Psych 465 Chapter 15

What is observational fear learning?

Observational fear learning: fear of potentially harmful stimuli is learned through social transmission.

What type of correlation is there between serotonin and aggression?

There is a negative correlation between serotonin and aggression: • The most aggressive monkeys in a free ranging colony had the lowest levels of serotonin. • Mice lacking a serotonin receptor are hyperaggressive.

What is two photon excitation microscopy?

Two-photon excitation microscopy: lasers shine infrared light into living tissue; when two infrared photons hit a fluorescent molecule at the same time, it emits a photon that we can see. Changes in the brain underlying fear conditioning can be visualized. In fear-conditioned mice, dendritic spines of cortical neurons had been reduced.

What is folk wisdom?

autonomic responses (like stomach churning) are caused by emotions.

What is emotional dyscontrol syndrome?

behavior disorder that may be the result of temporal lobe disorders.

What does Bell's palsy cause?

caused by a virus, can cause partial facial paralysis.

What is Klüver-Bucy syndrome:?

characterized by reduction of fear and anxiety, oral tendencies, hypersexuality; results from bilateral removal of large portions of temporal lobe. Further studies identified the amygdala as a key structure in the mediation of fear. Interconnections within the amygdala are important for fear associations.

What happens in a polygraph test? Which is a better method?

in a polygraph test, multiple physiological measures are recorded. The test is based on the assumption that lying produces emotional and physiological responses. But these responses can be similar to those of a simply anxious person. Brain imaging may provide newer methods of lie detection.

What was the results from the experiment with mice exposed to tones and foot shock?

increased elimination of dendritic spines was not seen in mice exposed to the tone alone, or to footshock alone, or to unpaired tone and footshock. Only the pairing of the tone followed by footshock resulted in more spines being eliminated. Mice with greatest fear response had the most dendritic spine elimination.

What is an alarm reaction?

initial response to stress. "Fight or flight" system: hypothalamus activates the sympathetic nervous system which stimulates the adrenal medulla to release epinephrine and norepinephrine. These hormones increase heart rate and breathing; prepare body for action.

What is stress?

is any circumstance that upsets homeostatic balance.

What is epigenetic regulation?

maternal deprivation exerts this negative effect on adult stress responses by causing long-lasting changes in the expression of genes for adrenal steroid receptors in the brain. This has also been found in humans, e.g., suicide victims that were abused or neglected as children.

What are emotional reactions?

the behaviors caused by an emotion state ('the expression of emotions

What does the hypothalamus stimulate that releases adrenal steroids? How do these hormones act?

the hypothalamus also stimulates the anterior pituitary to release a hormone that causes the adrenal cortex to release adrenal steroids such as cortisol. These hormones act more slowly but also prepare the body for action by releasing stores of energy. Hormonal responses to stress were studied in military recruits learning to parachute.

What was the finding of a study using an fMRI in African American and Caucasian American individuals?

verbal encoding of African American targets produced significantly less amygdala activity than perceptual encoding of African American targets recent studies have also shown that the amygdala is associated with race-related processing and that the amount of amygdala activity correlates with race-related prejudice.

What is conscious experience?

C: the experience of the emotion'

What is the Cannon-Bard theory?

Cannon-Bard theory: emotions precede physiological responses and help deal with a changing environment. The cerebral cortex decides on the emotional response and also activates the sympathetic response.

What is the adrenal steroid hormones role during stress?

Adrenal steroid hormones released during stress directly suppress the immune system. This acts as a short-term defense mechanism, allowing for resources to be used elsewhere (e.g., escaping a predator). Long-term stress is detrimental to immune function.

What is intermale aggression? What are males more likely to do?

Aggression has different meanings; the primary focus here is physical aggression and violence between individuals. Intermale aggression: aggression between males of the same species. Human males are more likely than females to commit murder; aggressive behavior between boys, but not girls, in early childhood; suggests testosterone plays a

What was the results of the study regarding repeated aggressive episodes at regular intervals?

Aggressive confrontations were scheduled regularly at lights-off (12:00 hours) every day for 10 consecutive days (n = 7). On day 11 microdialysis was performed in the absence of any social confrontation. Heart rate rose 1 h before the regularly scheduled encounter relative to control rats. Concurrently, DA levels increased by 60-70% over baseline levels and 5-HT levels decreased by 30-35% compared to baseline levels.

What are the three components of an emotional response?

An emotional response consists of 3 components: behavioral, autonomic, and hormonal.

What are androgens role in aggression?

Androgens seem to increase aggression in other species; decreasing circulating androgens by castration usually reduces intermale aggressive behavior. But the correlation in humans is less clear. Two confounding variables affect testosterone levels: experience and dominance.

How are GABA and glutamate receptors related to aggression? What controls aggression? What acts as a tigger for aggression?

Balance between GABA (inhibitory) and glutamate (excitatory) appears to be important in aggressive responses. A drug that enhances GABA transmission reduces aggressive behavior. Vasopressin, oxytocin, and endogenous opioids control aggression. The ventromedial hypothalamus in mice appears to act as a trigger for aggression.

What do different emotions activate? What does brain areas show about love?

Different emotions activate different brain regions. Brain imaging studies show a unique network of brain areas is responsible for the emotion of love. Brain activation during sadness, happiness, fear, and anger show involvement of several brain regions. The same brain region may participate in different emotions. Physiological responses preceded the awareness of feeling an emotion. These studies confirm there is no simple, one-to-one relation between a specific emotion and activity of a brain region.

What mechanisms play a role in PTSD? What happens to people with bilateral brain damage to their amygdalas?

Neural mechanisms of fear conditioning are thought to play a role in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). People with bilateral damage to their amygdalas show little to no fear in response to external threats. But they do feel fear in response to epinephrine and hypoxia. The brain must rely on other systems for internal threats.

What is the autonomic component of an emotional response?

Autonomic responses facilitate the behaviors and provide quick mobilization of energy for vigorous movement (e.g. heart rate).

What is decorticate rage?

Brain lesions affect emotions. a sudden intense rage in dogs with their cortex removed, suggesting that the cortex inhibits rage.

What eight different expressions does Ekman suggest?

Ekman says there are 8 distinctive expressions: anger, sadness, happiness, fear, disgust, surprise, contempt, and embarrassment. These different emotions can be detected in facial expressions that are similar across cultures.

What is Brain self-stimulation?

Electrical stimultion of the brain can be used to study the neuroanatomy of emotion. Brain self-stimulation: animals perform a task to receive electrical stimulation to their brain—also works in humans. Brain sites that respond to self-stimulation have been mapped.

What do emotional states activate?

Emotional states often activate the autonomic nervous system: Sympathetic nervous system—"fight or flight" system; activates the body for action. Parasympathetic nervous system—prepares the body to relax and recuperate.

What changes are emotions associated with?

Emotions are associated with bilateral changes in insula, amygdala, caudate, putamen, cingulate cortex and prefrontal cortex activity.

What have evolutionary psychology studies shown?

Evolutionary psychology studies how natural selection has shaped behavior. Cooperating with a group, choosing a mate, avoiding predators, finding food, may have required emotional adaptation. Emotions can be seen as evolved preprogramming that helped us deal quickly and effectively with a wide variety of situations.

What is functional emotion state?

F: the emotion state Emotions are functional states, implemented in the activity of neural systems, that regulate complex behaviors. Emotion states, together with many other mental state attributions, provide causal explanations of behavior (functional). A functionally defined term is defined by what it does rather than by how it is constituted. The sets of stimuli and behaviors that specify an emotion's functional role are highly context-dependent, and no single behavior is typically diagnostic. • weeping adult may be weeping from sadness, or anger, or some combination of these emotion states.

Are facial expressions universal?

Facial expressions are not completely universal; researchers have found isolated groups whose identifications of emotions from facial expressions did not fully agree with those of Westerners. The extent of cultural influence is under debate. A major role of facial expression is paralinguistic—an accessory to verbal communication.

What is the facial feedback hypothesis?

Facial feedback hypothesis: sensory feedback from our facial expressions can affect our mood, e.g., forcing a smile can make you feel happier. Medical conditions can impair facial expression, such as Parkinson's disease and schizophrenia.

What is fear conditioning?

Fear-associated behaviors are similar in many different species. 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. Fear conditioning studies allowed researchers to develop a map of the neural circuitry of emotional learning.

What is the hormonal component of an emotional response?

Hormonal responses reinforce the behavioral and autonomic responses.

Where have hormonal responses to stress been indicated? How does this relate to childhood experiences later in life?

Hormonal responses to stress have also been shown in social situations such as riding commuter trains, and taking exams. Sustained stress can have lasting effects. Adverse childhood experiences effect health in later life, including neural and cognitive development, emotional regulation, and measures of lifetime achievement.

What is the stress immunization hypothesis? What experiment is associated with it?

Individuals differ in their response to stress. One hypothesis: stress immunization: Mild stress early in life makes one more capable of handling stress later in life. In experiments with rats, pups handled briefly had less response to adult stresses than pups that were handled a lot. But the pups benefited because their mothers comforted them after the stress. Rat pups separated for long periods and received little maternal attention exhibited increased stress response as adults, had trouble learning mazes, and had reduced neurogenesis in the hippocampus.

What is the James Lange Theory?

James-Lange theory: the emotions we feel are caused by bodily changes; emotions differ due to different physiological responses. But there is no distinctive autonomic pattern for each emotion.

How can fears be extinguish?

Learned fears are slow to extinguish. During extinction training, activity in the prefrontal cortex, which projects to the amygdala, is necessary. Mice missing one type of cannabinoid receptors have a harder time extinguishing fear responses, suggesting cannabinoid signaling is important for fear extinction.

What are the links between string emotions and heart attacks?

Links between strong emotions and heart attacks: People who display hostility (angry, mistrustful, antagonistic behavior) are more likely to suffer heart disease. Other risk factors for dying of heart disease include poor sleep, depression, stressful jobs and/or relationships, social isolation, and lack of life purpose.

What people are low levels of serotonin generally found in? What inhibits aggression?

Low serotonin levels are found in humans in alcohol-induced violence, excessive military violence and in children with poor impulse control. Increased activity of serotonergic synapses inhibits aggression. Prozac (fluoxetine), a serotonin agonist, decreases irritability and aggressiveness, as measured by a psychological test. Destruction of serotonergic axons in the forebrain facilitates aggressive attack.

What is mindfulness based stress reduction?

Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) is a therapy inspired by meditation that has been shown to • Reduce activity in the amygdala • Prevent relapses of anxiety disorder or depression

What are the white blood cells?

Phagocytes engulf and destroy microbes. B lymphocytes (B cells) produce antibodies against foreign molecules. T lymphocytes (T cells), some act as killer cells, attacking microbes. Helper T cells secrete cytokines, proteins that induce cell proliferation in the immune system.

What eight basic emotions does Plutchik suggest?

Plutchik suggests eight basic emotions, in four pairs of opposites: • Joy/sadness • Affection/disgust • Anger/fear •Expectation/surprise But researchers do not yet agree about the number of basic emotions. One clue may come from the number of facial expressions we have.

What are psychopaths?

Psychopaths are intelligent people with superficial charm who have poor self control, a grandiose sense of self-worth, and little or no feeling of remorse. Most lead normal lives but some commit very violent acts. Psychopaths don't react as negatively to words about violence as controls do, and show blunted responses to aversive cues associated with fear conditioning. Imaging studies suggest that psychopaths have reduced size and activity of the prefrontal cortex, which may impair their ability to control impulsive behavior.

What does psychosomatic medicine explore? What is health psychology study?

Psychosomatic medicine explores the role of psychological, behavioral, and social factors in disease. Health psychology (or behavioral medicine) studies psychological influences on health and illness. Several factors interact to affect human health and disease.

How does the right hemisphere process emotion?

Reacts more quickly and more accurately • Is better at discriminating facial expressions in others • Is dominant in expressing emotions

What is the cognitive attribution model?

Schachter's cognitive attribution model: emotional labels (e.g., anger, fear, joy) are attributed to relatively nonspecific feelings of physiological arousal. Which emotion we experience depends on cognitive systems that assess the context. But there is evidence that patterns of autonomic activity differ between some emotions.

Where does sensory information from the thalamus go? What is the "high road"?

Sensory information from the thalamus that goes directly to the amygdala bypasses conscious processing and allows for immediate emotional reactions (the low road). High road: information is routed through the cortex, allowing concious processing.

What is the papez circuit?

The Papez circuit—interconnected brain regions within the limbic system; damaged in some patients with emotional changes.

How is the amygdala related to fear? What else is it used for?

The amygdala is a key structure in the mediation of fear; lesions abolish fear It is also crucial for appetitive learning: positive reactions to attractive stimuli. The amygdala is thought to help form associations between emotional responses and specific memories of stimuli that are stored elsewhere in the brain.

What is the behavioral component of an emotional response?

The behavioral component consists of muscular movements that are appropriate to the situation that elicits them (e.g. freezing).

How does the brain and immune system work together?

The brain affects the immune system through autonomic nerves and monitors immune reactions. The immune system acts as a sensory receptor system, informing the brain. The brain and immune system also interact with the endocrine system.

When is the immune system compromised?

The immune system is compromised during depression. Stress can produce a decline in the number of immune cells and in levels of cytokines. The perception of stress can decrease the number of antibodies produced to fight illness, e.g., if a student perceives an academic program to be stressful.

How is the nucleus accumbens related to the medial forebrain bundle?

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.

How do the right and left hemispheres differ in processing of emotions?

The two cerebral hemispheres differ in emotional tone. Damage to the left hemisphere produces depressive symptoms. Patients with damage to the right hemisphere are very cheerful. Depression has been found to relate to resting frontal asymmetric activity, with depressed individuals showing relatively less left than right frontal brain activity. Left: positive, happy Right: negative (anxiety)

What is emotion?

a subjective mental state usually accompanied by distinctive behaviors and involuntary physiological changes.

What is emotional perception?

our ability to attribute emotions to others and to animals ('attribution of emotion';

What is conceptualizing emotion?

our ability to think and talk about emotion

What is the individual response stereotype?

people differ in emotional reactivity and physiological responses to emotional situations; evident even in infants. Response patterns are remarkably consistent throughout life. Infants with exceptionally strong reactions to stimuli ("high reactives") were more likely to have increased phobias or fear responses later in life.

What is the medial forebrain bundle?

ract that rises from the midbrain through the hypothalamus—contains many sites for self-stimulation.

What does psychoneuroimmunology study? What is the relationship between people with happy social lives and social support?

studies interactions of the immune, endocrine, and nervous systems. People who have happy social lives and social support—such as hugs—are less likely to develop a cold, even when exposed to a virus.