12.2.2 Attack And Escape Behaviours 3

Question 1

The amygdala also has axons to areas of the prefrontal cortex that control ____ and ____ responses.

Answer 1

approach and avoidance

Question 2

Additional axons from the amygdala extend to ____ areas that relay information to the pons to control the startle reflex.

Answer 2

midbrain

Question 3

The amygdala is important for learning ____ to fear.

Answer 3

what

Question 4

If you are attacked or if you have other traumatic experiences, you become ____ ____ in a wide variety of situations.

Answer 4

more fearful

Question 5

This long-term, generalised emotional arousal depends on a brain area called the bed nucleus of the ____ ____. The ____ ____ is a set of axons that connect this nucleus to the amygdala.

Answer 5

stria terminalis

Question 6

Studies using fMRI showed that the human ____ responds strongly when people look at photos that arouse fear or photos of faces showing fear. To a lesser extent it also responds to faces showing happiness or sadness.

Answer 6

amygdala

Question 7

Contrary to what we might guess, the amygdala response most strongly when a facial expression is a bit ____ or difficult to interpret.

Answer 7

ambiguous

Question 8

The amygdala responds more strongly to the expression that is hard to interpret. Presumably the arousal indicates that is ____ ____ to make sense of the stimulus.

Answer 8

working harder

Question 9

____ ____ effects much of life – even, according to one study, political attitudes.

Answer 9

Fear reactivity

Question 10

The interpretation is that people with a highly reactive amygdala are likely to perceive dangers, and therefore to support strong ____ against those dangers.

Answer 10

protection

Question 11

Is possible to study damage limited to the amygdala only in people with the rare genetic disorder ____ ____.

Answer 11

Urbach-Wiethe disease

Question 12

People with Urbach-Wiethe disease suffer skin lesions, and may also accumulate ____ in the amygdala until it wastes away.

Answer 12

calcium

Question 13

Much of the research on this condition Urbach-Wiethe disease deals with a woman knowing by her initials, SM. SM describes herself as ____, and she certainly acts that way.

Answer 13

fearless

Question 14

SM’s fearlessness is ____ to her. She’s been held up at gunpoint and knifepoint and has been physically assaulted repeatedly. Evidently she plunges into dangerous situations without the caution other people would show. When she describes these events, she remembers being angry, but not afraid.

Answer 14

dangerous

Question 15

SM and other people with Urbach-Wiethe disease often fail to recognise emotional ____ in faces, especially expressions of fear or disgust.

Answer 15

expressions

Question 16

Even when people with Urbach-Weithe disease recognise an expression as fear or disgust, they rated it ____ ____ than other people do, and they are less likely than average to remember a photo of an emotional expression if they see the same photo an hour later.

Answer 16

less intense

Question 17

Seeing the ____ is particularly important to recognise fear. People express happiness with the mouth, but fear mainly with the eyes.

Answer 17

eyes

Question 18

These observations suggest an alternative interpretation of the function of the ____. Instead of being responsible for feeling fear or other emotions, perhaps it is responsible for detecting emotional information and directing other brain areas to pay attention to it in the proper way.

Answer 18

amygdala

Question 19

Most psychological disorders include increased ____ is one of the symptoms.

Answer 19

anxiety

Question 20

In generalised anxiety disorder, phobia, and panic disorder, the only major symptom is ____ ____.

Answer 20

increased anxiety

Question 21

____ ____ is characterised by frequent periods of anxiety and occasional attacks of rapid breathing, increased heart rate, sweating, and trembling – that is, extreme arousal of the sympathetic nervous system.

Answer 21

Panic disorder

Question 22

Panic disorder is more common in women than in men and far more common in ____ and young adults than in older adults.

Answer 22

adolescents

Question 23

Curiously, panic disorder occurs in about 15% of people with ____ ____, commonly known as being “double-jointed”. Even when people joint laxity do not have panic disorder, they tend to have stronger fears that most other people do.

Answer 23

joint laxity

Question 24

Research so far links panic disorder to some abnormalities in the ____ and not necessarily the amygdala.

Answer 24

hypothalamus

Question 25

Panic disorder is associated with increased activity of the neurotransmitter GABA and increased levels of ____. ____ is associated with maintaining wakefulness and activity. Drugs that block ____ receptors block panic responses.

Answer 25

orexin