Psychobiology

Question 1

2 aspects as to the importance of studying self control

Answer 1

The personal and societal costs of failures at self control eg addiction, debt..
It predicts positive life outcomes (mental health, decision making, relationships..)

Question 2

Key words in defining self control

Answer 2

Resisting and overriding impulses, temptation
automatic, habitual behaviours
that interfer with goal directed behaviour
to be consist with long term goals

Question 3

What is the difference between top down and bottom up processing and

Answer 3

Top down processing:
Rational, abstract goal directed behaviour and processing of information.
Bottom up processing:
Emotionally triggered, reflexive behaviourInvolivng primitive strucutres such as amygdala,

Question 4

What areas of the brain top down and bottom up processing take place?

Answer 4

Top down processing involves cerebral cortex, especially the lateral PFC.
Bottom up processing involves more primitive structures such as the Brainstem
Basal ganglia (ventral striatum)
the limbic system (amygdala and hypothalamus)

Question 5

The link between self control and volume of different areas (Kim et al 2020)

Answer 5

The thinner the PFC, the less self control
The larger the volume of the amygdala, the lower the self control, a person will be more likely to give in to impulses

Question 6

Explain the balance model of self control propsoed by Lopez et al (2017)

Answer 6

The balance model proposes that self control is not due to either system (reward, control..) to be held inidividually responsible for failures in self control. Self control is predicted by the balance of acitivty in these different regions

Question 7

Were the cognitive strategies effective in Kober et al (2010) to regulate participants cigarette cravings? What areas of the brain were activated when using these cognitive strategies

Answer 7

The cognitive strategies significantly reduced cravings and was assoicated with stronger activations of PFC and reduced activity in amygdala and ventral tegmental area

Question 8

!!What feelings is the ventral striatum associated with? Which other brain regions does it recieve input from?

Answer 8

Its associated with reward, positive reinforcement/associations, addiction…
From amygdala (for threat and .. detection)
Hippocampus
ventral tegmental area (dopamine rich area of brain)

Question 9

What is the nucleus accumbens?

Answer 9

It is found in the ventral striatum, related to impulses and self control

Question 10

What are some likely traits of a person who has a stronger preference for smaller-soonger rewards?

Answer 10

They are more likley to be impulsive, prone to addiction, impatient…

Question 11

What is the smaller-sooner vs larger-later paradigm?

Answer 11

paradigm that involves telling participants that they can get a little bit of something now, but if they wait longer they can get much more of that thing.

Question 12

What did Aadakumar et al (2018) propose about the connectivtiy in the control and reward and the smaller-sooner .. paradigm?

Answer 12

They proposed that the connectivity in the cortical regions vs limbic regions is likely to influence whether a participant is more likely to choose the smaller-sooner or larger-later option. A greater connectivity between cortical regions (such as dlPFC, Anterior Cingulate Cortex) is more likely to choose larger-later than someone with good connectivity in the limbic system (amygdala, medial Orbitofrontal Cortex..)

Question 13

What are two methods to carry out studies to create temporary lesions/inactivation of certain brain regions?

Answer 13

rTMS - repetitive Transcranial Magentic Stimulation
Magnetic waves interfere with brain decreasing the excitability of an area
tDCS - transcranial Direct Current Stimultion
Uses electrodes positioned over certain brain region and have current run through, changing the resting membrane potentials of the neurons

Question 14

What are the dominant areas of the brain assoicated with self control?

Answer 14

PFC
ACC
AI

Question 15

!!What was Tang et al (2013) findings on meditation and self control? Why was the resting potential of neurons relevant?

Answer 15

It was found that the resting potential/state of smokers (compared to non smokers) was higher than that of smokers, meaning they are triggered more easily into impulsive behaviour. There was less activity in self control areas such as PFC and ACC. After 2 weeks of meditation, there was an increased activation in resting state of ACC and PFC - the resting state of brain had been changed

Question 16

What is Mischels marshmallow test and example of?

Answer 16

Of a delayed gratification test or smaller-sooner/larger-later test

Question 17

Casey et al (2011) recruited the original participants of mischels marshmallow test 40 years later. What were the findings?

Answer 17

That the children who had not acted on impulse and chosen larger-later recruited, in adulthood, their PFC better/more often than those who had failed. Those who chose smaller-sooner relied more on subcortical areas such as the ventral striatum as adults

Question 18

Previously it was thought that adolescents were impulsive, risk taking and in need of peer approval because of the underdeveloped PFC, why cant it just be due to underdeveloped PFC?

Answer 18

Because children also have an underdevloped PFC but do not show the same risk taking impulsive behaviour. The difference is probably that most key regions in the childs brain are underdeveloped whereas adolescents have some developed parts

Question 19

What is the imbalance model of the brain and what does it try to explain in adolescents? Somerville & Casey (2010)

Answer 19

It proposes that the reason for which adolescents are prone to risk taking behaviour is because of the imbalance of the development of different brain regions. The PFC IS STILL UNDERDEVELOPED whereas the subcortical regions associated with reward, motivation and emotions develop earlier.
The result is a GREATER RELIANCE on SUBCORTICAL REGIONS than prefronal regions during adolescence.

Question 20

What does presence of peers or emotional information trigger in the brain of an adolescent compared to adults? What is the importance?

Answer 20

Emotional information in experiment was perceived as positive social cues, explained by enhanced activity in the ventral striatum (reward circuit). Peer presence substantially increased the risk taking in adolescents and reliance on subcortical regions whereas adults was more generally PFC

Question 21

What is the importance of the amygdala in our social brain?

Answer 21

It is the hub of our social brain, connected to many important cortical and subcortical regions. The amygdala can be considered to consist of three networks in a social context - the aversion, perception and affiliation networks

Question 22

What is the perception network in the amygdala responsible for? What parts of the brain are responsible for these responses?

Answer 22

The perception network is responsible for detecting, decoding and interpreting social social signals and cues, such a sarcasm
VENTROLATERAL amygdala is key, and receives input from temporal cortex (associated with sensory input such as facial expressions) –> patients struggling to understand facial expressions were shown to have structural differences in amygdala, lateral OFC which are key for decoding social perception

Question 23

What is the affiliation network of the amygdala? What parts of the brain are responsible for these responses?

Answer 23

The affiliation network is responsible for altruism and empathy, motivating prosocial or affiliative behaviours, such as comforting loved one
MEDIAL amygdala and vmPFC and subgenus ACC

Lower gray matter or thickness are associated with diminished empathy and interpersonal warmth

Question 24

What is the aversion network of the amygdala? What parts of the brain are responsible for these responses?

Answer 24

The aversion network is responsible for enabling avoidant behaviours, repulsive stimuli, disgust, feelings of distrust, scam..
ROSTRODORSAL amygdala
caudal ACC which us connected to pain sensitive areas such as the anterior insula

Question 25

Decety (2012) carried out an experiment on empathy and pain, using romantic partners and seeing their reaction to the partner being in pain. Those with the highest empathy scores had the strongest activation in which areas? What was the finding?

Answer 25

Anterior Cingulate Cortex and Anterior Insula
Watching someone you love be in pain activates the same areas of the brain as if we were receiving the pain ourselves

Question 26

What makes us empathize according to Singer et al (2006) ? Which areas are triggered when we empathise with someone we like vs someone we dont like?

Answer 26

Likeability of a person
If we like the person and they receive pain, our ACC and AI may be activated
In men, when a person they dislike receives pain, the reward system such as the ventral striatum may be activated

Question 27

A study was conducted on empathy and cognitive appraisal (Lamm et al (2007, 2010)), where participants watched biopsies of anesthetized patients. Explain how the pain related responses and reasoning is related to top down and bottom up processing

Answer 27

Empathic pain-related responses in participants (AI and ACC activated), even though participants knew that patients were anesthetized and were not feeling pain. This is the bottom up affective response to aversive stimuli - a gut feeling telling us this is aversive stimuli
But then top down processing kicks in, where the self-other distinction is made and cognitive control takes over (through tempo parietal junction and inferior frontal cortex, respectively)

Question 28

Shortly explain vicarious embarssment

Answer 28

Watching a violation of social norms
Associated with empathic concern (ACC) as well as theory of mind and social identity

Question 29

What is the difference between an altruistic vs strategic choice?

Answer 29

Altruistic - there is no extrinsic reward for your action, just a warm, intrinsic glow, satisfaction knowing you have done the right thing
Strategic choice involves expecting an extrinsic reward such as money, reputation, reciprocity …

Question 30

What are the common and different areas that are activated in the brain for altruistic and strategic choices

Answer 30

Areas in the brain that are activated in both:
–>Nucleus accumbens - reward (but stronger activation in strategic choice)
–>ACC - making a decision (stronger activation in subgenual ACC for altruistic)
–>vmPFC - social decision making
POSTERIOR vmPFC for altruistic whereas strategic is ANTERIOR vmPFC

Subgenual ACC activation as marker for altruistic behaviour?

Question 31

Online social interactions and positive social feedback on adolescents

Answer 31

Activates the reward circuit (ventral striatum and ventral tegmental area - dopamine rich)

Question 32

Explain this key concepts:
Abstract vs concrete social thinking

Answer 32

Concrete- “I feel so bad for her”,
Abstract - “I think back to idea that kids are future and should grow into people who can form society”
Adolescnece is when abstract social thinking starts to develop and ability to interpret and react emotionally to social information becoming more sophisticated

Question 33

What is the Default Mode Network

Answer 33

Development of abstract approach to understanding. It is active when daydreaming/imagining and in social contexts it helps build meaning and form social and psychological inferences
Pre

Question 34

What areas are active for abstract social thinking?

Answer 34

dm PFC
vmPFC

Question 35

What areas of the brain are activated in adolescents during social exclusion.

Answer 35

Insula like when receiving physical pain
and subgenual ACC