Lecture 20 Flashcards
(20 cards)
How did Damasio define emotion in 1998?
A collection of responses triggered from the brain to the body and within the brain via neural and humoral routes.
What is the difference between affect and emotion in psychological science?
Affect refers to emotional mental states broadly; emotion refers to discrete, subjectively experienced states.
What are the two core dimensions of affect in the affective circumplex?
Valence (positive/negative) and arousal (intensity/activation).
What did the Phineas Gage case suggest about the brain?
Damage to the medial frontal cortex impairs emotion regulation and social behavior.
What was Cannon’s finding about the thalamus’ role in emotion?
Thalamus involvement is essential; its absence can produce exaggerated emotional responses (sham rage).
What is Kluver-Bucy syndrome and what causes it?
Syndrome caused by temporal lobectomy, characterized by emotional blunting, hyperorality, and reduced fear.
What are the three parts of the triune brain model?
- Reptilian brain (survival), 2. Paleomammalian (emotion integration), 3. Neomammalian (reasoning, regulation).
What is the limbic system and why is it debated?
Includes regions like amygdala, hippocampus, cingulate; still used but unclear how uniformly it contributes to emotion.
What are the three major theories of emotion formation?
Basic emotions, appraisal theory, and constructionism.
What are some basic emotions identified by theorists like Ekman?
Fear, anger, disgust, happiness, surprise, sadness.
How is reward processing temporally and functionally divided?
Temporal: anticipatory vs. consummatory; Functional: wanting, liking, and learning.
Which brain regions are associated with positive affect and reward?
Ventral mPFC, ventral striatum, including nucleus accumbens.
What distinguishes wanting, liking, and learning in the brain?
Wanting = motivational drive, liking = hedonic pleasure, learning = prediction; tied to different neural systems.
What are hedonic hotspots?
Specific brain regions linked to hedonic pleasure (liking), narrower than reward-related regions for wanting.
What outdated idea about dopamine and pleasure has been challenged?
Dopamine is not the sole ‘pleasure neurotransmitter’; it primarily supports wanting and motivation.
What determines the type of defensive behavior in animals?
Predator proximity and escape potential, as well as ecological niche.
What role does the amygdala play in fear and learning?
It mediates innate and learned associations, triggering defensive behaviors like freezing.
How does amygdala damage affect personal space and aversive learning?
It reduces personal space boundaries and impairs fear and loss-related learning.
What is the evidence for separate or shared circuits for reward and aversion?
Some regions (e.g., vmPFC vs. insula) selectively track positive or negative outcomes, suggesting partially distinct circuits.
What effect do insula lesions have on learning?
They impair learning from losses but not from gains.
