prep guide 5
Individuals who are criminally psychopathic have decreased frontal & PFC activity compared to controls. What link does is made between the frontal cortex & individuals incarcerated for violent crime?
A shockingly large % of people incarcerated for violent crimes have a history of concussive trauma to the frontal cortex.
Describe an instance where the amygdala will contribute most effectively to "doing the right thing".
Amygdala processes strong emotions; sending signals to the cerebral cortex, controlling conscious thought. It is important for decision-making, by triggering autonomic responses to emotional stimuli, including punishment: getting frustrated with someone who is not helping when needed, may make that person reactive.
Where work is required for a delayed reward, dopamine release looks like a continuous rise. Give examples of behaviors you think might be explained by this profile of reward for delayed gratification.
Anticipatory dopamine release peaks with the greatest of uncertainty as to whether a reward will occur. Dopamine is not just about reward anticipation; it fuels goal-directed behavior needed to gain that reward. Dopamine binds the value of a reward to the resulting work. Dopamine is about the happiness of pursuit of reward that has a decent chance of occurring. Delayed gratification: Saving money now so you can have more at a later time (knowing you will have saved). Eating less food but being skinnier & "happier" about overall appearance (knowing you will be hungry but every less calorie makes you skinnier).
What about Capitalism vs. Socialism?
C: trade & industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by state. The dopamine system is highly effective this way because we are more likely to work if we are rewarded or even for the prospect of a reward (do not have to achieve the reward). S: political & economic theory of social organization, means of production, distribution, & exchange should be owned by the community as a whole. less effective because there is less incentive of a reward
Judgment appears to be an interaction of cognition (dlPFC) & emotion (vmPFC). Would we make better decisions in the absence of the vmPFC?
Cognitive dlPFC: decider, most rational, unsentimental; most recently evolved & last to mature; hears & talks to cortical regions. Emotional vmPFC: impact of emotion on decision making. In the absence of vmPFC, we would NOT make better decisions: we would have more difficulty making decisions without having emotional connections. Understand options but not choose between them. When making social/emotional decisions, they can not decide. The more personal & emotional the scenario, the more they are unable to make the right decisions.
What is the basic function of the dopamine system?
Dopamine system functions with: Reward, pleasure, happiness are complex & their motivated pursuit stems from the role of dopamine.
In your view, how is each area important to decisions in contexts where judgment has extreme consequences (criminal justice, policing, diplomacy, economics)?
Each area is important in deciding what the right thing to do is in times of conflict & fear. The PFC is important in choosing most beneficial option for both sides, while amygdala chooses how to protect itself. Deciding whether one decision is needed to be based on morality or ethics is based on the situation. Each acting decision leads to how emotional views see it as well.
The frontal cortex mediates "executive function". What is meant by executive function?
Executive function is considering bits of info, looking for patterns, & then choosing a strategic action.
Individuals with fronto-temporal dementia (damages frontal cortex neurons exhibit behavioral disinhibition, & difficulty making decisions). Huntington's disease, & frontal lobe stroke patients often show similar symptoms. What developmental stage(s) do you think behavioral consequences of frontal lobe damage resemble?
Frontal lobe damage resembles Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt: early childhood. Children develop personal control & perform basic actions on their own & make simple decisions about what they prefer. With this they develop a sense of autonomy. Erikson believed a balance between autonomy, shame & doubt would lead to will, which is the belief that we can act with intention, within reason & limits.
Sapolsky gives examples of potty training, playing music, & sports to illustrate how the brain reduces the heavy demand of active cognitive control. What happens with these complex behaviors over time? How does he say this translates to moral willpower?
Initially demanding frontal behaviors start becoming automatic. Actions are transferred from frontal cortex to more reflexive brain regions (like the cerebellum) & this is a transition to automaticity. Regarding morality, automaticity is important. Often, neurobiology of automaticity mediates doing the hardest moral acts, while neurobiology of the frontal cortex mediates working hard on a paper about a particular subject.
Across species, which sensory modality has more access to the limbic system (& thereby the most emotional influence)?
Most access to the limbic system: Auditory channel → animals vocalize to intimidate, proclaim, seduce. Visual triggers of behavior; scent mark with pheromones.
Given this reward profile, can we say gratification is actually delayed? What does this understanding of habituation, pursuit, delay, & reward tell us about larger concepts like the American Dream, Paradise after death, Financial Bequests (you can't take it with you, right?)
No, gratification is not delayed, since dopamine is more about anticipation rather than receiving rewards. Dopamine fuels delayed gratification. Overall, all systems code for differing aspects of reward magnitude, delay, & probability with varying degrees of accuracy, all influencing whether we manage to do the harder, correct thing. larger concepts: We're always working towards it & anticipation of reaching it & feeling fulfilled is what keeps us motivated to keep chasing it. There's something greater waiting that is worth it.
Subliminal cues influence behavior unconsciously - but participants often explain behavior as if they made conscious, rational choices. What does this tell us about our access to our own feelings, motivations, & other frames of mind?
Olfactory system sends more direct projections to the limbic system than any other sensory systems: Olfaction is most closely associated with limbic; smell can evoke emotional responses in ways other sensory modalities cannot. This tells us that we are aware of threats & potential dangers (even if not dangerous) as a survival mechanism & emotional response.
If dopamine release increases during a work phase, or the signal that a work phase is about to begin, & prior to actual reward - what is happening?
Once reward contingencies are learned, dopamine is less about reward than anticipation; pleasure is in the anticipation of reward. Once reward trial begins, dopamine is released in high quantities.
Research demonstrates we have less empathy for people in pain when they are a different race. Finally, in white participants, better detection of weapons (but not cameras or books) occurs after being primed with photos of the faces of black individuals (but not white individuals). Not only do the brain systems that influence emotions respond to sensory stimuli, but they preferentially bias us toward looking for stimuli that reflect our emotional state. What way has the amygdala been found to bias our sensory information-gathering, according to Sapolsky? All of this has implications for situations where fast decisions occur, involving people of different races. What problems do you think might this exacerbate?
Other race: There is a shortcut from the thalamus directly to the amygdala (first few layers of visual cortex are unpacking a complex image while amygdala is already processing it as dangerous & reacting. Info reaches the amygdala fast but is often inaccurate. There is more activation of the (emotional) medial PFC when considering misfortune befalling a member of their own race than another race. The amygdala does not activate the same way amongst every person & thinks it knows what it is seeing. Not everyone's amygdala activates in response to an other-race face, & those exceptions are highly informative, subtle manipulations rapidly change the amygdaloid response to the face of an Other.
We learned the amygdala is central to learning fear. Which part of the frontal cortex is central to "unlearning" the same fear?
PFC mediates fear extinction. So, D1PFC would unlearn the fear response since we would not be able to emotionally tie anything to it. Controlling emotional responses with thought is a top down process: the frontal cortex calms the amygdala.
Using the frontal cortex has a high metabolic cost. As a consequence, Sapolsky says willpower (an executive function) is more than just a metaphor - self-control is what kind of resource?
Self control is a finite resource. Frontal neurons are expensive → vulnerable. consistent with this, the frontal cortex is atypically vulnerable to various neurological insults.
What specific function does the prefrontal cortex perform?
The PFC gets you to do the harder thing, choosing between conflicting options & mediates between making decisions driven by cognition & emotion.
"Doing the right thing" means different things under different conditions. Describe an instance which the PFC is the area which will contribute most to effectively doing the right thing?
The PFC would contribute most effectively to a situation where a decision is based on a moral issue. It chooses between conflicting options; often, conflict being resolved is between a decision driven by cognition & one by emotions. The PFC gets you to do the harder thing. Ex: moving elderly family into a care facility since it is no longer safe for them. Allows them to get the care they need from those available.
Research suggests that recognition for specific individuals of other races is poorer than for same-race faces. What neural structure activates strongly, & incredibly quickly when seeing an "other-race" face? (d) What is that area most responsible for? (e) If we observe the face long enough, which structure can counteract this reaction? (f) What is that structure responsible for? (g) What can this tell us about the relationship between time & reaction to a person of a race other than our own?
The amygdala: activates strongly & quickly when seeing another race. This is responsible for the emotional response to that face. The shortcut to the amygdala is where sensory info enters the brain. Most of this is funneled through the sensory station in the thalamus & then appropriate cortical regions (in this case visual or auditory cortex) for the slow process of decoding light & sound into something that can be identified. Info about it is passed to the limbic system. Threatening faces produce a distinctive change (the P200 component) in the ERP waveform in under 200 milliseconds. White subjects viewing black evoked a stronger P200 waveform than viewing someone white regardless if armed or not. A second inhibitory waveform (N200 component) appears originating from the frontal cortex making the brain stop & think "let's think about what we're seeing before we shoot".
In humans, at what age is the maturation of the frontal cortex complete?
The maturation of the frontal cortex is complete in the mid twenties.
Sapolsky describes an experiment where dopamine levels are tracked in a monkey who pushes a lever to earn raisins. What do you think the implications of this experiment are to human consumption, sexual behavior, eating, drug use, gambling.
Things must work this way due to our range of rewards. Our dopaminergic responses to rewards (rather than absolutes) are relative to reward value of alternative outcomes. In order to accommodate range of pleasure we experience, this system rescales to accommodate the range of intensity offered by particular stimuli. This response habituates with repetition. Dopamine system is bidirectional: responds with scale-free increases for unexpected good news & decreases for bad news. Following a reward, the system codes for discrepancy from expectation: get what was expected → a steady state of dopamine. More reward & or sooner than expected → big burst. If the reward is less & or later → decrease.
Name at least three of the five brain areas that comprise the dopamine system.
Ventral tegmental area (tegmentum); Nucleus accumbens (accumbens); Amygdala: emotions; Hippocampus: memory; Prefrontal cortex: rational
Sapolsky lists seven functions among the frontal cortex's expertise, name at least 4.
Working memory, executive function (organizing knowledge strategically, & initiating action based on an executive decision), gratification postponement, long-term planning, regulation of emotions, reining in impulsivity.
Can the reactions of the vmPFC (emotions) be mediated by conscious thought?
Yes, emotions can be mediated through conscious thought.
While punishing someone else releases dopamine, the release is higher during social cooperation than social punishment. What does this tell us about their relative importance?
dopamine gives insight into jealousy, resentment, & invidiousness.
Name at least two other consequences of high cognitive load.
makes performance on another frontally dependent task decline. Increased cognitive load on frontal cortex, & afterward subjects become less prosocial/helpful (less charitable, dependable, more likely to lie). Increase cognitive load with a task requiring difficult emotional regulation, & subjects cheat more on their diet afterward
