PSY1000S - Intro to Psych pt2
Written by: Lekia Thaver
EMOTION
Components of Emotion (Grouped as physiological, behavioral, or experimental)
- Reactions to stimulus (e.g., fear when seeing a dangerous looking dog)
- Cognitive Evolutions (e.g., familiar to a situation therefore choose what to do based
on that)
- Subjective Changes (i.e., Increased heart rate, this includes all autonomic process)
- Neural Activation (i.e., Processes the stimuli)
- Drive to Action (e.g., Run away or fight after feeling of fear when seeing the dog)
- Behavioral Outputs (i.e., Functional reaction)
1. The Physiology of Emotion
Physiological markers of Emotion
(Aids in the lab as these markers are measurable and can indicate what reaction is associated with what
emotion)
- Heart rate
- Pupil dilation
- Dry mouth
- Body heat
- Hormonal release
- Facial or bodily expressions (i.e., smile will indicate happiness)
- Blood pressure
- Skin conductance
Different emotions can also be associated with different physiological reactions e.g., fear
NB! associated with decrease in skin temp whereas anger associated with increase in skin
temp.
Areas of the brain involved in processing emotion (AKA Emotional Brain)
(Refers to interpreting emotions of others as well as processing them ourselves)
Positive Emotions= Left frontal Lobe
Negative Emotions= Right frontal Lobe (also processes facial expressions)
- Amygdala (Activates robustly when presented with valuable or survival stimuli i.e., Facial expressions or fear)
- PFC (Pre-frontal cortex involved in top-down regulation of emotion i.e., see a snake and asses whether the
situation is dangerous as told by the amygdala therefore aids decision in fight or flight)
- Thalamus
- Insular (processes emotion of disgust)
- ACC (Anterior cingulate cortex)
- NA (Noradrenaline)
- Two sensory input pathways to the amygdala for perception of fearful stimuli
1. Low Road = fast pathway from sensory receptors to thalamus to amygdala that
bypasses the cortex (therefore allows for rapid, automatic, unconscious reactions to
the potentially dangerous stimuli)
2. High Road = slower pathway from sensory receptors goes to thalamus as well as
cortex (higher order processing, frontal, and temporal cortex) therefore involves
more thinking behind a reaction.
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