Chapter 12 - Emotion and Motivation

Question 1

What are emotions?

Answer 1

Cognitive interpretations of subjective feelings and experiences

Question 2

What’s motivated behaviour?

Answer 2

• Behaviour that seems purposeful and goal-directed

Question 3

In terms of describing motivated behaviour, is there such a thing as free will?

Answer 3

• No such thing as free will, we do what we find motivating

Question 4

What are the two major behavioural influences?

Answer 4

1) Evolution (innate) - intrinsic behaviours
2) Environment (learned) - extrinsic behaviours

Question 5

What are innate releasing mechanisms (IRMs)?

Answer 5

• They’re hypothetical mechanisms that detect specific sensory stimuli and direct an organism to take a particular action
• They’re pre-wired into the brain, but can be modified by experience

Question 6

What was B.F Skinner’s main focus of research?

Answer 6

• Researched how environmental factors can select for certain behaviours through learning (i.e., reinforcers)
• Ex. Learned taste aversion

Question 7

What does the term preparedness imply?

Answer 7

• Predisposition to respond to certain stimuli differently than to other stimuli
• The brain is pre-wired to make certain associations compared to others

Question 8

What major brain structure is highly implicated in motivating behaviours?

Answer 8

• The hypothalamus
• Involved in maintaining homeostasis, which helps regulate behaviours to help maintain this state
• Controls the pituitary gland (hormones)

Question 9

Regulatory vs. Non-regulatory behaviours?

Answer 9

• Regulatory - behaviour motivated to meet an animal’s survival needs (a homeostatic mechanism; involves hypothalamus)
• Non-regulatory - behaviour that is unnecessary to an animal’s basic survival needs (ex. reading, parenting; involve mainly the frontal lobes)

Question 10

Posterior pituitary vs. Anterior pituitary?

Answer 10

• Posterior - Secretes hormones synthesized by the hypothalamus
• Synthesizes its own hormones
  *Both are still directed by the hypothalamus

Question 11

What’s the medial forebrain bundle?

Answer 11

• Principle tract connecting the hypothalamus to both forebrain and lower brainstem
• Control many motivated behaviours including eating and sex (sex is a non-regulatory behaviour)
• Also contributes to pathological behaviours such as addiction and impulsivity
• Dopamine is the major neurotransmitter in this system

Question 12

What are the three major components of an emotion and their associated brain regions?

Answer 12

1) Autonomic response (ex. increased heart rate) - hypothalamus, ANS, ENS
2) Subjective feelings (ex. fear, love) - amygdala and parts of frontal lobes
3) Cognitions (evaluating consequences) - Cerebral cortex

Question 13

What’s at the “hub” of the limbic system?

Answer 13

• The hypothalamus as it links the nervous system to the endocrine system

Question 14

What’s the mamillary nucleus?

Answer 14

• Acts as a relay nucleus between the hippocampus between the thalamus

Question 15

What’s the major role of the amygdala?

Answer 15

• Plays a role in emotion, emotional memory, and species-specific behaviours
• Receives inputs from all sensory systems
• Sends projections primarily to the hypothalamus and brainstem
• Intimately connected to the functioning of the frontal lobes
• Fear and anxiety are perpetuated in the amygdala

Question 16

What’s Kluver-Bucy syndrome? What are some of the symptoms?

Answer 16

• Occurs when the amygdalas are removed or damaged
• Symptoms can include: tameness and loss of fear, indiscriminate dietary behaviour, increased sexual behaviour with inappropriate objects, oral fixation

Question 17

What are the major areas of the prefrontal cortex?

Answer 17

• Motor cortex (M1)
• Premotor cortex
• Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC)
• Orbitofrontal cortex (OFC)
• Ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC)
• Ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC)
  *All found anterior to the central sulcus

Question 18

T/F: Most connections in the PFC are reciprocal.

Answer 18

• TRUE

Question 19

What is the DLPFC mainly responsible for?

Answer 19

• Internally-motivated behaviour (i.e., self-motivation)
• Involved in planning, attention, and working memory
• If damaged, an individual may become overly reliant on external cues as indicators to complete tasks

Question 20

What is the OFC mainly responsible for?

Answer 20

• Context-appropriate behaviour (i.e., impulse inhibition)
• Provides conscious awareness of emotional states produced by the rest of the limbic system
• If damaged, social gaffes may start to arise

Question 21

What is the VMPFC mainly responsible for?

Answer 21

• Decision-making; role in subjective value assessment (pleasant vs. unpleasant)
• Also acts as an emotional, social, and memory hub
• If damaged, reduced empathy can arise

Question 22

What did Carlyle and Jacobsen discover when studying frontal lobotomies in chimps?

Answer 22

• Found that neurotic chimps became very relaxed

Question 23

How was Agnes affected by her transorbital leukotomy?

Answer 23

• She felt unable to feel much emotion and felt generally empty
• Unable to plan or organize anything
• Lobotomies at this time targeted the OFC

Question 24

What are the three main components of the reward system?

Answer 24

1) Learning the availability of the reward
2) Motivation and desire for the reward
3) Affective responses to the reward (liking)
*All three factors increase our contact with the rewarding stimulus

Question 25

What area was stimulated in the Olds and Milner experiment with rats?

Answer 25

• The medial forebrain
• Rats will self-administer electrical stimulation to this area as its rewarding

Question 26

What’s considered the root of the mesolimbic dopamine system?

Answer 26

• The medial forebrain bundle

Question 27

What’s the source of dopamine in the mesolimbic dopamine system?

Answer 27

• The ventral tegmentum

Question 28

Where does the mesolimbic dopamine system extend in the brain?

Answer 28

• Goes to the cerebellum, down the brainstem, to the temporal lobe, to the nucleus accumbens in the basal ganglia, and prefrontal cortex

Question 29

Is wanting conscious or subconscious?

Answer 29

• Subconscious
• Dominated by DA projections

Question 30

What regions of the brain promote the conscious feeling of liking?

Answer 30

• Generated by a smaller set of hedonic hotspots within the limbic circuit. Found in the PFC and brainstem
• The more activated hotspots = more pleasure