Emotional Behaviors Flashcards

What is Emotion, Anyway? And What Good Is It?

• Introduction

  • Emotions have the following components:

    • Cognition: An expression or display of distinctive somatic and autonomic responses.

    • Readiness for action: Defending or attacking in response to a threat.

      • Darwin’s functional view: Emotions have an important survival role because they aid in generating appropriate reactions to “emergency” events.

    • Feeling: Emotion is a feeling that is private and subjective. The report of subjective experience may or may not have overt indicators.

    • Physiological changes: Accompany emotion, allowing us to examine emotion in nonhuman animals as well as in human beings.

  • These elements do not always stick together.

Emotions and Autonomic Arousal

• Emotional situations arouse the autonomic nervous system.
• Most situations evoke a combination of sympathetic and parasympathetic arousal.

Theories of Emotion

• James-Lange theory: Autonomic arousal and skeletal actions occur before an emotion. An emotion is the label we give to our physiological responses.
• Cannon-Bard theory: Emotional experience and physical arousal occur simultaneously but are independent of each other.
• Schachter-Singer theory: Physiological changes tell how intense an emotion is, but cognitive appraisal is necessary to identify which emotion it is.
• Locked-In syndrome: Caused by damage in the ventral part of the brainstem; leaves a person unable to make any voluntary movement other than moving the eyes but they report the same emotions as before.

Is Physiological Arousal Necessary for Emotion?

• Pure autonomic failure: People report feeling the same emotions, but less intensely.
• People with damage to the right somatosensory cortex have typical autonomic responses to emotional music but report little subjective experience.
• Autonomic responses and subjective experience are not always closely connected

Actions Alter Emotions

• Facial-feedback hypothesis
• People with BOTOX injections report weaker than usual emotional responses
• Body change is important part of feeling an emotion.
• Other examples:
  • Panic attacks: Extreme sympathetic nervous system arousal, but only if perceived as occurring spontaneously.
  • Smiling or frowning slightly increases or decreases happiness.
  • Möbius syndrome: Body’s actions are not required.
  • Absence seizure: No emotional expressions

Basic Emotions or Continuous Dimensions

• Main support for basic emotions: Facial expressions exist for happiness, sadness, fear, anger, disgust, surprise, and perhaps other emotions.
• We rarely interpret emotion based solely on facial expressions.
  • Two or more emotions can be present in a single facial expression.
  • Context and gestures are important.
• Alternative view: Emotional feelings vary along two continuous dimensions (e.g., weak to strong, pleasant to unpleasant, approach versus avoid).

Brain Representations of Emotion

• From a biological standpoint, much evidence favors dimensions.
• Heart rate and breathing rate increase with the intensity of an emotion, but do not distinguish fear from anger, or any other pair of emotions.
• Limbic system: Forebrain areas surrounding the thalamus, traditionally regarded as critical for emotion
• Much of the cerebral cortex also reacts to emotional situations.
  • PET and fMRI studies suggest particular cortical areas are activated during an emotional experience.
  • Disgust seems to depend mostly on one brain area.
• Researchers found strong responses in the right hemisphere junction between the temporal and parietal cortices while people watched an emotionally charged movie.
  • Gradients of emotional response: pleasure vs. displeasure, intensity, and complexity
• Inactivation of the medial frontal cortex appears to impair the ability to recognize angry expressions.
• The insular cortex is strongly activated during exposure to stimuli perceived as “disgusting”, and is also the primary taste cortex also reacts to frightening stimuli and angry faces.
• These findings support the idea that brain responses are well described as dimensions of emotion rather than as discrete categories.

Hemispheric Differences

• (BAS) Behavioral Activation System (left hemisphere) and (BIS) Behavioral Inhibition System (right hemisphere).
• People with greater activity in the frontal cortex of the left hemisphere tend to be happier and more extraverted, while people with greater right-hemisphere activity tend to be more socially withdrawn, cautious, and prone to unpleasant emotions.
• The right hemisphere is more active in perceiving emotions, especially negative emotions such as fear.

Functions of Emotions

• Adaptive values (fear leads to escape, anger leads to attack, disgust tells us to avoid)
• Allow us to make quick decisions.
• Help us make moral decisions.
• The adaptive value of happiness, sadness, embarrassment, and other emotions is more speculative.

Expressing Emotion

• Main support for basic emotions has relied on consistency of facial expressions, as similar expressions are shown for similar situations.
• Blind since birth exhibit expressions of happiness, sadness, fear, pride, and shame that resemble those of sighted people.
• The controversial issue is whether those expressions fall into a small number of discrete categories.
• When presented with a set of faces displaying facial expressions and given a list of emotion terms, most people in cultures throughout the world pair them up with greater-than-chance accuracy.
• However, this evidence is less than convincing as the faces used in most research were posed to try to maximize recognition, the procedure of asking people to match the six faces to six labels exaggerates the accuracy, and people recognize expressions from their own culture better than those from other cultures.
• We rarely identify someone’s emotion from facial expression alone. Observers could usually guess whether a tennis player was happy or sad from photos of body posture, but guesses from facial expression alone were close to chance levels.
• Even if people could identify six emotions from facial expressions, that evidence would not demonstrate that we have precisely six emotions.
• People can also recognize with moderate accuracy the facial expressions of contempt, pride, sleepiness, and confusion.
• People differ in their ability to recognize emotional expressions, with young adults and women being better than older people and men respectively, and people with psychopathic tendencies being worse than average.

Emotions and Moral Decisions

• Making important moral decisions activates the prefrontal cortex and cingulate gyrus. People with the strongest autonomic arousal are least likely to make the decision to kill one person to save five others.
• Moral decisions are seldom made rationally. One decision or the other just “feels” right; we rationalize after a decision has been made.
• When making a moral decision, we compare the utilitarian aspect (e.g., five versus one person dies) and the emotional aspect.
• fMRI studies indicate that certain brain areas become active when people contemplate just the utilitarian aspect; other areas become active when they contemplate just the emotional aspect; and the ventromedial part of the prefrontal cortex becomes active when they compare the utilitarian and emotional aspects to make a decision.
• Damage to parts of the prefrontal cortex leads to making decisions without much consideration of the emotional impact, and those individuals are more likely than average to choose the utilitarian option of killing one to save five when confronted with moral dilemmas.

Decision Making After Brain Damage

• Damage to the prefrontal cortex impairs decision making, leading to impulsive decision-making without pausing to consider the consequences, stemming from the failure to anticipate unpleasantness of an outcome (Example: Phineas Gage).
• Those with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex show inconsistent preferences and decreased guilt and trust.

Attack and Escape Behaviors

• Attack and escape behaviors are closely related physiologically and behaviorally, with anger and fear being corresponding behaviors.
• Affective attack includes signs of emotional arousal during an attack.
• Attack behaviors can be primed by stimulating the corticomedial area of the amygdala, which shows increased activity immediately after a first attack.

Genetic and Environmental Influence on Aggression

• Individual differences in aggressive, violent, or antisocial behavior depend on both heredity and environment.
• Environmental factors include an abusive childhood, witnessing violence between one’s parents, living in a violent neighborhood, exposure to lead and other harmful chemicals, and heavy use of alcohol or other drugs.
• Heredity: Twin studies indicate a significant amount of heritability, although there is some debate about experimental design. MAOA gene – low activity form shows a link to aggression.
• There is a high interaction between genetics and the environment in which a person was raised.

Amygdala and its Role

• The amygdala is comprised of a collection of nuclei in the temporal lobe, involved in various brain functions such as emotion and memory. It is also a common focus of abnormal electrical activity manifesting as complex/partial (temporal lobe) epilepsy.

Testosterone

• Male aggressive behavior heavily depends on testosterone. Increased testosterone levels in women increase the importance of social status and decrease the ability to recognize angry faces
• “Triple imbalance hypothesis”: violence depends on other chemicals besides testosterone, notably cortisol↓ and serotonin↓. Aggression levels are highest when cortisol levels are low and testosterone levels are high – Dual Hormone Hypothesis.
• Serotonin tends to inhibit violent impulses.
• Testosterone alters the way people respond to stimuli by increasing the response of the amygdala to angry expressions and decreasing the ability of the cerebral cortex to identify and regulate emotion.

Temporal Lobe and Violence

• Increased activity in the ventromedial hypothalamus (eating and sexual behaviors) improves the likelihood of an attack; testosterone exerts some effect on aggression by facilitating activity in this brain area.
• Affective attacks can be elicited by stimulating the amygdala. Rabies is a disease caused by viral infection of the brain, especially the temporal lobes (including the amygdala).
• Klüver-Bucy syndrome: Tameness and placidity in monkeys following damage or removal of the amygdala, impairment of emotional response and difficulty interpreting visual information.
• Temporal lobe epilepsy can sometimes provoke violent outbursts in humans; in these cases, anti-epileptic drugs are often able to control episodic violent behaviors.

Serotonin Synapses and Aggressive Behavior

• Impulsiveness and aggressive behavior have been linked to low serotonin release.
• Serotonin turnover: The amount of serotonin that neurons release, absorb, and replace; measured by the concentration of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in the cerebrospinal fluid.
• Nonhuman animals:
  • Several genetic strains of mice: Social isolation decreases serotonin turnover → greatest amount of fighting after isolation. 5-HT1B receptors decrease
  • Serotonin activity is lower in juvenile rodents than in adults, and fighting is more frequent in the juveniles.
  • In a study of 2-year-old male monkeys, the lowest serotonin turnover had the highest amount of aggressive behaviors, and these monkeys died before the age of 6, while monkeys with high serotonin turnover were alive at 6.
• Studies in humans:
  • Low serotonin turnover → history of violent behavior: arson and suicide by violent means
  • The relationship between serotonin and aggression is small and cannot be used to make predictions about an individual
  • Neurons synthesize serotonin from tryptophan. A diet low in tryptophan impairs the brain's ability to synthesize serotonin, and one study found an increase in aggressive behavior in young men a few hours after eating a diet low in tryptophan.
  • Tryptophan hydroxylase is the enzyme that converts tryptophan into serotonin. People with a less active form of this enzyme are more likely than others to report frequent anger and aggression.

Fear and Anxiety

• Fear is a temporary experience; if one escapes from danger, fear will soon subside. Anxiety is a longer-lasting, less escapable state. Many psychological disorders result in part from excess anxiety.
• Do we have built-in, unlearned fears?
  • A sudden loud noise causes newborns to arch their backs, briefly extend their arms and legs, and cry. This reaction is called the Moro reflex.
  • Startle reflex: Extremely fast response to unexpected loud noises.
• Auditory information stimulates an area of the pons that commands the tensing of neck and other muscles.
  • Information reaches the pons within 3–8 milliseconds.
  • Startle response occurs within two-tenths of a second (200ms).
• Startle reflex is more vigorous if already tense.
• Startle reflex can be used as a behavioral measure of anxiety and can be used with laboratory animals to explore brain mechanisms.

Role of the Amygdala in Rodents

• Research paired a stimulus with shock, leading to animals learning to associate the stimulus with the shock and becoming a fear signal.
• Stimulus associated with pleasure or absence of danger becomes a safety signal and decreases the startle reflex.
• Output from the amygdala is important for modifying the startle reflex, and for learned fears in general.
• Rat with damage to amygdala shows a normal startle reflex, but signals presented before the noise do not modify the reflex.
• Toxoplasma gondii: Protozoan that infects many mammals but reproduces only in cats. Cats excrete parasite’s eggs → infect burrowing rats → Damages the rat’s amygdala → Rat approaches cat without fear and gets eaten → Parasite finds its way back into the cat.
• The central amygdala receives sensory input from the lateral and basolateral amygdala and sends output to the central gray area of the midbrain, which relays information to a nucleus in the pons responsible for the startle reflex.
• Cells in the amygdala, especially the basal lateral and central nuclei, get input from pain fibers, vision, and hearing and are responsible for fear of pain, predators, and aggressive members.
• One part of the amygdala controls breathing changes, another helps identify safe places, and another path inhibits appetite during intense fear.
• If a person is attacked or has a fearful experience, they become fearful in a wide variety of circumstances.
• Bed nucleus of the stria terminalis: A set of axons connecting its bed nucleus to the amygdala; Brain area that controls long-term, generalized emotional arousal, and adjustments of anxiety; the efficacy of the ST largely influences people’s attention to possible threats.
• Axons extending from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex regulate approach and avoidance responses.
• People suffering from Urbach-Wiethe disease (a genetic disorder which causes gradual atrophy of the amygdala and nearby tissues caused by calcium accumulation) experience fear and related emotions very weakly and also have difficulty recognizing fear in others.

Studies of Monkeys

• Klüver-Bucy syndrome: Damage to the amygdala; Monkeys with this syndrome are tame/placid, display less than normal fear of snakes and larger, more dominant monkeys, and impaired social behaviors, including learning what to fear.
• Non-damaged monkeys with a vigorously active amygdala show fear to noise/intruder.

Response of the Human Amygdala to Visual Stimuli

• fMRI studies show the amygdala responds strongly to photos that arouse fear or photos of faces showing fear, and the response is stronger when the meaning is unclear and requires some processing.
• Responds more strongly to an angry face directed toward the viewer and frightened faces directed elsewhere.
• Contrary to what we might guess, the amygdala responds most strongly when a facial expression is difficult to interpret.

Damage to the Human Amygdala

• In humans, amygdala damage does not result in the loss of emotion.
• Effects of damage: Individuals can classify emotional pictures without difficulty, but experience little arousal from viewing unpleasant photos.
• Urbach-Wiethe Disease:
  • Rare genetic condition that causes calcium to accumulate in the amygdala until it wastes away.
  • Case study of person called SM: Experiences fearlessness, correctly drew faces with various emotions but had trouble drawing a fearful face. Lack of fear is dangerous to her.
• Recognizing Facial Expressions: Amygdala damage affects the ability to recognize facial expressions of fear or disgust, and when recognized, they are rated as less intense than other people.
• These observations suggest an alternative interpretation of the function of the amygdala as responsible for detecting emotional information, evaluating its relevance, and directing attention to it.

Individual Differences in Amygdala Response and Anxiety

• People’s tendency toward anxiety remains fairly consistent over time.
• People with genes for reduced serotonin uptake have increased responses to threat.
• Soldiers with initial increased levels of amygdala response showed increased combat stress.
• Anxiety depends on more than just the amygdala. Reappraisal as a coping mechanism.

Anxiety Disorders

• Anxiety disorders are characterized as such when the major symptom is increased anxiety. They include panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and phobias.
• Panic disorder:
  • Frequent periods of anxiety and occasional attacks of rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating, and trembling.
  • More common in women than men, and in adolescents and young adults.
  • Possible genetic component.
  • 15% of people with joint laxity.
  • Linked to hypothalamus abnormalities.
  • ↓ GABA, ↑ orexin

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Frequent distressing recollections and nightmares about traumatic event
• Vigorous reactions to noises and other stimuli
• Not all people who endure trauma get PTSD.
• A smaller hippocampus may predispose people to PTSD.
• A study of Vietnam War veterans: Damage the amygdala, none experienced PTSD; damage elsewhere in the brain, 40% experienced PTSD.

Pharmacological Relief

• Benzodiazepines:
  • The most commonly used anti-anxiety drugs: diazepam (Valium), alprazolam (Xanax).
  • Bind to the GABAA receptor, and facilitate the effects of GABA.
  • Exert their effects in the amygdala, hypothalamus, midbrain, and other areas.
• The drug 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA): fMRI studies with humans demonstrated that it decreases the amygdala’s response to unpleasant images.

Alcohol and Anxiety

• Alcohol effects on GABA receptors are responsible for the anti-anxiety and intoxicating effects.
• The experimental drug Ro-15-4513 blocks the effect of alcohol on the GABAA receptors complex.

Alcohol as an Anxiety Reducer

• Ethyl alcohol has behavioral effects similar to benzodiazepines and enhances GABA effects.
• An experimental drug Ro-15-4513 blocks the effect of alcohol on the GABAA receptors complex.
• Classical conditioning to cause extinction of a fear can be successful, but it may return in times of stress, particularly in adults, so it is best to extinguish a fear before it becomes consolidated.
• Propanolol: A drug that interferes with protein synthesis at synapses in the amygdala, causing a decrease in fear intensity.

Emotional Reactions to Stress

• Behavioral medicine: Emphasizes the effects of diet, smoking, exercise, and other behaviors on health. Emotions and other experiences influence illness and pattern of recovery.

Stress and the General Adaptation Syndrome

• Hans Selye (1979) defined stress as the non-specific response of the body to any demand made upon it.
• Stress activates two systems in the body:
  • The sympathetic nervous system: “fight or flight” → prepares the body for brief emergency responses.
  • The HPA axis: the hypothalamus, pituitary gland, and adrenal cortex.
• General adaptation syndrome: Threats to the body activate a general response to stress.
  • Alarm stage is characterized by increased sympathetic nervous system activity.
  • Resistance stage - sympathetic response declines, the adrenal cortex releases cortisol and other hormones that enable the body to maintain prolonged alertness.
  • Exhaustion stage - occurs after prolonged stress and is characterized by inactivity, vulnerability, and decreased energy to sustain heightened responses. The nature of today’s crises → widespread stress-related illnesses and psychiatric problems → general adaptation syndrome → exhaustion.

Psychosomatic Illness

• An illness whose onset is influenced by someone's personality, emotions, or experience.
• Ulcers: A disorder where stomach secretions attack the lining of the stomach. Psychologists have found evidence that this disorder can be caused by stressful experiences in both animals and humans.
• Heart disease is more common in people who are frequently hostile than among people who are relaxed and easy-going.
• Individuals with strong social support (i.e., friends and family) tend to keep their heart rates and blood pressure low during stressful situations.
• Voodoo death: Death that is apparently due to the belief that a curse has destined death; however, death may actually be the result of a massive parasympathetic response causing the heart to stop altogether.
• Serendipity: The process of stumbling upon something interesting while looking for something less interesting. Many scientific advances, such as why people die after being cursed, have been made in this way.

Stress and the Immune System

• The immune system protects the body against viruses and bacteria by producing leukocytes (white blood cells).
• B cells: Leukocytes that mature in the bone marrow and secrete antibodies.
  • Antibodies: Y-shaped proteins that attach to particular kinds of antigens.
  • Antigens: Surface proteins that are antibody-generator molecules.
• T cells: Attack intruders directly and help other T cells or B cells to multiply.
• Natural killer cells: Leukocytes that attack tumor cells and cells infected with viruses.
• During an infection, leukocytes and other cells produce small proteins called cytokines, which combat infection and communicate with the brain to inform of illness.
• Cytokines stimulate the release of prostaglandins which produce fever, sleepiness, and lack of energy. Sleep and inactivity conserve energy to fight illness.

Effects of Stress on the Immune System

• Psychoneuroimmunology deals with the way experiences alter the immune system and also examines how the immune system influences the central nervous system.
• In response to a stressful experience, the nervous system activates the immune system by increasing the production of natural killer cells, leukocytes, and cytokines, which combat infections but also trigger prostaglandins.
• Prolonged Stress Response produces symptoms similar to depression, weakens the immune system, and can harm the hippocampus, where toxins or overstimulation are more likely to damage or kill neurons.

The Role of the Enteric Nervous System

• When you experience stress, you notice signs of digestive upset, which are products of the enteric nervous system (a set of neurons that control digestion).
• The enteric system reacts to stress because of input from the brain and from the hormones released by stress.
• Variance in how you respond to stress comes from the bacteria in the digestive system.
  • Some bacteria produce irritable bowel syndrome and visceral pain.
  • Some produce chemicals that increase the risk of anxiety and depression.

Coping with Stress

• People’s responses to stress vary according to genes, social support, physical health, and previous stressful experiences.
• Methods to control stress responses include breathing routines, exercise, meditation, distraction, and addressing issues. Social support from a loved one helps to reduce stress by reducing responses in several brain areas, including the prefrontal cortex.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Psychiatric disorder that occurs in some people who have had a traumatic experience of being severely injured or threatened or seeing other people harmed or killed. Symptoms include frequent distressing recollections, nightmares, avoidance of reminders of the event, and exaggerated arousal in response to noises and other stimuli.
• Studies have revealed most PTSD victims have a smaller than average hippocampus.
• PTSD victims show lower than normal cortisol levels after the trauma.
• People with low cortisol levels may be ill-equipped to combat stress and more prone to the damaging effects of stress.

Chapter Objectives

• Discuss the role of the autonomic nervous system in emotional feelings.
• Explain why many psychologists describe emotion in terms of continuous dimensions.
• Discuss the role of emotions in moral reasoning.
• Describe what is known about the genetics of aggression.
• Evaluate the roles of testosterone, serotonin, and cortisol in aggressive behavior.
• Discuss the role of the amygdala in emotional processing.
• Describe biological aspects of anxiety disorders.
• Comment on methods of relieving anxiety.
• Define the general adaptation syndrome.
• Describe the effects of stress on the nervous system and the immune system.
• Discuss coping with stress.