Folk Psychology
Feeling triggers autonomic reaction
Process:
Perception/Stimulus (e.g., Bang!)
Interpretation (e.g., danger)
James-Lange Theory
The autonomic reaction triggers the feeling
Process:
Specific pattern of autonomic arousal (e.g., heart races) leads to experienced emotion (e.g., fear)
Cannon-Bard Theory
Simultaneous feeling and autonomic reaction
Process:
Stimulus (Bang!) perceived as danger, resulting in
Concurrent arousal of autonomic reaction and experienced emotion (e.g., fear)
Schachter & Singer Theory
Cognitive attribution of emotion to arousal
Process:
Stimulus (Bang!) perceived as danger leads to
General autonomic arousal (e.g., heart races)
Followed by cognitive appraisal of context
Attribution of specific emotion (e.g., fear) responsible for arousal
Joseph LeDoux: Everybody knows what emotion is until asked to define it.
The Free Dictionary: Mental state arising spontaneously with physiological changes.
Oxford Dictionary: Instinctive or intuitive feeling, distinct from reasoning.
Merriam-Webster: Strong feeling directed toward a specific object with physiological and behavioral changes.
Kalat’s Biological Psychology: Emotions comprise cognitions, actions, and feelings.
Automatic responses to loud noises or sudden stimuli (e.g., puff of air to the eye).
Occurs within 5-10 milliseconds, varying with emotional state:
Increased in anxious state.
Decreased in relaxed or positive state.
Reflexive Pathway:
Sensory receptors → Pons.
Automatic Pathway:
Sensory receptors → Thalamus → Amygdala.
Conscious Pathway:
Sensory receptors → Thalamus → Visual Cortex → Amygdala.
While they are all based on similar definitions, positive and negative emotions differ significantly.
Benefits: Motivational, goal-oriented.
Too much leads to:
Impulsivity, reward-orienting, as if wearing horse-blinders, manic behaviour
Too little leads to:
Apathy, lack of motivation
Benefits: Protective against danger and harm.
Too much leads to:
Anxiety/depressive disorders, chronic stress
Too little leads to:
Poor choices, antisocial behavior, repeated mistakes
Stress: Reaction to harm or threat.
Stressors: Stimuli causing stress.
Chronic Psychological Stress: Linked to health problems.
Short-term stress can be adaptive; long-term stress is maladaptive.
Hippocampus has many glucocorticoid receptors
Following stress:
Dendrites of pyramidal cells are shorter and less branches
Adult neurogenesis of granule cells are reduced
Effects blocked with adrenalectomy; produced with corticosteroids
Immune Function: Protects against foreign agents and bacteria
Pain: To protect against immediate external agents
Anxiety: To protect against non-immediate external agents
Acute stress can enhance immune function, whereas chronic stress impairs it
Stress triggers stress hormone:
Anterior-pituitary-adrenal-cortex system
Glucocorticoids, epinephrine, norepinephrine
Cytokines
Causing inflammation and fever)
Examples:
Rats receiving tail shocks show fever and increased white blood cell counts, indicating stress affects immune response.
Lecture 11b: Introduction to Affective Neuroscience
Folk Psychology
Feeling triggers autonomic reaction
Process:
Perception/Stimulus (e.g., Bang!)
Interpretation (e.g., danger)
James-Lange Theory
The autonomic reaction triggers the feeling
Process:
Specific pattern of autonomic arousal (e.g., heart races) leads to experienced emotion (e.g., fear)
Cannon-Bard Theory
Simultaneous feeling and autonomic reaction
Process:
Stimulus (Bang!) perceived as danger, resulting in
Concurrent arousal of autonomic reaction and experienced emotion (e.g., fear)
Schachter & Singer Theory
Cognitive attribution of emotion to arousal
Process:
Stimulus (Bang!) perceived as danger leads to
General autonomic arousal (e.g., heart races)
Followed by cognitive appraisal of context
Attribution of specific emotion (e.g., fear) responsible for arousal
Joseph LeDoux: Everybody knows what emotion is until asked to define it.
The Free Dictionary: Mental state arising spontaneously with physiological changes.
Oxford Dictionary: Instinctive or intuitive feeling, distinct from reasoning.
Merriam-Webster: Strong feeling directed toward a specific object with physiological and behavioral changes.
Kalat’s Biological Psychology: Emotions comprise cognitions, actions, and feelings.
Automatic responses to loud noises or sudden stimuli (e.g., puff of air to the eye).
Occurs within 5-10 milliseconds, varying with emotional state:
Increased in anxious state.
Decreased in relaxed or positive state.
Reflexive Pathway:
Sensory receptors → Pons.
Automatic Pathway:
Sensory receptors → Thalamus → Amygdala.
Conscious Pathway:
Sensory receptors → Thalamus → Visual Cortex → Amygdala.
While they are all based on similar definitions, positive and negative emotions differ significantly.
Benefits: Motivational, goal-oriented.
Too much leads to:
Impulsivity, reward-orienting, as if wearing horse-blinders, manic behaviour
Too little leads to:
Apathy, lack of motivation
Benefits: Protective against danger and harm.
Too much leads to:
Anxiety/depressive disorders, chronic stress
Too little leads to:
Poor choices, antisocial behavior, repeated mistakes
Stress: Reaction to harm or threat.
Stressors: Stimuli causing stress.
Chronic Psychological Stress: Linked to health problems.
Short-term stress can be adaptive; long-term stress is maladaptive.
Hippocampus has many glucocorticoid receptors
Following stress:
Dendrites of pyramidal cells are shorter and less branches
Adult neurogenesis of granule cells are reduced
Effects blocked with adrenalectomy; produced with corticosteroids
Immune Function: Protects against foreign agents and bacteria
Pain: To protect against immediate external agents
Anxiety: To protect against non-immediate external agents
Acute stress can enhance immune function, whereas chronic stress impairs it
Stress triggers stress hormone:
Anterior-pituitary-adrenal-cortex system
Glucocorticoids, epinephrine, norepinephrine
Cytokines
Causing inflammation and fever)
Examples:
Rats receiving tail shocks show fever and increased white blood cell counts, indicating stress affects immune response.