Emotion - Lecture 1 and 2 Flashcards
How are emotion states elicited?
by rewarding or aversive stimuli (S+ or S-) and their omission ( - ) or termination (!).
Evolutionarily why are emotions needed?
Physiological/behavioural responses to aversive and positive stimuli have fundamental survival value and, therefore, have been relatively preserved throughout evolution and are often very similar in different animals incl. Humans.
What are the advantages of the rat as a model system?
Easy to breed and keep
Well-established behavioural tests
Brain large enough to apply selective manipulations to distinct brain structures and brain anatomy very well characterised
What are the disadvantages of the rat as a model system?
Genetic manipulations (used to be) difficult (alternative: mouse)
What do fear and anxiety do?
Fear and anxiety comprise protective/defensive responses normally elicited by aversive stimuli.
What is fear?
Fear rather refers to phasic escape or avoidance responses to distinct aversive stimuli.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety rather refers to a tonic response to diffuse aversive situations and is associated with conflict and uncertainty
What are some Fear and anxiety related disorders?
generalised anxiety disorder
obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
panic disorder
Phobias
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
How is there a requirement of lateral and central amygdala in conditioned fear?
lesions of different amygdala nuclei before dear conditioning (Sham, basal, central and lateral) has effects in conditioned freezing, sham being the highest and decreasing in that order.
How do Different CE outputs mediate different conditioned fear responses in the amygdala?
lesions of lateral hypothalamus and caudal central grey before fear conditioning, Lesion effects on conditioned fear responses
How is there Fear-conditioning-related plasticity in LA neurons in the Amygdala?
LA neurons come to fire in response to a tone when the tone is paired with a foot shock
How is the Ventral hippocapmus involved in fear and anxiety?
Ventral hippocampus and conditioned freezing,
Ventral hippocampus and innate/unconditioned anxiety responses
Close interconnections with amygdala and hypothalamus.
How did Hippocampal lesions affect fear and anxiety?
Hippocampal lesions increase the time rats spent in the open arms of the elevated plus maze. What does this finding indicate? Hippocampal lesions reduce anxiety.
How is the hippocampus involved in anxiety disorders?
Similarity between effects of hippocampal lesions and anxiolytics, Decreased hippocampal benzodiazepine receptor binding in panic disorder (Area of decreased [I-123] iomazenil binding in panic disorder patients relative to controls in the left hippocampus).
What is a reward?
A reward is an object or event that elicits approach and is worked for.
associated with wanting and liking.
