15- Biopsychology of Emotions, Stress, and Health

Charles Darwin’s The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)

The first major event in the

study of the biopsychology of emotion was

the publication

Charles Darwin

argued, largely on the basis of anecdotal

evidence, that particular emotional

responses, such as human facial expressions,

tend to accompany the same emotional states

in all members of a species

principle of antithesis

Opposite messages are often signaled by opposite movements and postures

James-Lange theory

According to the -, emotion-inducing

sensory stimuli are received and interpreted by the

cortex, which triggers changes in the visceral organs

via the autonomic nervous system and in the skeletal muscles via the somatic nervous system.

James-Lange theory

argued that the autonomic activity and behavior that are

triggered by the emotional event (e.g., rapid heartbeat

and running away) produce the feeling of emotion, not

vice versa.

Cannon-Bard theory

views emotional experience and emotional expression

as parallel processes that have no direct causal

relation

sham rage

exaggerated, poorly directed aggressive

responses of decorticate animals

hypothalamus

- is critical

for the expression of aggressive responses

and that the function of the cortex is to

inhibit and direct these responses

Papez (1937)

proposed

that emotional expression is controlled

by several interconnected nuclei

and tracts that ring the thalamus.

Papez

proposed that emotional expression is controlled by several interconnected nuclei and tracts that ring the thalamus

limbic system theory of emotion

Papez proposed

that emotional states are expressed

through the action of the other structures

of the circuit on the hypothalamus and

that they are experienced through their action

on the cortex

Klüver-Bucy syndrome

the consumption

of almost anything that is edible,

increased sexual activity often directed at

inappropriate objects, a tendency to repeatedly

investigate familiar objects, a tendency

to investigate objects with the mouth, and a

lack of fear.

amygdala

monkeys. In primates, most of the

symptoms of the Klüver-Bucy syndrome appear to result

from damage to the

James-Lange theory

says that different emotional stimuli induce different patterns of ANS activity and that these different patterns

produce different emotional experience

Cannon-Bard theory

claims that all emotional stimuli pro-

duce the same general pattern of sympathetic activation,

which prepares the organism for action

Polygraphy

is a method of interrogation

that employs ANS indexes of emotion to infer the truth-

fulness of a person’s responses

Mock-crime procedure

Volunteers participate

in a mock crime and are then subjected to a polygraph

test by an examiner who is unaware of their “guilt” or “innocence”

Control-question technique

the physiological

response to the target question (e.g., “Did you steal that

purse?”) is compared with the physiological responses to

control questions whose answers are known (e.g., “Have

you ever been in jail before?”).

Guilty-knowledge technique (concealed information test)

In order to use this technique, the polygrapher must

have a piece of information concerning the crime that

would be known only to the guilty person.

1. Surprise

2. Anger

3. Sadness

4. Disgust

5. Fear

6. Happiness

primary facial expressions

Facial feedback hypothesis

The hypothesis that our facial expressions influence our emotional

experience is called the

Microexpressions

brief facial expressions that may reveal true feelings or break through false ones

1. Orbicularis oculi

2. zygomaticus major

facial muscles contracted during genuine smiles

Orbicularis oculi

which encircles the eye and pulls the

skin from the cheeks and forehead toward the eyeball

Zygomaticus major

which pulls the lip corners up

Duchenne smile

genuine smile

Fear

is the emotional

reaction to threat; it is the motivating force for defensive

behaviors.

Defensive behaviors

primary function is to protect the organism from threat or

harm.

Aggresive behaviors

are behaviors

whose primary function is to threaten or harm

Social aggression

unprovoked attacks on member’s of one’s own species to establish dominance

Defensive attack

aggressive behavior as when cornered

Colony-intruder model of aggression and defense

study interaction between alpha male of an established colony with a small male intruder

Target-site concept

the aggressive and defensive behaviors of an animal are often designed to attack specific sites on the body

of another animal while protecting specific sites on its

own.

Septal aggression/ septal rage

behavior of rats with lateral septal lesions

predatory aggression

The stalking and killing of members of other species for the purpose of eating them

social aggression

Unprovoked aggressive behavior that is directed at a conspecific (member of the same

species) for the purpose of establishing, altering, or maintaining a social hierarchy.

intraspecific defense

Defense against social aggression

defensive attacks

Attacks that are launched by animals when they are cornered by threatening members of

their own or other species.

Freezing and flight

Responses that many animals use to avoid attack

Maternal defensive behaviors

The behaviors by which mothers protect their young.

Risk assessment

Behaviors that are performed by animals in order to obtain specific information that helps them defend themselves more effectively

Defensive burying

Rats and other rodents spray sand and dirt ahead with their forepaws to bury dangerous

objects in their environment, to drive off predators, and to construct barriers in burrows

Testosterone

increases social aggression in the males of many species

castration

aggression is largely abolished by - in the same species

Fear condiitoning

establishment of fear in response to a

previously neutral stimulus by

presenting it, usually several times, before the delivery of

an aversive stimulus

Auditory fear conditioning

fear conditioning that uses a sound as a conditional stimulus

Medial geniculate nucleus

They found that bilateral lesions to the

- blocked fear conditioning to a tone

Periaqueductal gray

pathway to the - of the midbrain elicits appropriate defensive responses

Lateral hypothalamus

another pathway to the - elicits appropriate sympathetic responses

contexts

Environments, or -, in which fear-inducing stimuli

are encountered can come to elicit fear

Hippocampus

bilateral lessions to the - block the

subsequent development of a fear response to the context

without blocking the development of a fear response to the

explicit conditional stimulus

Amygdala

the cluster of nuclei which are themselves divided into subnuclei

lateral nucleus of the amygdala

is critically involved in the acquisition,

storage, and expression of conditioned fear

Prefrontal cortex

is thought to act on the lateral nucleus of

the amygdala to suppress conditioned fear

Hippocampus

is thought to interact with that part of the amygdala to

mediate learning about the context of fear-related events

Central nucleus of the amygdala

the amygdala is thought to control defensive behavior via outputs from the -

Cognitive neuroscience

dominant approach being used to study the brain mechanisms of human emotion

Embodiment of emotions

re-experiencing of related patterns of motro, autonomic, and sensory neural activity during emotional experiences

Urbach-Wiethe disease

genetic disorder that often results in calcification of the amygdala and surrounding anterior medial temporal-lobe structures

Calcification

hardening by conversion to calcium carbonate, the main component of bone

Suppression paradigms

participants

are directed to inhibit their emotional reactions to unpleasant films or pictures

Reappraisal paradigms

participants are instructed to reinterpret a picture to change their emotional reaction to it

Right-hemisphere model

holds that the right hemisphere is special-

ized for all aspects of emotional processing: perception, expression, and experience of emotion.

Valence model

proposes that the right hemisphere

is specialized for processing negative emotion and the

left hemisphere is specialized for processing positive emotion.

Stress response/ Stress

When the body is exposed to harm or threat, the result is a cluster of physiological changes generally referred to as

Stressors

experiences

that induce the stress response

Hans Selye

first described the stress response in the 1950s, and he

emphasized its dual nature

anterior-pituitary adrenal-cortex system

Selye attributed the stress response to the

activation of the

adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)

neural circuits stimulate the release of - from the anterior pituitary

adrenal cortex

ACTH in turn triggers

the release of glucocorticoids from the -

Cytokines

that stressors produce an increase in blood levels of -, a group of

peptide hormones that are released by many cells and participate in a variety of physiological and immunological responses, causing inflammation and fever

Subordination stress

When conspecific threat becomes an enduring feature of daily life, the result is

Psychosomatic disorders

medical disorders in which psychological factors play a causal role

Gastric ulcers

were one of the first medical disorders

to be classified as psychosomatic

Gastric ulcers

are painful lesions to the lining of the stomach and duodenum, which in extreme cases can be life-threatening.

Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori)

was claimed that the

bacteria - are responsible

for all cases of gastric ulcers

Psychoneuroimmunology

the study of interactions among psychological factors,

the nervous system, and the immune system.

Behavioral immune system

Humans are motivated to avoid contact

with individuals who are displaying symptoms of illness, and their bodies are primed

to respond more aggressively to infection when they perceive signs of infection in others

Innate immune system

the first component of the immune system to react.

Innate immune system

It reacts quickly and generally near points of entry of pathogens

Pathogens

disease-causing agents

Toll-like receptors

The innate immune system is triggered when receptors called - bind to molecules on the surface of the pathogens or when injured cells send out alarm signals

Innate immune system

includes a complex, but general, array of chemical and cellular reactions—they are general in the sense that the reactions to all pathogens are the same

Inflammation

One of the first reactions of the innate immune system to the invasion of pathogens is -, or swelling

Cytokines

Inflammation is triggered by the release of chemicals from damaged cells. Particularly influential are the -,

Leukocytes

white blood cells

Phagocytes

cells that engulf and destroy pathogens

Microglia

phagocytes that are specific to the central nervous system

Cytokines

also promote healing of the damaged tissue once the pathogens are destroyed

Phagocytosis

destruction of pathogens by phagocytes

Adaptive immune system

evolved more recently, first appearing in early

vertebrates.

Adaptive immune system

is slower; its immune reaction to pathogens takes longer to be fully manifested.

Adaptive immune system

has a memory; once it has reacted against a particular

pathogen, it reacts more effectively against that same

pathogen in the future.

Lymphocytes

The main cells of the adaptive immune system are specialized leukocytes called

bone marrow

lymphocytes are produced in the -

Cell-mediated immunity

directed by T lympocytes

Antibody-mediated immunity

directed by B lymphocytes

Antigens

molecules, usually proteins, that can trigger an immune response

Antibodies

These lethal receptor molecules, called

-, are released into the intracellular fluid, where they bind to the foreign antigens and destroy or deactivate the microorganisms that possess them

Memory B cells

for the specific antigen are also produced during the process; these cells have a long life and accelerate antibody-mediated immunity if there is a subsequent infection by the same microorganism.