PSY260 - 7. Emotional Memory Flashcards
(90 cards)
1
Q
How are emotions remembered?
A
-
2
Q
Are emotions remembered?
A
you remember you had a feeling + circumstances, but you don’t feel the emotion
3
Q
What is emotion?
A
- Controlled by distinct neuronal circuits within brain
- experienced emotion consciously – cognitive element, most likely involving cerebral cortex
- outcome of interaction of peripheral & central factors
4
Q
What is emotion?
A
•distinct but interrelated phenomena: physiological responses, overt behaviours + conscious feelings
Physiological responses – changes in heart rate, perspiration levels, respiration, and other body functions
Overt behaviors – facial expression, vocal tone + posture
Conscious feelings – subjective experiences of sadness, happiness
5
Q
Emotional Behaviours
A
-sadness, fear, joy, disgust, surprise
•Paul Eckman – small set of universal emotions, hardwired in human from birth: happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust + surprise
•All humans feel these emotions + can recognize markers of these emotions in others
6
Q
Emotions
A
-guilt, grief, awe, curiousity
7
Q
What is emotion: Emotion versus feeling
A
things we are conscious of, expression of feelings (anxiety)
feelings: way our body reacts (hungry)
8
Q
Outward expression of a feeling
A
emote: give a signal - tell ourselves what is going on in the body
expression we + others interpret
9
Q
Value of Emotion
A
- Primary senses tell us about what we need
- tell us something about our relationship with world, especially with other people
our memory: time/place linked to emotions
10
Q
Value of Emotion
A
- help us communicate that relationship + tell others what we are feeling
- strengthen our recollection of other images.
we remember events, but we don’t always react the same way
emotions are either remembered/conjured up along with recollections of circumstances that brought about emotion before
11
Q
Video Clip
A
if it created emotional memory: lamp looks sad, being discarded, rain is falling, being replaced
these are images that conjure up emotions because we generalize previous experiences into this situation which generates emotional response
12
Q
Generalization vs. discrimination
A
we project feelings upon objects/situations
we generalize/discriminate in order to find what is important + requires our attention
13
Q
Wanting vs. liking (hedonic vs. motivational)
A
motivational properties, we don’t think, we just react as opposed to emotional response to various items
some we want, some we need: response to food when hungry
diff emotional response to what we want/like/need
14
Q
Premack principle
A
extention of Skinner’s operant conditioning
we are being operant conditioned all the time: allows us to determine whether we’re on the right track
we are integrating external world - paying attention to what we can get - with internal world - what our body is saying
our emotional responses allow us to do this
15
Q
Chocolate entrainment - rats
A
they run on the running wheel before food is presented
food anticipatory behaviour - foraging
if deprived: eat a lot during small period same amount during whole day
if you give them chocolate: they get fat - they don’t regulate
16
Q
Peripheral Responses
A
prepare the body for action
•Communicate emotions to other people
17
Q
Peripheral Responses
A
fear: increased heart rate & respiration, dry mouth, tense muscles, sweaty palms
18
Q
Autonomic Nervous System & Emotion
A
mediate emotional states
create physiological correlate of emotion
changes in emotional state = change in physiological periphery
signal of what happened sent to brain
collection of nerves + structures that control internal organs + glands - primarily an effector system
19
Q
Autonomic Nervous System & Emotion
A
controls smooth muscles, heart, exocrine glands
involuntary response to stress
•brain senses challenge or threat, send signal to adrenal gland, which release stress hormones: hormones throughout body to turn fight/flight on + off
•Stress: any event or stimulus that causes bodily arousal and release of stress hormones
•Epinephrine + glucocorticoids (cortisol)
•Strong pleasant emotions (happiness) can cause physiological arousal
20
Q
Three Divisions of the ANS: Sympathetic
A
body’s way of preparing you to face a challenge or threat - fighting/running away
•BP + heart rate increased, bloodflow is diverted toward body systems most likely to help you in this effort – brain, lungs, + muscles in legs
21
Q
Three Divisions of the ANS: Parasympathetic
A
–rest and digest
–Normal conditions
22
Q
Three Divisions of the ANS: Enteric
A
-
23
Q
Summary
A
integration among central + peripheral systems
Central systems receive info from ambient world
Messages sent to peripheral systems, changing peripheral activity
Activity in peripheral systems detected by the central systems
integration = plasticity - value of stimulus changes when integrated with another stimulus
24
Q
Three Divisions of the ANS
A
Central systems distinguish among sensory + internally generated signals, discriminating betw sensory input + “feelings”
25
The Papez Circuit
James Papez- 1930’s
•emotion system that links cortex to hypothalamus
Emotion is determined by activity of cingulate cortex
Emotional expression governed by hypothalamus
26
The Papez Circuit
group of structures, connected by major fiber tract
cingulate cortex projects to hippocampus, which projects to hypothalamus through fornix; hypothalamus projects to the anterior nuclei of thalamus, which reach back to cortex
27
Papez Circuit
stimulus ⇒ thalamus ⇒ sensory cortex ⇒ cingulate hippocampus ⇒ hypothalamus ⇒ ant. thalamus ⇒ cingulate cortex ⇒ feeling
thalamus ⇒ hypothalamus ⇒ bodily response
28
Papez Circuit
brain regions operate in loop
•Some structures included important, but not restricted to processing emotional info
•left out some structures - amygdala
•no specialized emotion circuit
•Each emotion activate many diff brain regions
29
Theories of Emotion: William James & Karl Lange - 1884
experience we call emotion occurs after cortex receives signals about physiologic changes
Emotional expression precedes emotional experience
Physiological changes occur in response to stimuli, then
we feel emotions
30
Theories of Emotion- James & Lange
Emotion consequence of info from periphery
| –We feel sorry because we cry
31
Theories of Emotion- James & Lange
Bodies respond to an emotional situation with physiological changes; conscious feelings follow as mind interprets physiological response
Somatic theories of emotion: physiological responses to stimuli come first and these determine/induce emotions
32
Critique of James & Lange
Emotions experienced even if physiological changes aren’t sensed
Patients & animals with transected spinal cords do not have lessened emotions
33
Critique of James & Lange
same physiological changes accompany different emotions + can have other causes
–fear, anger & disease can all increase heart rate & cause sweating
34
Theories of Emotion: Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard - 1927
Stimuli cause emotional experience
| Emotional experience can occur independently of emotional expression
35
Theories of Emotion – Cannon & Bard
thalamus plays pivotal role in emotional sensations
Emotions produced when signals reach thalamus directly from sensory receptors /descending cortical input
emotion determined by pattern of activation of thalamus
36
Theories of Emotion – Cannon & Bard
stimuli simultaneously evokes both emotions + arousal
•Epinephrine injection’s cause bodily arousal, which each volunteers brain interpreted according to context in which individual had been placed
37
The Somatic Marker Hypothesis - Stanley Schacter + Singer - 2 Factor
combo of cognitive appraisal + perception of biological changes determine experience of emotion
•Cognitive awareness helps us interpret arousal in accordance with current context
•High bridge study
•cortex constructs emotion out of signals received from periphery
38
The Somatic Marker Hypothesis - Stanley Schacter + Singer - 2 Factor
Emotion is story brain concocts to explain bodily reactions
–Depends expectations, experience, social context
–same responses can accompany diff emotions
39
Limbic System
stimulus: quality, where, flavour interpreted in diff regions
PFC: decide what stimulus will do for us
system allows us to evaluate what we’re going to do next
regulation of emotional response involves amygdala + hippocampus
cingulate connection betw frontal cortex + limbic system
40
Hippocampus
primarily related to fear response
executive - not emotion responses are integrated in intervening part of brain - cingulate
critical for new episodic memory formation
Learning about context
Contextual freezing response greatly reduced and animals with lesions
lesion Abolishes ability to form new episodic memories but does not prevent simple classical conditioning
41
Hippocampus
* Path from amygdala to hippocampal region 2-way street
* Signals from amygdala travel to the hippocampal region, but signals from hippocampal region containing info about learning context of travel back to amygdala where they can be incorporated into ongoing emotional processing
* Returning to the place where an emotional experience occurred is often enough to evoke arousal
42
Amygdala
•Collection of > 10 separate subregions/nuclei, which have diff input + output pathways
Lateral nucleus: primary entry point for sensory info, from thalamus + indirectly from thalamus by way of the cortex
Central nucleus: receives input from other amygdala nuclei + projects to ANS
lateral nucleus receives input + projects to cerebral cortex, basal ganglia + hippocampus, providing pathway by which amygdala can modulate memory storage + retrieval
43
Amygdala
•Critical both learned and emotional responses and an emotional modulation of memory storage and retrieval
sensory input from cortex + thalamus
Le Doux, 1993: 2 pathways to amygdala direct to lateral amygdala + indirect through cortex
44
Conditioned fear
input ⇒ LA
LA ⇒ CE
CE ⇒ Freezing, BP, HR, Stress hormones
45
Conditioned fear
* Avoidance behaviors can be incredibly persistent: animals may keep making avoidance response long after US is no longer delivered
* Two factor theory of avoidance learning: avoidance learning involves an interaction between classical + operant conditioning
46
Conditioned fear
-
47
Lateral Amygdala
-key site of plasticity in fear conditioning
emotional response + executive responses integrate
integration in LA ⇒ association of CS + US Converge
cortex mitigate response - recognizes details of situation
condition response out of somebody by mitigating response
sensory input, conditioning
contextual fear conditioning
48
Lateral Amygdala
```
CE: sends info out to brain + ANS
CE ⇒ Freezing, BP, HR, Stress hormones
cues (of threat) create a sense of fear
lesions: inability to respond to cues
spares hippocampal dependent context learning but disrupt learning expression of emotional response
```
49
Synaptic Changes
facilitation + potentiation: short term changes that occur
In LA - LTP: Activation of MAPK Pathway - Ca influx in membrane
changes in sensitivity of postsynaptic membrane
cell body releases genes + proteins ⇒ structural changes
relatively permanent changes
50
Synaptic Changes
CREB: Ubiquitous - useful in conditioning - takes MAPK signal + converts it into a genetic response
phosphorylated protein that can bind to nucleus
change in gene transcription
51
Hippocampus + Amygdala
Hippocampus: conscious memory system - damage results in loss of explicit memory about emotional experiences, remembers when + where things happen
Amygdala: fear system - damage results in loss of implicit emotional memory
we’re in similar contexts that we’ve experienced before
52
Hippocampus + Amygdala
we feel something when we enter context even if brain doesn’t process it
amygdala: rapid evaluation - gut reaction
gut feelings need to be regulated by knowledge
pathological when interfere in life: when you can’t link emotion to experiences - phobias/PTSD
53
Fear Conditioning: Cued vs. Contextual
sound predicts footshock
| freezes in any sort of context (when they hear sound - cue)/ (same chamber - context)
54
Fear Reaction
increase in heart rate, increasing perspiration + diversion of blood away from capillaries in face. Jumping + looking around, feeling of potentially in danger
55
Fear Reaction
cues of harmful stimuli associated in LA ⇒ CE ⇒ Fear reactions
info from cortical regions that suggest no threat - inhibits CE (extinction)
hippocampus input to basolaterus - mitigates input to CE
increase/decrease output according to context - hippocampus based regulation
56
Partners in Fear
emotional stimulus ⇒ amygdala ⇒ emotional responses
hippocampus - context - ⇒ amygdala
medial prefrontal cortex - regulation - ⇒ amygdala
57
Fear Reaction
can remember aspects of experience that elicited emotional response
emotional response is inaccessible
we can reconstruct response from info about experience
is it an emotional memory then if reconstructed?
58
Limbic System
Damage to Hippocampus – overly aggressive
| Damage to cingulate cortex often display apathy + depression
59
Subcortical epicentres of self-regulation: Nucleus accumbens
recruits orbitofrontal cortex, thalamus, motor cortex, etc., involved in approach, attention to goals + action control
60
Subcortical epicentres of self-regulation: Amygdala
regulates many cortical + subcortical areas involved in attention to affectively relevant stimuli
•activates brainstem structures that orchestrate emotional response
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Subcortical epicentres of self-regulation: Hypothalamus
regulates limbic, cortical + brainstem systems, ventral striatum, ANS, according to organismic goals, drive, states, territorial aggression, bodily needs, etc.
62
Subcortical epicentres of self-regulation: Brain stem
ascending neuromodulators recruit activation of all areas of cortex and limbic system, in support of focused perception + action
63
In summary
•Cortical epicentres recruit patterns of coordination characterized by voluntary, strategic, and/or reflective cognitive processes
•Subcortical epicentres recruit patterns of coordination characterized by the orientation of attention + action to relevant stimuli/pressing need states
amygdala: learned, hypothalamus: unlearned
64
Regulatory configurations vary: Within individuals
–Adolescents considering risky actions:
•Activation of amygdala and insula, recruiting prefrontal circuits mediating decision-making
– Adolescents considering being judged by peers:
• Activation of amygdala, insula, and medial PFC, mediating
perception of social judgment
65
Regulatory configurations vary: Across individuals
Depressive: Activation of amygdala, insula, ventral ACC, OFC + deactivation of DLPFC + dorsal ACC
Aggressive: Activation of pons, midbrain, hypothalamus, insula + dorsal ACC, deactivation of OFC
These are organizing states: they are as much regulating as regulated
66
Fear & Anxiety
* amygdala is the critical structure
| * involves the hypothalamus & ANS
67
Klüver-Bucy Syndrome
Heinrich Kluver & Paul Bucy - 1939
| –bilateral removal of the temporal lobes in monkeys (which contains the amygdala & hippocampal formation)
68
Klüver-Bucy Syndrome
Radical changes in emotional behavior
–increased + bizarre sexual behavior
–failed to recognize familiar objects (psychic blindness)
• temporal lobe destruction of visual cortices
–emotionally flat
•absence of fear - amygdala missing
69
The Amygdala
damaged amygdalas reduced ability to recognize fear
greater amygdala activity during encoding of specific pictures correlated with better recognition of pictures later
•Amygdala activity is higher both at encoding + recognition of emotionally arousing photographs subsequently judged as remembered than those merely known
•Emotional arousal promote coding of contextual details, creating subjective sense of remembering + causing info to be stored as an episodic rather than semantic memory
70
The Amygdala
woman – left amygdala activation during encoding; men – right amygdala activation
•learned fear response, where pain is associated
with a sensory input, may involve a circuit through the basolateral nuclei & central nucleus of amygdala
•effects are mediated through hypothalamus & ANS
71
Possible Role of the Amygdala
amygdala is also involved in aggression–amygdalectomy reduces aggression
72
Possible Role of the Amygdala
Two pathways for aggression:
•Predatory aggression - cortex>amygdala>lateral hypothalamus>mfb >ventral tegmental area
•Affective aggression - cortex>amygdala>medial hypothalamus>dlf >periaqueductal gray matter
– Frontal lobotomy is another example of psychosurgery
73
Summary
No single neural system produces emotions
•Brain structures involved in emotion multi functional
Emotion results from the interplay between: amygdala, hypothalamus, brain stem & ANS
betwe amygdala + frontal & limbic cortex
74
Article
erasing fear memories
a. amygdala cells ready to respond to emotional stimuli
b. some are more sensitive than others at any one time.
c. CREB levels key determinant of sensitivity
d. can we erase learned associations by removing these cells
e. add CREB-cre recombinase
f. make it conditionally active
g. activate after fear conditioning
animals learn contextual fear with combo of CREB + CREB-cre
75
Learned Helplessness
* Prior exposure to inescapable shock taught the animals that they were helpless to escape any shock
* exposure to an uncontrollable punisher teaches expectation that responses are ineffectual, which in turn reduces the motivation to attempt new avoidance responses
* Depression: sadness and general loss of initiative and activity
76
Mood congruency of memory
easier to retrieve memories that match current mood/emotional state
•Strong mood/emotion causes biological responses and subjective feelings, can be incorporated into memory just like other contextual cues
•One of factors influencing ability to retrieve memory is number of cues available to guide retrieval
77
Flashbulb memories
form quickly as if brain were taking flash photographs
Extreme emotions can result in memories that appear to have exceptional strength + durability
•Memory for ordinary days is generally much less detailed
merely episodic memories experienced with great vividness and confidence
•Not always easy to determine whether details correct
78
Flashbulb memories
not perfect photographic records of event: can be incomplete + contain inaccurate details
•Many errors consist of memory misattribution
Each time we retrieve memory we unconsciously fill any little gaps in our memory with details that seem to fit context
79
Central Nucleus
* Lesions of central nucleus disrupt ability to learn + display new emotional responses
* Skin conductance response: tiny but measurable change in electrical conductivity of human skin that occurs when people feel arousal
* The SCR is mediated by outputs from central
80
Central Nucleus
* Conditioning of SCR can be disrupted by damaged amygdala
* Patient with damage that included nearby hippocampus but not amygdala could learn conditioned emotional response
* Disruptions and conditioned emotional responses occur because central nucleus provides major outputs from amygdala to ANS + to motor centers
* Lesions of the central nucleus disrupts the ability to express a learned fear response
81
2 pathways for emotional learning in the amygdala
* Direct path to amygdala is faster, but it also conveys less details
* Indirect pathways slower, but involvement of cortex allows much finer discrimination of stimulus details
* Faster, direct path allows us to react quickly in life + death situation
* Slower, more accurate path provides extra info, allowing us to terminate fear response if stimulus not dangerous after all
* Learning probably takes place in lateral nucleus of amygdala
82
2 pathways for emotional learning in the amygdala
amygdala specializes in learning CS-US association + producing emotional CR but also modulates memory storage elsewhere
83
Role of stress hormones
* Outputs from central nucleus travel to ANS, which signals adrenal glands to release stress hormones epinephrine
* Blood brain barrier are: membrane that controls passage of substances from blood into central nervous system, including brain
* Epinephrine cannot cross barrier, but can activate brainstem nuclei that produce chemically related neurotransmitter norepinephrine
* Nuclei project to basolateral amygdala, outputs travel to brain regions including hippocampus + cortex
84
Role of stress hormones
* Cerebral cortex primary storage site of episodic memories, storage mediated by hippocampus
* Neurons of basolateral amygdala tend far + rhythmic waves they project to cortex, hippocampal region + other memory storage sites, where they may cause similarly rhythmic activation in large groups of neurons
85
Role of stress hormones
* Rhythmic activation facilitates LTP between coactive neurons thus facilitating learning
* Blocking stress hormones reduce ability of emotions to enhance memory
* Without input from amygdala, other memory storage areas may not be encouraged to form strong memory of emotionally arousing material
* Increasing stress hormones can improve memory for emotional material
86
Retrieval and re-consolidation
* Memories not formed instantaneously but remain malleable throughout consolidation.
* Epinephrine stimulates norepinephrine release to basolateral amygdala, which in turn stimulates learning in cortex and hippocampus
* Effects of epinephrine greatest if interaction occurs immediately after shock, but epinephrine can still boost memory if administered 10 or 30 minutes after training session
87
Retrieval and re-consolidation
* Memory might initially be accurate, but each time it is recalled, Tiny details might be forgotten/altered + overtime memory could become quite different
* Ability of stress hormones affect previously acquired memories allows amygdala to tinker with strength of memory later, when delayed consequences become apparent
88
Feelings and frontal lobes
* intensely involved in social behavior + appropriate social behavior demands ability to express emotion + read it in others
* damage the frontal lobe's exhibit fewer + less intense facial expressions + impaired in their ability to recognize negative facial expressions in others
* Show general disruption of emotion + mood
* help people maintain a balance between too little + too much
* PFC help people read expression of emotion in others
89
Feelings and frontal lobes
PFC help interpret meaning of emotional stimuli (other’s facial displays of emotion)
•Medial PFC: process emotional stimuli in manner appropriate to context in which stimuli occur
•modulating degree to which amygdala outputs produce emotional responses in diff contexts
90
Feelings and frontal lobes
•Frontal lobe lesions, lesions of medial prefrontal cortex, interfere with ability to learn to make an emotional response under some conditions but to withhold it and other conditions
