Emotions and Memory

Question 1

What are the three manifestations of emotional experiences?

Answer 1

ANS (physiological, visceral), behaviors (facial expressions), subjective feelings (love, fear, hate, etc) or drives/desire basic to survival

Question 2

What are the areas of the brain associated with emotional responsivity and expression?

Answer 2

prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, insula, amygdala, (less involved regions: hippocampus, somatosensory cortex & temporal association cortices)

Question 3

What is cognitive appraisal?

Answer 3

exteroceptive evaluation of events and objects + interoceptive perception of physiological condition of body

Question 4

What are bodily symptoms?

Answer 4

physiological component of emotional experiences mediated mostly by ANS

Question 5

What are action tendencies?

Answer 5

motivational component for preparation & direction of motor responses

Question 6

What are the two components of expression?

Answer 6

facial & vocal; accompany an emotional state to communicate reaction & intention of action

Question 7

What are feelings? What are they based on?

Answer 7

subjective experience of emotional state once it has occurred; based on active interpretations of changes in physiological conditions of the body

Question 8

What is the part of the insula involved in mapping internal body states & representing emotional arousal & feelings?

Answer 8

The viscerosensory cortex

Question 9

What does being emotionally aware incorporate/involve?

Answer 9

smell, taste, visceral, internal state of body, sensory inputs related to homeostasis & well being

Question 10

What is the anterior part of the viscerosensory cortex for? The posterior part?

Answer 10

anterior= perceiving affective aspect of pain and temperature
posterior= somatosensory input

Question 11

What does the viscerosensory cortex do with info about bodily states?

Answer 11

integrates bodily states into higher-order cognitive & emotional processes= experience of emotions; uses connections w/PFC, ACC & amygdala

Question 12

What is the posterior insula for?

Answer 12

interoceptive & exteroceptive info regarding pain, temperature, touch, itch, taste, visceral changes & emotional touch

Question 13

What is the anterior insula for?

Answer 13

info from posterior integrated with homeostasis, motivation, emotional & cognitive info from ACC, PFC, amygdala & interoceptive pathways via solitary nucleus; perception of subjective interoceptive states

Question 14

What is the anterior insula for in relation to homeostasis specifically?

Answer 14

novel or unexpected stimuli; difficult perceptual tasks & maintaining homeostasis; require a change in adaptive behavior via anticipation

Question 15

Map of internal states forms basis for ________ physiological reactions (______) to emotional stimuli with respect to self (______)

Answer 15

predicting; anticipation; subjective feeling

Question 16

What two parts of the brain work together to maintain homeostasis in relation to our emotions and actions? What does each do?

Answer 16

cingulate (ACC) & insula; insula= limbic sensory cortex; ACC= processes motivations & actions generated by homeostatic emotions

Question 17

Hyperactivity of the insula leads to what?

Answer 17

different anxiety disorders & fear conditioning

Question 18

What part of the brain is involved in empathy?

Answer 18

anterior insula

Question 19

What does observing an emotionally laden action do to us?

Answer 19

generates viscero-motor outcomes which gives us a first person experience of the observed actions

Question 20

Where is the amygdala located?

Answer 20

just anterior to the hippocampus w/in the temporal lobe

Question 21

What is the amygdala involved in?

Answer 21

cognitive-emotion interactions & consolidates them into memory; involved in perception & attention to emotional valency & intensity or personal & interpersonal emotions

Question 22

What projections of what nucleus contribute to affective attention?

Answer 22

ascending & descending projects of the central nucleus

Question 23

What are the ascending projections influenced by? What part of the brain mediates this action?

Answer 23

amygdala influences info processing & memory consolidation throughout cortex; mediated via basal forebrain

Question 24

What are the efferent projections good for?

Answer 24

important role in shaping visual perception & awareness b/c project to multiple parts of visual cortex

Question 25

Descending projects come from what structure of the brain? This leads to what?

Answer 25

hippocampus & other brain stem sites | leads to mobilization of bodily resources

Question 26

What part of the brain mediates expression of innate & learned fear + anxiety?

Answer 26

the amygdala (central nucleus)

Question 27

Amygdala regulates ______ and _______ functions through various ______

Answer 27

visceral, behavioral, brain stem nuclei

Question 28

What are some visceral responses which can be mediated by the amygdala?

Answer 28

increased HR, decreased salivation, stomach ulcers, changes in respiration, vigilance, urination, defecation, startle responses, freezing

Question 29

What are mental states?

Answer 29

action dispositions

Question 30

What are actions?

Answer 30

cognitive, behavioral, physiological or behavioral responses

Question 31

The amygdala participates in mental states by?

Answer 31

being readily engaged when there is ambiguity, when gathering more info is necessary & when generating cortical arousal

Question 32

Does the amygdala respond more or less to angry faces? More or less to surprised faces?

Answer 32

Less to angry faces but more to fearful/surprised b/c they are ambiguous (don't know what has caused this look) & b/c requires attention & vigilance

Question 33

Vigilance is maintained by amygdala activation of what process?

Answer 33

activation of basal forebrain nuclei & acetyl choline to activate the (sensory) cortex; also necessary to filter out extraneous info

Question 34

Amygdala mediates __________ of _________ fear

Answer 34

acquisition, conditioned

Question 35

Amygdala consolidates cognitive levels of emotional memory directly and indirectly where?

Answer 35

into the mPFC & indirectly to wide areas of the cortex

Question 36

Where does the amygdala initially receive input from? What does it use this info to evaluate?

Answer 36

mPFC, cingulate, insula, hippocampus, sensory association & limbic cortices to evaluate social & emotional significance of sensory info

Question 37

Where is sensory info that the amygdala receives projected back to?

Answer 37

mPFC & hipposcampus & consolidated as emotional memory

Question 38

What does the hippocampus do with emotional memory & how does it do this?

Answer 38

encodes & consolidates it as long term memory over wide areas of cortex via basal forebrain cholinergic neurmodulatory system

Question 39

What does the amygdala activate during recollection of emotional memory?

Answer 39

hypothalamus & brainstem (areas that express autonomic & behavioral aspects of learned emotional responses)

Question 40

In terms of fear what are the amygdala & mPFC for? The hippocampus?

Answer 40

together amygdala & mPFC retain association of sight of feared objected; mPFC regulates amygdala's expression of emotional responses; hippocampus adds context

Question 41

How does the brain process cues and contexts?

Answer 41

separate, parallel systems for each

Question 42

What is the context processing system essential for?

Answer 42

understanding meaning of cues in context

Question 43

What does the cue processing system include?

Answer 43

amygdala, sensory cortices, posterior insula, parietal & temporal association areas

Question 44

What does the context processing system involve?

Answer 44

ventromedial prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, anterior insula & anterior cingulate cortex

Question 45

Is amygdalar emotional memory retrieval conscious or unconscious?

Answer 45

unconscious; mediate emotional conditioning of the ANS in recognition of strong facial expressions

Question 46

Does a neutral face produce ANS response? How about angry face paired with sound?

Answer 46

neutral face= no ANS response | angry+sound= conditioned ANS response

Question 47

What happens if you see an angry face followed by a neutral face in 15 msec?

Answer 47

no perception of angry face BUT does elicit ANS response!

Question 48

Where are emotional events processed? | Where are they transmitted to and to turn it into what kind of memory?

Answer 48

in sensory systems & then transmitted to medial temporal lobe for declarative memory formation about situation & to amygdala for emotional memory formation

Question 49

What happens when the sensory system processes a memory cue vs when the amygdala retrieves it?

Answer 49

memory cue processed by sensory system= retrieval of conscious memory in medial temporal lobe when retrieved in amygdala= expression of emotional responses

Question 50

When emotionally aroused are we having emotional memories or memories about emotions?

Answer 50

memories about emotions!

Question 51

How does extinction of condition fear happen?

Answer 51

vmPFC inhibition of the amygdala

Question 52

With extinction of conditioned fear is it erased or overriden?

Answer 52

overridden! emotion inhibited not forgotten

Question 53

During stress what does the amygdala activate? What does this produce?

Answer 53

stress pathways in hypothalamus & reticular formation; produces high levels of NE & DA neuromodulation of cortex & amygdala

Question 54

Does high NE & DA (in response to stress) inhibit/impair or activate/enhance PFC functions? What does this cause? What can this lead to?

Answer 54

INHIBITS or IMPAIRS= strengthens fear conditioning mediated by amygdala & can lead to anxiety

Question 55

Attention regulation switches from ________ to _______ so that the stimulus captures our attention

Answer 55

top-down control by PFC to bottom-up control by sensory cortices

Question 56

During stress does the amygdala act habitually or flexibly in relation to motor response?

Answer 56

habitually & shifts attention based on context; brain response pattern switches to rapid emotional responses

Question 57

What neurotransmitter enhances reactivity & operating characteristics of amygdala? By what receptors?

Answer 57

NE! via adrenergic receptors

Question 58

What does a vmPFC lesion cause?

Answer 58

leads to inability to plan ahead or recognize consequence of actions & inhibits emotional tendencies from the amygdala (think Phineas Gage)

Question 59

What does an anygdala lesion cause?

Answer 59

inability to link past experiences to stimuli that have important behavioral consequences; inability to recognize facial expressions of strong emotions (fear esp.); complacency w/ decrease in anxiety & fear; less aggression; visual, auditory or tactile agnosia (can't recognize objects); inappropriate sexual behavior

Question 60

What does the amygdala have to do with the idea of 'personal space'

Answer 60

amygdala controls interpretation & responses to social situations & recognition of possible threats; governs preference for personal space & becomes more active when people are too close

Question 61

What is an SM patient? | What other neurocognitive disease has a symptom of standing 'too close for comfort?'

Answer 61

have rare bilateral calcification; prefer to stand closer; can't recognize fear in peoples' faces; autistics also interact at very close distances

Question 62

What causes anxiety?

Answer 62

Greater anticipatory reactivity in insula & amygdala (insula of more importance)

Question 63

What does the insula process?

Answer 63

fearful faces, perceptual awareness of threat, aversive interoceptive processing

Question 64

Anticipation is thought to be mediated by what three parts of the brain?

Answer 64

insula, medial prefrontal cortex & anterior cingulate cortex

Question 65

People prone to anxiety show an _______ insular response to _______ in response to neutral stimulus when paired w/aversive stimulus

Answer 65

enhanced; interoceptive prediction signal