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EMOTION AND THE BRAIN
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Lecture notes of 5 pages for the course NEUROPSYCHOLOGY at UNN (LECUTRE 20/23)
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Lecture 20 – emotion and the brainWhat are emotions;
- Emotion = ‘to move’ OR ‘stir up’. Dictionary definition?
- Evolutionary advantage - “Action schemas” - prepare for behaviours with survival
value, e.g., fear to avoid threat; disgust to avoid contamination (Lane & Nadel, 2000)
- Include a series of processes - unconscious / preconscious, e.g., threat detection;
conscious, e.g., bodily feeling
- Important function: Recognising emotion in others and social interaction
Different kinds of emotions;
- Categorical view = e.g., Ekman & Friesman, 1976 - ethnographic studies - 6 “basic”
emotional expressions = anger, disgust, fear, joy, sadness, surprise. Have a survival
value and so may have dedicated areas on the brain.
- Dimensional view = e.g., Rolls, 2000 - emotions defined by dimensions, e.g., valance,
intensity
- How could neuropsychological evidence contribute?
- Evidence consistent with categorical view?
Issues in study emotions in humans;
- Which brain systems underlie emotions?
- How do differences in these systems relate to differences in the emotional
experience of individuals?
- How does emotional processing in the brain relate to bodily changes associated with
emotion? This is an interactive view.
- How does emotional processing in the brain interact with cognition, motor
behaviour, language and motivation?
Darwin;
- “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” (1872)
- Expressive actions are inherited, adaptive
- Similarities between man, animals. E.g. Urination when afraid, piloerection (goose
bumps), snarling, etc.
- If facial expressions are inherited, they should take the same form across cultures.
- Some emotions have longer evolutionary histories (fear, rage) than other (suffering,
grief).
James-Lange theory;
- William James (1884) asked: Do feelings cause emotional responses or responses
cause feelings?
Traditional view:
- Stimulus Feeling Response
- (Bear) (Fear) (Run)
James’ view:
- Stimulus Response Feeling
- (Bear) (Run) (Fear)
- Feedback from response determines feelings
- Similar ideas developed in parallel by Carl Lange → James-Lange theory
, Cannon-Bard critique;
- Walter Cannon (1920) studied: Sympathetic nervous
system, part of ANS.
- Believed function of sympathetic nervous system was
preparation for “fight or flight”
- The physiological response accompanying different
emotions will be the same no matter what the emotion.
- Physiological response gives urgency and intensity – but
brain differentiates emotion
- James’s theory difficult to verify
- Picture shows difference between James-Lange and
Cannon-Bard.
Bodily-feedback;
- Many attempts to test James-Lange and Cannon-Bard theories
- Spinal Injuries, locked-in syndrome and reduced emotional experience
- Facial and bodily expressions, induced emotions, and the autonomic nervous system
e.g. forcing a smile may give you a boost in emotion.
- Current view is a modified version of James-Lange theory = bodily feedback
moderates experience of emotion.
- So the brain is the key component before we act on emotions.
Spinal cord research;
- “...I sit around and build things up in my mind, and I worry a lot, but its not much but
the power of thought. I was alone in bed one day and dropped a cigarette where I
couldn’t reach it. I finally managed to scrounge around and put it out. I could have
burned up right there, but the funny things is, I didn’t get al shook up about it. I just
didn’t feel afraid at all, like you would suppose.” (Hohman, 1966)
- “...Now, I don’t get a feeling of physical animation, it’s sort of a cold anger.
Sometimes I act angry when I see some injustice. I yell and cuss and raise hell,
because if you don’t do it sometimes, I’ve learned people will take advantage of you,
but it doesn’t have the heart to it that it used to. I’s a mental kind of anger.”
(Hohman, 1966)
The papez circuit (Papez, 1937) The limbic system (MacLean, 1949)
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