7 - cognitive neuroscience: emotions and memory Flashcards

1
Q

what is emotion?

A
  • a mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes
  • a complex state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behaviour
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
2
Q

why do we have emotions?

A
  • keep us safe
  • important for learning adaptive behaviour
  • communication device
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
3
Q

what are the 5 components of an emotional system? which are only in more developed animals?

A
  • expression changes
  • physiological arousal
  • behaviour

and in more developed animals:
- subjective affect (can put a label on what we feel)
- cognitive appraisal (eg. how did i get into this situation, was the fear appropriate)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
4
Q

what 5 areas of the brain are important in emotions?

A
  • ventromedial frontal lobe
  • amygdala
  • visual cortex
  • thalamus
  • cingulate gyrus
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
5
Q

lesions where in the brain do not abolish fear conditioning?

A

in cerebrum

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
6
Q

lesions where in the brain abolish fear conditioning completely?

A

from the amygdala down

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
7
Q

describe the auditory pathway

A
  • auditory nerve
  • cochlear nucleus
  • lateral lemniscus
  • inferior colliculus
  • medial geniculate nucleus
  • auditory cortex
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
8
Q

what is the most important area for fear conditioning?

A

central nucleus of the amygdala

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
9
Q

where does the central nucleus of the amygdala project?

A

projects to hypothalamus, midbrain, pons and medulla

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
10
Q

what are the effects of bilateral amygdala lesions in animals?

A

Kluver-Bucy syndrome :

  • no fear
  • inappropriate approach behaviour
  • excess curiosity
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
11
Q

what are the effects of bilateral amygdala lesions in humans?

A

bilateral amygdala lesions are RARE

  • curiosity overcoming fear
  • impaired recognition of emotional expressions
  • impaired recognition of fear from movie stills

effects generalise to other emotions, partially negative emotions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
12
Q

what region of brain is involved in guilt?

A

ventromedial prefrontal regions

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
13
Q

what region of brain is involved in empathy?

A

median frontal cortex

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
14
Q

what can cause emotional impairments?

A
  • focal brain damage (relatively rare)
  • developmental disorders (eg. autism)
  • psychiatry : enhanced response to fear in anxiety, enhanced response to -ve emotions in depression, lack of sympathetic/empathetic responses in personality disorder, emotional dysregualtin in bipolar disorder/ psychosis
  • dementia (eg. fronto-temporal dementia)
  • other neurological disorders (pathophysiology and/or medication)
How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
15
Q

what can emotional implications be due to?

A

in progressive neurodegenerative disorders, can be:
- psychological consequence of long term condition
- direct effect of pathology (eg. degeneration of DA system in PD)
- effect of psychoactive medication (eg. drugs that target monoamines will influence emotion)

How well did you know this?
1
Not at all
2
3
4
5
Perfectly
16
Q

what is selegiline?

A

an MAO-I antidepressant

17
Q

what are the different types of memory?

A
  • short-term
  • long-term
  • autobiographical
  • semantic (general knowledge)
  • sensory
  • spatial
  • procedural
    etc
18
Q

what are the different component processes of memory?

A

encoding, storage, retrieval

19
Q

describe the taxonomy of memory

A
20
Q

describe STM

A
  • memory for “nonsense syllables”
  • memory for number strings
    - digit span (remembering phone numbers)
    - 7 (+/- 2)
21
Q

primacy effect vs recency effect

A
  • only see recency effect if recall is tested straight away
  • primary effect - LTM
  • after a delay, maintain primacy effect but lose recency effect
22
Q

describe a short term memory impairment due to a left occipito-parietal lesion

A
  • digit span of 2
  • no recency effect in free recall
  • normal learning
  • no amnesia
23
Q

describe a long term memory impairment due to a medial temporal lobectomy (patient HM)

A
  • damage to hippocampus and surrounding cortex
  • personality and IQ intact
  • massive anterograde amnesia = couldn’t form new memories
  • moderate retrograde amnesia = for memories 1-3 years pre-op
  • normal digit span
  • could not learn new facts
  • could acquire new skills, but in absence of explicit memory of learning them
24
Q

what type of memory did HM still acquire?

A

long term implicit

25
Q

what type of memory is the hippocampus important for?

A

declarative memory
- episodic memory
- semantic memory

26
Q

what type of memory is the prefrontal cortex important for?

A

working memory

27
Q

what type of memory is the striatum important for?

A

procedural memory

28
Q

what type of memory is the cerebral cortex important for?

A
  • perceptual memory
  • semantic memory
  • priming
29
Q

what type of memory is the amygdala important for?

A

emotional memory

30
Q

what type of memory is the cerebellum important for?

A

conditioned timing

31
Q

what can cause memory impairment?

A
  • amnesia due to brain damage/injury
  • alzheimer’s disease
  • other dementias
  • progressive neurological conditions eg. PDs
  • psychiatric problems
32
Q

which of the following is likely to be true about patient with a specific acquired deficit in STM?

  • cannot recall facts
  • cannot remember childhood events
  • cannot learn new skills
  • impaired digit span
  • normal recency effect
A

impaired digit span

33
Q

which of the following is likely to be true about a patient with a specific acquired deficit in LTM?

  • cannot remember childhood events
  • no recency effect
  • impaired digit span
  • cannot learn new skills
  • cannot learn new facts
A

cannot learn new facts