial for appetitive learning: positive reactions to attractive stimuli.

4. PTSD

What is fear conditioning?

A previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with an unpleasant experience, causing the subject to act fearful in response to the previously neutral stimulus

What did fear conditioning studies give us?

Allowed researchers to develop a map of the neural circuitry of emotional learning

The amygdala is thought to help form _______ and _______ that are stored elsewhere in the brain.

"associations between emotional responses", "specific memories of stimuli"

What is does the amygdala consist of?

Several different nuclei (each with a distinct set of connections to other parts of the brain): the central nucleus, the medial nucleus, the basal nucleus, the latera, and the basolateral nucleus

What are the inputs of the amygdala?

1. receives visual, auditory and olfactory inputs via the thalamus (bypasses conscious processing and allows for immediate emotional reactions (low road))

2. information that is routed through the cortex, allowing conscious processing, is the high road.

3. Also gets inputs from the brainstem and hippocampus

What are the amygdala outputs?

The majority of the outputs that are involved in emotion go through the central nucleus of the amygdala to many brain regions that control emotional responses

What supports observational fear learning and what is it?

Input from areas of the cortical areas such as the prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulate support observational fear learning: learn to fear potentially harmful stimuli through social transmission

What is stress?

Stress is any circumstance that upsets homeostatic balance and is an adaptive behavior

What is an alarm reaction?

Our first reaction to stressful stimuli. Begins a series of physiological reactions that induces the “Fight or flight” system

What is the hypothalamus’ stress response?

1) Activates the sympathetic nervous system → core of the adrenal gland to release epinephrine (EPI) (adrenaline) and norepinephrine (NE) (noradrenaline); EPI & NE increase heart rate and breathing; prepare body for action. AND SIMULTANEOUSLY

2) Releases CRF → anterior pituitary to release ACTH → the outer part of the adrenal gland to release adrenal steroids. Steroid hormones act more slowly than amino hormones; get the body ready for action, including releasing stores of energy

Studies indicate that stress can compromise your ____ system/

"Immune"

How does the immune system protect us?

Three classes of white blood cells:

1. B lymphocytes (B cells) produce antibodies against foreign molecules. This is part of our humoral response (hormones)—fast acting.

2. T lymphocytes (T cells), some are killer-T cells, and these directly attack microbes. Helper T cells secrete cytokines that induce cell proliferation in the immune system. This is part of the cell-mediated response.

3. Phagocytes (“eating” cells) engulf and destroy microbes; directly attack foreign tissues or microbes

How does stress affect the immune system?

1. Through the autonomic nervous system → noradrenergic activation decreases the production of antibodies.

2. Through the hypothalamic-pituitary-neuroendocrine system → the release of cortisol inhibits the immune response

_____typically acts as a short-term defense mechanism; But prolonged ____ can be detrimental to your immune function and to your health.

"Stress"