BYU PSYCH 381 NEUROBIOLOGY LESSON 14

Bard's research on sham rage led him to conclude that the

hypothalamus and adjoining structures play critical roles in the expression of aggression.

There are two immune systems: the ______ system and the adaptive immune system

innate

What are the two parts of the immune system?

innate and adaptive

The ________ nucleus of the amygdala appears to play a role in the acquisition, storage, and expression of conditioned fear

lateral

The prefrontal cortex is thought to act on the _________ of the amygdala to inhibit conditioned fear

lateral nucleus

Auditory fear conditioning to simple tones depends on a pathway from the ____ to the amygdala

medial geniculate nucleus

Fear conditioning to auditory stimulus must reach the ____, but not necessarily auditory cortex

medial geniculate nucleus

Le Doux and his colleagues found that bilateral lesions to the __________ blocked auditory fear conditioning but that bilateral lesions to the __________ did not.

medial geniculate nucleus; auditory cortex

The medial prefrontal lobes appear to be linked to _______ emotions

negative

A Duchenne smile, but not a false smile, involves appropriate contraction of the

orbicularis oculi

Disease-causing agents are known as ______

pathogens

The study of the interactions among psychological factors, the nervous system, and the immune system is called _______

psychoneuroimmunology

Pellis and colleagues found that giving cats an antianxiety drug tended to increase the efficiency of their mouse killing. These researchers concluded that this was due to

reducing the defensiveness of the cat.

The pattern of aggressive responses observed in decorticate animals is called

sham rage

When a person experiences, imagines, or sees somebody experiencing an emotion, there are ______ patterns of brain activity

similar

Aggression directed by the alpha male of a colony at a male intruder is called ____ aggression

social

Testosterone increases _______ aggression in rats

social

Gastric ulcers have been associated with H. Pylori infection, but it seems likely that _____ is another causal factor in their development

stress

Susceptibility of the stomach wall to H. pylori bacteria is increased by ________

stress

When threats from conspecifics become an enduring feature of daily life the result is _________________________

subordination stress (aka bullying)

What is fear conditioning?

when associations form between neutral stimuli and fearful events i.e. a sound and an electronic shock, the sound will become conditioned to elicit fear

What is Contextual fear conditioning?

when the environment causes fear

What is a phagocyte?

A cell that engulfs and destroys pathogens

What is a cytokine?

A group of peptide hormones, classified as a major stress hormone

What is the target-site concept of aggressive and defensive behaviors?

Aggressive/defensive behaviors are often designed around attacking a specific site on the other animal while defending a specific site on their own body

Auditory fear conditioning in rats is often used as a model for anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). From what you know about the auditory fear conditioning paradigm, would you say that this is a good approximation for anxiety disorders in humans? Why or why not?

Auditory fear conditioning involves the repeated pairing of a tone (which is usually non-threatening to rodents) with a foot shock. Given consistent tone-shock pairings, the rat will display fear behavior (in the form of freezing) in response to the tone. While humans are as capable as rats of acquiring fear conditioning (many phobias can be attributed to fear conditioning, for example), this is not typically how anxiety disorders are acquired.

What type of lymphocytes direct antibody-mediated immunity?

B-cells

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

Cognitive neuroscience

What does Kluver-Bucy syndrome manifest as?

Eat almost anything edible, increased sexual activity towards inappropriate objects, repeat investigation of familiar objects with the mouth, and lack of fear

What is Darwin's Theory of the Evolution of Emotion?

Emotion is a product of evolution Animals express emotions through behaviors that signal what they're going to do next The signals which benefit the animal will evolve to enhance their function

What is the principle of antithesis?

Emotions are often displayed through opposite messages i.e. Dog aggression is body up, hair up. Dog submission is body down, ears down.

Cannon-Bard theory of emotion

Experiencing an emotional stimulus simultaneously triggers a physiological response and the feeling of emotion in the brain i.e. See bear -> heart starts racing and feel fear simultaneously

What does the innate immune system do?

First part of immune system to act Causes inflammation by releasing cytokines and other chemicals from damaged cells Attracts phagocytes

What is the facial feedback hypothesis?

Forming a facial expression elicits the corresponding emotion

Corticosterone is a _______

Glucocorticoid

Who is Phineas Gage?

Had a metal rod go through his skull in a blasting accident. Changed his personality from pleasant and responsible to unreliable and irreverent, but otherwise survived the incident.

What are some of the main structures of the limbic system?

Hypothalamus, amygdala, mammillary body, hippocampus, septum, cortex of the cingulate gyrus, fornix, olfactory bulb

How do short term stressors affect the immune system?

Improve immune function in the innate immune system

What does the limbic system do?

Influences emotions

The theory that the subjective experience of emotion is triggered by ANS responses is called the _____ theory

James-Lange

Does stress affect susceptibility to infectious disease?

Likely yes, but not proven. Correlational studies have shown stress may lead to higher susceptibility

What type of cells are mainly found in the adaptive immune system?

Lymphocytes

Are epinephrine and norepinephrine glucocorticoids?

No, they are hormones released from the adrenal medulla

Are the James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories of emotion accurate?

No, they are too extreme. The modern biopsychological view is the accepted theory

What does the Sympathetic Nervous System Adrenal-Medulla system release?

Norepinephrine and epinephrine

What is the modern biopsychological view of emotion?

Perceiving an emotional stimulus, feeling the emotion, and having a physiological reaction are all related and interact with each other

What do glucocorticoids do?

Produce many of the components of the stress response

There is virtually always activity in ______ and ______ cortices when a person experiences an emotion or empathizes with a person experiencing an emotion

Sensory and motor

What does the adaptive immune system do?

Slower, but focused reaction against pathogens Can remember specific pathogens and react more effectively against them in the future (create antibodies)

What type of lymphocytes direct cell-mediated immunity?

T-cells

According to the facial feedback hypothesis, our facial expressions influence our emotional experiences. Which theory of emotional processing might this support?

The James-Lange theory

The James-Lange theory makes the counter-intuitive claim that the cognitive aspects of emotion are generated in response to the body's physiological responses to emotional stimuli. What phenomena are meant to be explained by this theory? What problems are there with this theory?

The James-Lange theory is meant to explain the phenomenon that we often have a physiological response before we have a cognitive response to emotional stimuli. One major problem with this theory is that the range of physiological responses to emotional stimuli is quite limited (e.g., racing heart and sweaty palms) when compared to the range of cognitive emotions that we might experience

James-Lange theory of emotion

The perception of an emotional stimulus triggers a physiological response, which then creates the feeling of emotion in the brain i.e. See bear -> heart starts racing, begin to flee -> feel fear

What does the release of ACTH trigger?

The release of glucocorticoids from the adrenal cortex

What is the two-system view of stress response?

The roles of both the Anterior-Pituitary Adrenal-Cortex System and the Sympathetic-Nervous-System Adrenal-Medulla System on stress

What are some problems with human research on aggression and testosterone levels?

They typically measure blood levels of testosterone instead of brain levels The research fails to appropriately differentiate between social aggression and defensive attacks

In the short-term, stress is ___. In the long term, it is _____

adaptive maladaptive

Glucocorticoids are released from the ______ as part of the stress response

adrenal cortex

Stress causes the activation of what in the anterior pituitary?

adrenal cortex - glucocorticoids

Stressors increase the release of epinephrine and norepinephrine from the ____________________

adrenal medulla

Stress causes the activation of what in the sympathetic nervous system?

adrenal medulla - norepinephrine and epinephrine

What is ACTH?

adrenocorticotropic hormone

Correlations between aggressive behavior and testosterone levels do not necessarily mean that high testosterone levels cause aggressive behavior because

aggressive encounters often cause increases in testosterone levels

High levels of fear are correlated with high ___ activation

amygdala

The structure in which the emotional significance of sensory signals is learned and retained is believed to be

amygdala

Kluver-Bucy syndrome appears to result, to a large degree, from bilateral damage to the

amygdala.

Where is ACTH released from?

anterior pituitary gland

T cells and B cells are involved in cell-mediated and _____ immune reactions, respectively

antibody-mediated

According to the Cannon-Bard theory, emotional experience and emotional expression

are independently triggered by the same emotional stimuli

Unlike auditory fear-conditioning to simple tones, fear conditioning to complex sounds involves the _____________________

auditory cortex

Lymphocytes participate in two immune reactions: _____ and antibody-mediated

cell-mediated

in the typical auditory fear-conditioning experiment, the ______ is a tone

conditional stimulus

The establishing of a fear response to a previously neutral stimulus, such as a tone, is accomplished by fear

conditioning

Stressors trigger the release of ____ which participate in the body's inflammatory responses

cytokines

In humans, most violent outbursts that are labeled as aggression are more appropriately viewed as _______ attacks

defensive

Brain activity associated with emotions is _____, there is not a center for each emotion

diffuse (aka mosaic)

According to the James-Lange theory, the

experience of emotion is produced by the brain's perception of the body's reactions to emotional stimuli.

the usual target site of rat defensive attacks is the ____ of the attacking rat

face

The amygdala may have a specific role in _____

fear

Lesions of amygdala blocks ____

fear conditioning

Rat pups groomed intensely by their mothers display decreased ____ release from the adrenal cortex in response to stressors in adulthood

glucocorticoid

Short-term cytokine-induced inflammatory responses ________ the body when fighting infection

help

Between the amygdala and the fornix in the limbic system is the ____

hippocampus

In laboratory animals, stress has been shown to reduce adult neurogenesis in the ______

hippocampus

Lesions to which of the following structures specifically block the conditioning of fear to a context/environment?

hippocampus

What area of the brain is linked to contextual fear conditioning?

hippocampus