cogsci 190 lecs 11-14

Meta-analyses of 48 neuroimaging studies, the majority of which used negative reappraisal to lower negative emotions in response to negative stimuli, found that reappraisal

1) Dampened activity in the amygdala: Lateral temporal cortex (semantic and perceptual representation) & Posterior parietal cortex (sustained attention). 2)Activated the following regions: PFC, including dmPFC, dlPFC, and vlPFC( executive functions, cognitive elaboration)

A number of studies have found that CBT treatment for PTSD, as well as pharmacotherapy, is associated with

1) Increased hippocampal volume 2) Decreased amygdala activation 3) Increased dorsolateral prefrontal activation

Early PET studies found that, after course of CBT, in patients with OCD:

1) Metabolic activity of a caudate-orbital-thalamic brain circuit fell dramatically 2) Degree of alteration was associated with a positive treatment response to CBT. 3) Effect was similar to that produced by pharmacotherapy (with SSRI)

Other meta-analyses on cognitive reappraisal found that the following play important roles:

1) Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC): evaluation of emotional salience, selection of behaviors. 2)Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC): emotional state interpretation, motivated behavior. 3) Anterior insular cortex (AIC): conscious appraisal of bodily states to trigger emotion regulation processes

Research has indicated that OCD is characterized by hyperactivity in two regions:

1) Orbitofrontal: serves to identify when something is amiss. 2) Striatum, in particular, the caudate nucleus: involved in the execution of motor behavior with inputs from the orbitofrontal, as well as the amygdala. Together, these areas form what has been called the "worry circuit" and in people with OCD this circuit is buzzing with activity

Stress study: In the midst of a banking crisis and massive restructuring, bank managers were asked to watch one of two videos. What were these videos and what were the findings of the study?

1) Video that depicted stress as debilitating to performance. 2) Video that provided details on ways in which stress enhances the human brain and body, by increasing cortisol, focus of attention, etc. RESULTS: Participants who had viewed the "enhancing" video experienced a significant drop in stress levels and health problems and a significant increase in work efficiency

An earlier study found that those who suppress their emotions

1) experience and express less PE and more NE. 2) have worse interpersonal functioning. 3) report lower overall levels of well/being.

Why can't we presently do optogenetics in humans?

1) the cells need to be genetically engineered to produce opsins (highly invasive in humans). Alt: TAT-mediated protein transduction or liposome-mediated plasmid transfection may be adapted for nonviral delivery of channelrhodopsin to neurons. 2) need to implant a light fiber with an adaptor to interface with a laser (risky).

What were the findings of the mindfulness study on spider phobia

1) those who had been assigned to labeling their emotions had lower physiological reactivity to the spiders, as measured by skin conductance responses 2)within the affect labeling condition, participants who verbalized a larger number of fear and anxiety words had even fewer skin conductance responses.

What were the results of the MRI study on long-term meditators (10,000-54,000 total hours of practice) and controls during calm-abiding meditation practice?

1)Anterior and posterior attentional networks were activated, including dorsolateral prefrontal, superior frontal sulcus, intraparietal sulcus, and visual cortex. 2) Expert meditators had more activation in attention regions than novice meditators as a whole 3) However, meditators with the most hours of meditation experience (37,000+ hours) actually had less activation of attention networks than even the novices 4) The graph looked like an inverted U: activation rose as the number of hours a meditator had practiced rose, but then fell as the number of hours of practice increased beyond 25,0000 or so

fMRI study by Waugh, Zarolia, Mauss et al. sought to answer the question of whether positive or negative reappraisal is more effective. What where the conditions?

1)Decrease Negative condition (negative reappraisal) ie. "The situation is not as bad as it first seemed" and "they are back to normal now". 2) Increase Positive condition (positive reappraisal) ie. "He will be grateful that he had this experience" "Their relationship will be stronger than before".

Follow-up PET-fMRI study demonstrated that

1)OCD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and overall functioning improved robustly with treatment after just 4 weeks of CBT treatment. 2) Degree of improvement in OCD symptoms correlated with an increase in right dorsal anterior cingulate cortex activity ( dACC is involved in reappraisal and suppression of negative emotions)

Study on patients with major depression where the participants were given 15-20 sessions of CBT using behavioral activation, cognitive monitoring, and other techniques. What were the results?

1)Therapy resulted in significant clinical improvement as indicated by Hamilton Depression Rating Scale and Beck Depression Inventory. 2) PET analysis performed before and after treatment revealed decreased activation in the dorsal, ventral, and medial frontal cortex and increased activation in the hippocampus and dorsal cingulate. 3)Patients reported that they ruminated less and no longer felt emotionally dead inside

(selective attention) what were the results of the study on meditation practitioners who completed a 3 month mindfulness retreat?

1)Variability in meditation practitioners' response time fell by 20% after retreat, whereas that of controls actually increased. 2)Meditators also showed greater reduction in reaction time overall than novices though this difference did not reach significance

Cognitive reappraisal study on depression found that

1)higher cognitive/reappraisal ability was associated with lower levels of depression for participants with uncontrollable stress. 2) higher cognitive/reapprasial ability was associated with greater levels of depression for participants with controllable stress

Neuroimaging data on social anxiety disorder: Participants with social anxiety disorder were asked to identify letters behind which occasionally lurked pictures of angry faces. those who struggled most to avoid being distracted by the threatening stimuli

1)indicated more activity in dorsal anterior cingulate cortex 2) showed the most symptom improvement when treated with CBT

PET study of OCD patients found that

1)those who responded to behavioral therapy showed higher metabolism in left frontal orbital cortex before treatment 2)on the other hand, lower metabolic activity in left frontal orbital cortex was associated with better response to fluoxetine (Prozac) treatment

_____ are the underlying premise of mindfulness practice and is supported by neuropsych research

Acceptance and transformation

Jeffrey Schwartz's CBT technique for treatment of OCD has the following roots in mindfulness practice:

Attend "just to the bare facts of a perception as presented either through the five physical senses or through the mind...without reacting to them by deed, speech or by mental comment". This means learning to experience an OCD symptom without reacting emotionally, learning to realize that the feeling that something is amiss is just the manifestation of overactivity in the OCD circuit

Cognitive reappraisal of emotion

CBT technique that identifies and changes the way situitations, experiences, events, ideas, and emotions are viewed in order to change their affective impact

Cognitive reappraisal is a standard technique used in ______ and is among the most used used in ________

CBT; psychotherapy

Tugade & Fredrickson (2004) study asked participants to prepare an impromptu speech that would be evaluated by others. What were the results?

Cognitive reappraisal condition showed relatively shorter durations of cardiovascular reactivity and relatively greater experiences of PE. this was true regardless of high or low resilience.

Tugade & Fredrickson (2004) study asked participants to prepare an impromptu speech that would be evaluated by others. What were the control and experimental conditions?

Control= "threat" condition. Participants were told their performance would be evaluated and the evaluations would predict their academic and social success. Experimental= Cognitive reappraisal condition. Participants were told to try to get psyched up for the task and to think of it as a challenge to be met and overcome.

What does defensive pessimism and what are its effects in the short run and long run?

Definition: using the fear of failure to motivate themselves to succeed. Short run/ can work as a motivational strategy. Long run/ will result in burnout, low self/esteem, and unhappiness.

Advantage of meditating with eyes open

Easier to generalize meditation experience/apply meditation insights to everyday life

Advantage of meditating with eyes closed

Easier to tune out distractions and stay focused, so may be easier to go more deeply into meditation, especially for beginners

Research on cognitive reappraisal shows that:

Emotion regulation is modulated by a rich net of interconnections between all of the above regions and the amygdala, and many of those connections have been found to play a role in cognitive reappraisal

What was the pathway that was identified as a probable circuit supporting improvement in the follow-up mice optogenetic study?

Glutamatergic activity in the hippocampus-amygdala-nucleus accumbens pathway

Study on hospital cleaners: Group A viewed their work as a job, boring and meaningless. Group B viewed their work as contributing to the patient's well-being and smooth functioning of the hospital, & interacted more with nurses, patients, and visitors. What were the results of the study?

Group B was happier than group A and happier than doctors that didn't view their work as meaningful

other studies have demonstrated that patients treated with Paxil (SSRI) showed

Increased activation in prefrontal and decreased activation in hippocampal and subgenual cingulate

The frontal decreases seen with CBT are similar to those reported with a PET study on

Interpersonal Therapy (IPT)

PTSD patients were given trauma focused CBT (TF-CBT) in which participants learn how to identify dysfunctional automatic thoughts and cognitive distortions, find evidence for and against thoughts, and create alternatives. At baseline, relative to controls, MRI analysis showed that patient group had

Lower expression of glucocorticoid receptor genes(FKBP5) and smaller hippocampus

new research has emerged that aims to treat major depression by optogenetically reactivating neurons associated with positive memories. Describe this study

Male mice were exposed to a pleasurable experience (spending time with female mice). Cells in the hippocampus that encoded the memory engram were labeled using optogenetics. Researchers then induced depression-like symptoms in the mice by exposing them to chronic stress. Mice showed symptoms that mimic those of human sufferers of depression, such as giving up easily when faced with a difficult situation and failing to take pleasure in activities that are normally enjoyable.

What is OCD?

OCD is characterized by unwanted repetitive thoughts and unwanted, repetitive behaviors

What were the results of the positive & negative reappraisal fMRI study by Waugh, Zarolia, Mauss et al.

OVERALL: Participants actually reported the largest increase in positive emotion and decrease in negative emotion following positive reappraisal, when they were apparently engaging more deeply with the negative stimuli. Additional: 1) Both forms of reappraisal shortened the duration of responses in the amygdala, insula, and superior temporal gyrus and lengthened responses in prefrontal regions. 2) While negative reappraisal also decreased the intensity of amygdala activation, positive reappraisal did not. 3) In contrast, the intensity of activity in the medial prefrontal cortex—an area involved in cognitive control of emotion— increased only in the positive reappraisal condition

Describe the study on specific reappraisal strategies

Participants asked to use positive or negative reappraisal strategies and given examples of each. NE were induced using images from IAPS. After every trial, participants also rated their level of PA andNA and arousal. In addition, skin conductance was measured to assess reappraisal outcomes. Lastly, participants were asked to describe specific reappraisal tactics that they used 1) A tactic coding system based on tactics reported in previous studies was applied. 2) The effectiveness of each type of strategy was analyzed

What is the Lurid example of the agitated mind and how it causes us to be unable to sit alone with our thoughts and emotions

Participants were asked to sit in a chair, without a device or a book and without falling asleep, for 6 to 15 minutes. They were given the option to self-administer mild electric shocks rather than just sit alone with their thoughts, in fact 67% of men and 25% of women chose the shocks.

Briefly describe the positive &negative reappraisal fMRI study by Waugh, Zarolia, Mauss et al.

Participants were briefly trained in reappraisal strategy. In fMRI scanner, negative emotions were induced using images from IAPS. Reappraisal strategy was applied. After every trial, participants also rated their level of positive and negative affect and arousal

Describe the fMRI study by Lieberman, Eisenberger, Crockett et al.

Participants were shown frightening faces/faces expressing strong emotions and asked to choose a word that described the emotion on display. Controls were asked merely to identify the gender of the people in the photos. Results: labeling the fear-inducing object reduced activity in the amygdala (NE) and increased activity in parts of the prefrontal cortex (right ventrolateral and medial PFC) (involved in vigilance and discrimination) relative to controls. Overall findings: naming the emotion transformed the images from objs of fear to obj of scrutiny

Describe the study on using CBT for patients with spider phobia

Phobia was assessed using surveys and direct confrontation with spiders. fMRI was performed pre- and post-therapy. Therapy consisted of gradual exposure-based treatment to spiders using guided mastery and education for correcting misbeliefs about spiders. (additional: used female participants only as a way of minimizing variation in brain activity during reappraisal)

Describe the followup study of treating mice with major depression by optogenetically reactivating neurons associated with positive memories-

Pleasant memory was reactivated for 15 minutes, twice a day, for five days. The memories were not reactivated during the behavioral tests for depression, but the mice behaved like mice that had never been depressed and experienced an increase in neurogenesis

What were the results of the study on specific reappraisal strategies?

Positive reappraisal led to greater increases in PA and smaller decreases in skin conductance than negative reappraisal. Participants who tried to challenge the reality or authenticity of what they saw showed smaller increases in PE than participants who used other tactics, such as changing how they viewed future consequences of the situation

What did the fMRI indicate about the films depicting spiders in the study on using CBT for patients with spider phobia

Pre-treatment, compared to controls, patients had significant activation of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (may reflect attempts to self-regulate triggered fear) and the parahippocampal gyrus (might be related to an automatic reactivation of the contextual fear memory that led to the development of phobia). After successful completion of CBT, no significant activation was found in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex or the parahippocampal gyrus

Study on patients diagnosed with either major depression or PTSD

Relative to controls, CBT-treated patients had significantly increased connectivity of the amygdala with the frontoparietal network following CBT

Describe the mindfulness study on spider phobia

Researchers recruited participants who had a spider phobia and exposed them to spiders. Four experimental conditions differed in their instructions for what to do with the anxiety: 1) Label the anxiety felt about the spider. 2) Reappraisal: think differently of the spider so that it feels less threatening 3) Distract from the anxiety elicited by the spider 4) No specific instruction (control). Later (on Day 2 and Day 9), participants returned to the lab and were again exposed to spiders to test the long-term effects of their emotion manipulation.

(selective attention) describe the study on meditation practitioners who completed a 3 month mindfulness retreat

Retreatants were tested before and after the retreat. During the retreat, each person logged in more than 12 hours of meditation a day, or 1000+ hours over the 3 months. Controls were meditation novices who practiced 20 minutes per day. Method: In lab, tones of high and low pitch were played through earphones. Participants were asked to only press a button under particular conditions, such as whenever they heard a high-pitched tone or only when they hear a high-pitched tone in, say, the right ear. Participant's score was number of correct minus incorrect button presses

It is difficult to characterize the function(s) of a particular brain region because

The same brain areas are active in many different tasks and each task results in activation in several areas

Stress study: medical students asked to perform a novel surgical task

Those who scored high on Emotional Intelligence (EI) experienced greater levels of subjective stress, as well objective stress (as indicated by increasedheart rate), compared to those with lower EI. also showed better after/task recovery.

What did the study on treating mice with major depression by optogenetically reactivating neurons associated with positive memories find?

When cells in dentate gyrus of hippocampus that were previously active during the positive experience were reactivated, symptoms improved dramatically— but only for as long as the pleasant memory stayed activated

Variation of selective attention task using magnetoencephalography (MEG): Participants underwent 8 week training in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). In lab, asked to focus on either their hand or their foot. What were the results?

When participants focused on their foot, alpha waves, which reflect cortical idling, increased in the part of the somatosensory cortex devoted to feeling the sense of touch on the skin of the hand. The control group showed no such increase. Therefore: Mindfulness meditation minimized activation in regions that were not relevant to the object

Research on OCD was among the first to show that thinking about thoughts in a new way can

alter patterns of brain activity

What is behavioral activation?

another CBT technique that is considered to be one of the most effective and widely used treatments for emotion regulation ( ie. depression or stress and anxiety)

All mindfulness therapies share a common aim of cultivating an ______. The aim is in line with the psychoanalytic view that it is primarily_____

attitude of awareness of the present moment with acceptance; experiential avoidance that causes distress

Studies on female breast cancer survivors, HIV, AIDS, and heart disease show that those who survived shared the view that their lives had been altered for the

better after developing the disease. Additionally, they benefitted from: 1)Realizing what was truly important in life and reordering priorities. 2)Giving fuller expression to their feelings. 3)Developing a greater appreciation of the preciousness of life

What are some meditation positions

burmese, simple cross-legged, kneeling, and sitting in a chair

Review article concluded that participation in CBT or IPT (Interpersonal Therapy, which focuses on improving people 's current relationships) for depression is associated with

changes in brain metabolic activity in depressed individuals. These changes varied depending on the type of psychological intervention, neuroimaging methods, and length of follow-up periods.

What type of breathing can be highly effective in reducing stress and negative mind states

diaphragmatic breathing

In the follow-up mice optogenetics study, the researchers found that allowing the mice to engage in pleasurable experiences after becoming depressed ______ improve their symptoms as compared reactivating an old memory

did not

newer variants of CBT use __________ , rather than using as in traditional CBT

emotions to help guide your thoughts; thoughts to guide your emotions

Previous studies have found that depression is associated with

exaggerated activity in the medial prefrontal

fMRI study on behavioral activation therapy for patients w MDD. Patients given abt 11.5 sessions of Brief Behavioral Activation Therapy for Depression (BATD) and then asked to complete a forced-choice reaction time task (had to press a button if a bullseye target was seen embedded in alternating blocks of sad and neutral pictures as fast as possible) while in fMRI pre-and post-treatment. What were the results?

fMRI revealed that behavioral activation was associated with functional changes in structures that mediate responses to rewards (i.e., targets in study), including: Paracingulate gyrus (during reward selection), Right caudate nucleus (during reward anticipation), Paracingulate and orbital frontal gyri (during reward feedback)

Reappraisal strategy is about perceiving ____ as feedback that allows one to learn what they need to succeed and develop clarity about what they want

failure

Step One of mindfulness practice is to engage in ____ and the goal is to _____ . What are the 2 reasons

focused meditation; calmly abide

Study on preschoolers found that those that were more outgoing, socially competent, and well liked showed ______ in brain circuit that triggers stress hormones on the first dya of school and a _____ in stress hormone levels as the year went on

high activity; decline

Phaselocking is associated with

high gamma wave activity. This might be the brain signature of what the mediation practitioners report experiencing during meditation

PTSD is associated with a reduction in

hippocampal volume

Neuroimaging data on social anxiety disorder showed that the differences in brain structure and neural connectivity among different regions predicted

how well CBT reduced symptoms of those with social anxiety disorder and these estiamtes of treatment outcome were 5x more accurate than using behavioral assessment tool alone

Fluoxetine (Prozac) treatment for depression is associated with

increased activity in the frontal cortex and decreased activity in the subgenual cingulate

PTSD patients were given trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT) in which participants learn how to identify dysfunctional automatic thoughts and cognitive distortions, find evidence for and against thoughts, and create alternatives.After treatment, patients showed

increased hippocampal volume and increased FKBP5 gene expression

Cognitive reappraisal studies support its effectiveness in

increasing positive emotions and reducing negative emotions

Mindfulness gives _ into the narrative we have about ourselves

insight

Beating yourself up for a result (is/is not) an effective response

is not

Research indicates that after three years in college, defensive pessimists report

lower GPAs and more physical and psychological symptoms

New York Times article on Harvard MBA grads (about stress) 15 years after graduation

majority were unhappy, unfulfilled, had disaffected children, and billable hours in divorce court. people with financially and emotionally rewarding jobs were the ones that failed ot get jobs right after graduation and were forced for scramble for work and learn from their setbacks.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)

many different subtypes, newer ones focus on changing one's relationship with maladaptive thinking; commanlity=share focus on changing maladaptive thinking

Neuropsych research on CB aims to help ppl

minimize negative & self defeating thoughts and cultivate positive & goal consistent thoughts

Meta-analyses of 48 neuroimaging studies, the majority of which used negative reappraisal to lower negative emotions in response to negative stimuli, suggests that

negative cognitive reappraisal works by changing the meaning that we give to a particular stimulus or situation, which reduces amygdala activity, making the potentially stressful stimuli feel less salient

CBT and Paxil (SSRI) result in a net change in critical prefrontal hippocampal pathways, but hte changes were in

opposite directions.

Research studies on reappraisal of negative thoughts in general indicated that

participants' self/ratings of mood tend to correlate highly (in a negative direction) with neurophysiological measures of negative emotions, such as: Increase in activation of the amygdala & Reduction of activity in control centers in the prefrontal. Therefore: People's emotions are a good indicator of whether a particular appraisal tactic might be effective

EEG showed that the brain activity during selective attention task showed evidence of

phase locking. these effects were associated with enhanced activity in the anterior insula and greater functional connectivity between the insula and neurons in the vmPFC and the pgACC. Additional (more abt phase locking): This is a pattern of electrical activity that reflects the degree to which brain waves become entrained or synchronized to external stimuli. Only happens if the brain is not mind-wandering.

The studies on selective attention indicate that meditation training can enhance the ability of the ____ to boost signals it wants to attent to and attenuates signals it wants to ignore

prefrontal cortex

The placebo effect is considered by some to be a ______. The brain changes associated with placebos tend to____ the true drug response pattern

psychological form of treatment; directly shadow

CBT for depression: reduction in medial frontal activity may be associated with ________ and increased hippocampal activity may be associated with _____ to environmental stimuli and sensitivity to context

reduction in rumination; increased attention

EEG studies have found that using cognitive reappraisal correlates with

specific types of electrical activity changes in the brain. EXAMPLE a reduction in magnitude of late positive potential (LPP) was found in response to negative stimuli when applying emotion regulation instructions

Traditionally, at the beginning of each formal sitting session, practitioners would bring to mind "the three jewels". What are the three jewels?

spiritual teachers/guides, truth, and good company

What are the two steps to mindfulness?

step 1: calm-abiding practice. Step 2: open monitoring

What is a mudra

symbolic or ritual gesture principally performed with the hands and fingers that assist in focusing attention and energy

What do existing models agree on regarding the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive reappraisal?

that the reappraisal recruits control regions, primarily in the preforntla cortex, to modulate emotional responding in the amygdala

One study found that people whose depression improved most after behavioral activation therapy (form of CBT) had greater brain network connectivity between

the anterior insular cortex (invovled in assigning importance to events) and the middle temporal gyrus (involved in subjective experience of emotions)

relationship between happiness and attention: study in which 1000 ppl were texted at random times throughout the day. They had to answer 3 questions ( wyd rn, where is ur mind rn/ is it focused on what ur doing or is it elsewhere, how happy or unhappy are you at this very moment). What were the results?

the avg american spends 47% of waking life not paying attention to what theyre doing and they were significantly less happy when they weren't paying attention.

Review article about CBT and IPT showed consistent findings

therapy outcomes were primarily associated, during an awake state at rest, with altered functioning in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (imp in executive function, working memory, and cog flexibility) ventrolateral prefrontal regions (specifically in the right hemisphere), anterior and posterior cingulare, and the medial prefrontal regions

research seems to indicate that

there are different pathways for resolving issues related to emotional dysregulation. different types of therapy might utilize different pathways

Gallup World Poll showed that:

those who were stressed but not depressed reported being energized and satisfied with their lives. The opposite reported for those w depressed but not stressed

What are negative rituals?

time during which you refrain from doing certain things, e.g., create an Internet-free time zone each day

reappraisal may be adaptive when stressors are _____ and maladaptive when stressors ____

uncontrollable; can be controlled

followup study( or the MRI study on long-term meditators) was conducted in which researchers would pipe 2 seconds of sound into headphones every 6-10 sec, either something neutral(ie. ambient noise recorded), something pleasant ( baby cooing), or something disturbing (woman screaming). The results showed that:

upon hearing the noise, novice meditators showed a reduction in activity in attention regions and an increase in activity in regions associated with unrelated thoughts, daydreams, and emotional processing. Expert meditators showed no such increase in distraction-related regions ➜ provided strong evidence that the brain's attention systems can be trained

The particular regions and pathways activated probably _____ depending on the type of appraisal strategy used.

vary

Recently many neuroimaging studies have been published on biomarkers for treatment response and recurrence of depression using various methods, including ________. However the results have been inconsistent and this could be due to _______

volumetric MRI, fMRI, and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI); small sample size, different study designs, differences in the imaging and analysis techniques

What are the competing views on the neural mechanisms underlying cognitive reappraisal regarding?

which control regions are involved & how exactly they exert control over the amygdala (which neural pathways)

Csikszentmihalyi found that people actually have more peak experiences (moments of highest happiness and fulfillment) at ____ but say they prefer _____

work; leisure time