MODULE 6 BIOPSYCH

• Emotion


  Strong emotions tend to increase readiness for action. Emotion has components including cognitions, feelings, actions, and physiological changes
• Autonomic nervous system


  • The sympathetic nervous system prepares the body for brief, vigorous action while the parasympathetic nervous system alters the body's activities to save energy and prepare for later events
• James-Lange theory


  Autonomic arousal and skeletal actions occur before an emotion. An emotion is the label we give to our physiological responses
• People with severe spinal cord injuries still report feeling emotions at the same rate/level as before the injury, suggesting emotions do not require feedback from whole body muscle movements
• People with pure autonomic failure report having the same emotions as anyone else, although the emotions are much less intense
• A study of people who have received BOTOX suggests they experience weaker than usual emotional responses, implying that body changes are important for feeling an emotion
• Panic attack


  A condition marked by extreme sympathetic nervous system arousal, which is sometimes brought on by the occurrence of rapid breathing and a racing heartbeat
• People forced to smile rated a comic strip as funnier than people not manipulated into expressing a smile
• Emotion


  • An emotion is usually considered a coherent "whole" although it has three or more aspects (cognition, feeling, action) and all aspects do not always occur together
• Limbic system


  A forebrain area that forms a border around the brainstem, traditionally regarded as critical for emotion
• Hypothalamus


  • Lateral parts-pleasure and rage, Medial part-aversion, displeasure and a tendency to uncontrollable and loud laughing
• Thalamus


  The gateway to the cerebral cortex, as nearly all sensory inputs (except smell) pass through it to the higher levels of the brain. Regulates consciousness, sleep, and alertness
• Amygdala


  • Main functions: Memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions. Plays an important role in the mediation and control of major affective activities like friendship, love and affection, on the expression of mood and, mainly, on fear, rage and aggression
• On average, women tend to retain stronger memories for emotional events than men
• Humans with marked lesions of the amygdala lose the affective meaning of the perception of outside information, like the sight of a well known person
• No amygdala, No fear. Lesions of the amygdala block fear conditioning
• Insular cortex


  Processes taste information and is thought to play an important role in experiencing the emotion of disgust
• Basic emotions


  • Happiness
  • Sadness
  • Fear
  • Anger
  • Disgust
  • Surprise
• Contributions of the left and right hemispheres

  • Left hemisphere-behavioral activation system (BAS), marked by low to moderate autonomic arousal, which could be characterized as either happiness or anger
  • Right hemisphere-behavioral inhibition system (BIS), which increases attention and arousal, inhibits action, and stimulates emotions such as fear and disgust
• Adaptive advantages of emotions

  Fear alerts us to danger, disgust helps us avoid illness-inducing substances. Emotions can help communicate needs to others and understand others' needs. They may also help us make quick "gut" decisions
• When making moral decisions, we consider how the outcomes will make us feel
• Most people go with what feels right and then think of a logical justification afterward when making decisions about right and wrong
• People with prefrontal damage are more likely than average to choose the utilitarian option of killing one to save five, even in situations where most people find the choice emotionally unacceptable
• Damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex results in the loss of a sense of guilt
• Attack and escape behaviors

  • Attack (anger) and escape (fear) behaviors are closely related physiologically and behaviorally
• Factors influencing aggressive, violent, or antisocial behavior

  • Heredity
  • Environment (witnessed/victim of violence in childhood, living in violent neighborhood, exposure to high levels of lead as a child)
• Individuals with the low-activity form of the MAOA gene tend to act more aggressively
• Testosterone


  Male aggressive behavior and increased striving for social dominance depend heavily on testosterone
• Young women injected with testosterone were less accurate at identifying angry facial expressions and more likely to argue instead of cooperate during a joint task
• Serotonin


  Impulsiveness and aggressive behavior have been linked to low serotonin release
• Increased aggressive behavior was seen in decreased serotonin turnover in mice. Social isolation induced a drop in serotonin turnover in the brains of male mice, an effect that further increased the possibility of aggressive behavior toward other males
• Studies have found that lower-than-normal serotonin turnover is present in those convicted of violent crimes as well as those who committed or attempted suicide by violent means
• Aggressive behavior


  Depends on a combination of testosterone, serotonin, and cortisol
• Startle reflex


  Response one makes to a sudden, unexpected loud noise. People with post-traumatic stress disorder show a much enhanced startle reflex
• Studies of rodents have shown the amygdala plays a key role in fear and anxiety
• Lower serotonin turnover


  Greater probability of further convictions for violent crimes
• Relationship between serotonin and aggression is small and cannot be used to make predictions about an individual
• Aggressive behavior does not correlate strongly with any one chemical because it depends on a combination
• Testosterone


  Facilitates aggressive, assertive, and dominant behaviors
• Serotonin


  Tends to inhibit impulsive behaviors