Emotions

Question 1

Duchenne (1862)

Answer 1

Interested in the facial muscles involved in emotion expression
Voluntary vs involuntary smiles (involuntary include muscles we cannot voluntarily activate)

Question 2

Bard - sham rage - first to look at brain regions with emotion expression

Answer 2

Midsagittal lesions in the brain to see whether sham rage was eliminated or not
Found no sham rage was only when the hypothalamus was included in the lesion
Found evidence for importance of hypothalamus in emotion expression

Question 3

What does removing the amygdala do?

Answer 3

Seen in experimental monkeys who are typically terrified of snakes
When amygdala is removed they are no longer scared - have decreased emotional reactivity particularly decreased fear

Question 4

Connectivity of amygdala

Answer 4

Medial group - olfactory bulb and olfactory cortex
Basal lateral group - cortex, orbital and medial prefrontal cortex, anterior temporal lobe (face)
Central/anterior group - hypothalamus and brain stem

Question 5

Can you get rid of fear conditioning?

Answer 5

Yes in the medial prefrontal cortex you can unlearn the conditioning and it turns off the anygdala