Emotion & Cognition
Most important notes
Week 1
The biological perspective = emotions are best understood as solutions selected by nature to
make us want to do what our ancestors had to do in order to pass their genes on to the next
generation
- This perspective shifts the emphasis from examining human feelings to examining
traits and behavioral patterns that we share with a large group of other animal
species. Emotions are then seen as a complex response to a meaningful event
Emotions can therefore be seen as physical processes that have psychological, cognitive
and behavioral implications for the organism.
It is a selective learning process: fear responses are taught much easier for biologically
relevant stimuli (for example, a snake) than for irrelevant stimuli (for example, a bunch of
flowers)
The social approach = emotions are not biological phenomena at all, but socially constructed
stories that give form and meaning to our social environment. Here, emotions are a learned
product of culture, which help to define values and different roles
- The independent self = a form of individualism (common in Western cultures), where
independence from others is seen as valuable. Behavior is seen as a product
of internal factors such as personal motivation
- The interdependent self = more common in collectivist cultures (such as in Asia).
Research by Kitayama = people from cultures based on an independent self felt fewer
negative emotions and they felt more positive emotions
- James Lange theory of emotions = emotions arise as a result of our perception of a
physical condition.
- Damasio (somatic-marker hypothesis) = emotional experiences are caused by the
perception of changes in a large series of physical processes.
- identifies more changes than James & Lange, including biochemical and
hormonal indicators.
- an emotional state sometimes occurs when no changes in the body have
been detected
- emotions do not necessarily have to be experienced consciously
Different combinations of brain parts are responsible for processing different emotions (first
thought that the limbic system was responsible).
- Encephalization = people have a larger neocortex and frontal cortex than animals
- The core processes of emotion largely take place in subcortical structures, but with
evolution the feelings have shifted to the cortical regions
,The triune brain theory (James Papez) = Sensory information from both the external world
and internal processes enter the brain through a number of sensory systems and then reach
the thalamus. Here the information is split into three paths:
- the striatal region (movement), the neocortex (thoughts) and the limbic system
(feelings)
The human brain= three global regions: the cerebrum, the mesencefalon and the brainstem
- Cerebrum = neocortex (wrinkled folds on the outside of the brain). Four lobes: the
frontal, temporal, parietal and occipital lobes
Forward= anterior, rostral or frontal
To the back of the head= posterior or caudal
Up= dorsal, down= ventral
Medial point of view= look directly at center of the brain (when cut in half)
Lateral viewpoint= straight at the outside of the hemisphere (furthest away from the center)
Emotions= relatively short episodes of coordinated brain, autonomic and behavioral changes
that cause a reaction to an external or internal event that is important to the organism
Feelings= the subjective representation of emotions
Mood= diffuse affective state with a lower intensity than emotion, but which lasts much longer
Attitudes= relatively long-lasting, affective beliefs, preferences and predisposition towards
objects and people
Affective style= relatively stable aptitude that ensures that a person perceives and responds
to people and objects in a certain way
Temperament= combi of affective styles that become visible early in life, and are therefore
probably determined by genetic factors
Cognition= “all processes through which the sensory input is transformed, reduced,
elaborated, stored, recovered and used”
Oatley & Jonson-Laird= the cognitive theory of emotions: a primary function of certain basic
emotions is to coordinate a complex cognitive system. System has to be very flexible to
adapt to a dynamic environment
The category approach= emotions are characteristic of different categories, remains the most
dominant approach to date.
The central idea of a discrete emotion response= as soon as an emotion arises, a set of
easily recognizable behavioral and physical responses is triggered (are coordinated over
time & correlated in intensity)
- Levenson= as soon as an emotion is activated, a number of subroutines for the
different response systems are activated, with feeling as the most important
Autonomic nervous system (ANS): regulates the automatic systems in the body (heart and
blood vessels, digestion, breathing, etc.)
- ensure a consistent and stable physical state (homeostasis)
,Levenson= when an emotion requires very specific behavior, this can also be seen as a
specific change in ANS activity
Ekman= emotions can be distinguished by specific patterns in ANS activation, through his
research in which participants were asked to form certain facial expressions
Panksepp= affective processes arise from subcortical emotion-action systems that lead to
unique affective experiences of feeling
Panksepp= the functioning of neurotransmitter systems is the most important aspect of
emotion-action systems; we need to examine animals under natural conditions so that the
neurotransmitters that are important for specific systems can be identified.
- conclusion: affective processes in the brain can be divided into three general
categories that differ in the degree of complexity: reflective affects, Blue-ribbon (grade
A emotions) and higher sentiments
- there are seven primary affective systems that can be seen as the basis and that we
owe to evolution
- Seeking: Dopamine (+), glutamate (+), various neuropeptides, opiates (+),
neurotensin (+)
- Rage: Substance P (+), ACh (+), glutamate (+)
- Fear: Glutamate (+), various neuropeptides, CCK, NPY
- Lust: Steroids (+), vasopressin and oxytocin, CCK
- Care: Oxytocin (+), prolactin (+), dopamine (+), opioids (+/-)
- Panic: Opioids (-), oxytocin (-), prolactin (-), CRF (+), glutamate (+)
- Play: Opioids (+/-), glutamate (+), ACh (+)
Oxytocin: crucial for the development of maternal behavior, attachment and possibly even
romantic love & important for female sexuality and plays a role in childbirth and breastfeeding
- there is an indication that oxytocin has no direct influence on feelings
LeDoux approach: fear conditioning
A conditioned response is taught (an anxiety response) to a conditioned stimulus (usually a
sound)
Amygdala= three important parts: the corticomedial nuclei, the basolateral nuclei and the
central nucleus
- low road; fastest route= the stimulus goes directly from the thalamus to the amygdala
- high road: slightly slower= the stimulus going from the thalamus to the auditory cortex
and from there to the amygdala, so that the stimulus is also consciously observed
Contextual fear associations= when an individual is already developing a fear response for
the space in which the response is conditioned, even without a conditioned stimulus being
present (due to hippocampus; related to episodic memory)
Extinction= when the conditioned stimulus occurs very often without the painful stimulus, so
that the individual learns not to be afraid of this stimulus anymore
, Removing the temporal lobe (contains amygdala)→ Kluver-Bucy syndrome in monkeys;
became very tame and not aggressive & were no longer afraid of stimuli for which they were
afraid before. Also hypersexuality & a tendency to eat non-edible things
Damage to frontal lobe → this part is important for controlling the emotional response
Phineas Gage (iron rod through his head, damaging the PFC); personality changed to
unrestrained, impatient and he no longer took others into account; PFC= largely responsible
for regulating emotions
Damage to amygdala→ change in emotional behavior (reduction in recognition of anxious
faces)
Damage to insula & basal ganglia → difficulty recognizing faces and vocalizations that
express disgust
Patients with Huntington's (striatum (part of basal ganglia) damaged)= this brain area
influences recognition of disgust
Damage to ventral basal ganglia → related to the recognition of anger
Patients with amygdala damage= able to learn which conditioned stimuli are linked to certain
unconditioned stimuli, but they do not develop the associated fear response
Patients with hippocampus damage= unable to learn which stimuli belonged to each other,
but did develop a normal conditioned fear response
Explicit / hippocampal representations arise so that we know that a dangerous situation can
occur, even though we have never experienced that immediately
Implicit / amygdala representations, on the other hand, arise so that we can respond
immediately to a threat, even if we do not explicitly know what this threat is
Murphy's meta-analysis found that certain areas of the brain are more often activated for
certain discrete emotions:
1. Anxiety - amygdala
2. Disgust - insula / operculum and globus pallidus
3. Anger - lateral orbitofrontal cortex
4. Happiness - rostral supracallosal ACC / dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC)
5. Sadness - rostral supracallosal ACC / dmPFC
Mineka= young monkeys only showed a fear reaction after seeing a snake, not near a bunch
of flowers; → a selective learning process (influenced by biological factors) is underway
Basic appraisal scenarios = a small set of behavioral goals, associated with a core set of
appraisals; same in all cultures
Arnold= appraisals are based on three dimensions: whether the situation is beneficial or
harmful, whether an important object is present or absent and whether the object is difficult to
approach or to avoid
