Where and how are emotions processed?

Outline

• Limbic System
  • Thalamus
  • Hypothalamus
  • Pituitary
  • Pineal Gland
  • Amygdala
• Amygdala
  • Also called nucleus amygdalæ
    • Almond-shaped groups of nuclei
    • Medial temporal lobes
    • Part of basal ganglia?
    • Processes emotional memories
    • Linked to both fear & pleasure
  • Several structures
    • basolateral complex
    • cortical nucleus
    • medial nucleus
    • central nucleus
  • Output =
    • Hypothalamus
    • Activates sympathetic nerves
    • Thalamic reticular nucleus
    • Increases reflexes
    • Trigeminal & facial nerves
    • Expressions
    • Activates dopamine, epinephrine and norepinephrine
  • Memory formation & storage
    • Memories of emotional events
  • Mediate long-term signal potentiation of neurons?
    • Memories of emotional exper. trigger fear behavior
    • Freeze (immobility)
    • Stress hormone (heart rate…)
  • Damage
    • Impairs classical conditioning
    • Both acquiring and expressing
    • Pavlovian fear conditioning
    • Positive reinforcement
  • Classical conditioning
    • Separate neurons for pos. & neg., not anatomically different
    • No clear wiring plan
  • Memory Consolidation
    • Convert to long-term storage
    • Learning can occur without it
    • Help regulate hippocampus?
    • Strength of emotion impacts strength of memory
    • Add stress hormone after learn, recall better (at least in rats)
  • What amygdala does
    • Evaluate significance of stimuli
    • Generate emotional responses
    • Generate hormonal secretions
    • Generate autonomic reactions come with strong emotions
    • Involved with?
      • Post-traumatic stress disorder
      • Depression
      • Phobias
      • Anxiety
      • Autism
      • Anything Emotional
• Emotions
  • What Is Emotion?
    • Category of stimuli
      • high significance to an individual
      • high arousal (strong feelings)
      • subjective response
      • quick & automatic
    • Sympathetic nervous system
    • Prepares for brief-vigorous action
    • Parasympathetic
      • alters activities to save energy and prepare for long-term
    • Strong emotions increase readiness to act
  • Identifying Emotions
    • Facial Expressions
    • 10,000 expressions
    • 40 muscles
    • Voluntary
      • Making movement doesn’t always cause emotion
    • Involuntary
      • Some are same across cultures
    • Display rules vary
      • Quickly cover up
      • Some are same across species
  • Micro Expressions
    • Less than a second
    • Examples
      • Surprise is shortest expression
      • Who is worried?
      • BBC program: The Human Face
  • Gestures
  • Emblems
    • Differ by culture
      • Yes = nod head up and down
      • No = shake head left-right
    • Egyptian culture
      • Tomorrow = hand loop
      • After tomorrow = two loops
    • Distress = hands on head (one pat other)
  • Not Quite Words
    • Puh
• Basic Emotions
  • Hard-wired
  • Can feel more than one at once
    • Wundt
      • Classified along two dimensions
        • Pleasant or unpleasant
        • Level of activation (arousal)
  • No agreed upon list:
    • Fear
    • Anger
    • Disgust
    • Sad
    • Surprise
    • Happiness
• Fear
  • Decrease in skin temp (cold-feet)
  • blood flow to feet?
  • Includes:
    • Thoughts (worries, etc)
    • Physical sensation (heart, breath)
    • Behaviors (run, escape, avoid)
      • “fight or flight”
    • Heart
      • Increased force & rate
      • “pounding heart”
    • Muscles
      • Increased tension
    • Sweaty-cold palms
    • Nausea & diarrhea
    • Tremors
  • Fear Conditioning
    • Even minor $ can cause fear
    • Un-erasable fear response?
    • PTSD
    • Rat is shocked (electrical)
      • Fears stimulus
      • Fears old cage & new cages
      • Fears new situations
    • Humans
      • Attacked or trauma
      • More fearful in many situations
      • Generalized emotional arousal
      • Stimulus generalization
  • Amygdala
    • Makes associations of events with emotional sensations
    • Mediate long-term signal potentiation of neurons?
• Anger
  • Characteristics
    • Eyebrows together
    • Eyes glare
    • Narrow lips
    • Causes increase in skin temp (hot under the collar)
    • blood flow to arms
  • Display Rules
    • Animals
      • Make loud sounds
      • Try to look larger
      • Bare teeth
      • Stare
    • Humans
      • Display as social manipulation
      • Cultural rules
  • Impacts
    • Less self-monitoring
    • Less objective observations
    • Increased activity in left hem.
    • Particularly frontal & temporal
  • Lateral orbitofrontal cortex
    • Inhibits anger
    • Approach motivation
    • Positive affective processes
    • Underestimate risk
    • Believe ventures will succeed
    • Feel less likely for heart disease
    • Feel more likely get raise
    • More prejudiced against outsiders
    • Less trusting
    • On alert
    • Look for other attacks
    • Anticipate more angry events
    • Not sad events
• Disgust
  • Revulsion
  • Withdraw
  • Contamination
  • Seen is all cultures
    • different cultures find different things disgusting
    • Cross-Cultural
    • Widely recognized
    • Shown by
      • slightly narrowed brows
      • curled upper lip, wrinkling nose
      • stick out tongue
    • Children
      • 5-month olds avoid toy parents make negative faces at
      • Until 10, interpret it as anger
  • Related to sense of taste-smell
    • disgusted by inharmonious
    • Impact
      • Facial expression
      • Moldy milk
      • Eeuu!
    • Triggered if people look ill?
      • Feces, urine, body fluids
      • Blood & gore
  • Gender differences
    • Women more than men
    • Especially sexual disgust
    • Also thinking about dentists
  • Anterior insula
    • Activated by unpleasant tastes, smells and images
    • Active when disgusted
    • Active when nauseated
    • Damage to anterior insula
    • Can’t experience disgust
    • Trouble recognizing facial expressions of disgust
    • Mirror-neuron matching system
    • Triggers in us what we see in others
    • Intensifies moral judgments
    • Those people are more guilty
• Sad
  • Emotional pain
    • Temporary (depression chronic)
    • Loss, despair, helplessness
    • Crying
      • Crying is bad criterion
    • Separation from parent
      • Sad
      • Afraid
    • Pupil size
      • Faces with small pupils rated more sad
      • Your pupil size smaller when sad
  • Depression
    • Sad, anxious, empty, hopeless
    • Aversion to activity
    • Lose of interest
• Surprise
  • Shortest expression
  • Brief emotional state
    • unexpected event
  • Is long-lasting surprise shock?
  • Characteristics
    • Raised eyebrows
      • curved and high
      • most important cue
    • Horizontal wrinkles on forehead
    • Dropped jaw
      • Intensity = how much jaw drops
    • Open eyelids
      • See whites of their eyes
    • Lasts fraction of a second
      • Followed by fear, joy, etc.
  • 1. Hard to fake expression
  • 2. Hard to fake feeling
    • Raising eyebrows won’t give feeling
  • Startle response
    • Reaches pons 3-8 ms
    • Followed by reappraisal
    • shift emotion to joy, etc.
• Happiness
  • Martin Selligman’s PERMA
    • Pleasure (tasty food, warm bath)
    • Engagement (flow) (challenging activity)
    • Relationships
    • Significant others
    • Spending money on others
    • Meaning (quest for something bigger)
    • Accomplishments (completed tangible goals)
  • Damage to brain reduces it
    • Huntington’s disease
    • Parkinson’s disease
    • Multiple sclerosis
    • Epilepsy
    • Stroke
  • No validated way to increase
  • Don’t know how to substantially improve long-term happiness
• Theories of Emotion
  • Components
    • Body sensations (heart rate, etc)
    • Perception of danger
    • Emotion (fear)
    • Behavior (run)
    • Stimulus
  • 1. Common Sense
    • See a bear
    • Feel fear
    • Run
  • 2. James-Lange
    • See the bear, run, feel fear
    • Emotion is interpretation of physiological $
      • I run, therefore I am afraid
    • Action first, think about it later
    • Find ourselves trembling, experience fear
    • But internal organs are relatively insensitive
      • Can’t respond quickly
    • Feedback from them could account for our feelings of emotions?
      • Theory difficult to verify experimentally
      • Emotion is a label
      • ANS and skeletal actions occur before emotion
      • I see bear, run, then feel fear
  • 3. Two Factor Theory
    • Schachter and Singer
      • Ss told given vitamin shot
      • Received either
        • adrenaline or placebo (saline)
      • Put in room with another person (experimenter)
        • Took cues from person with
          • playful
          • angry
      • Need both bio reaction and cognitive cues
    • I see bear
      • I feel sensations
      • I see what other people are doing
      • If they are afraid, I am afraid
    • I see bear
      • I feel sensations
      • Use cues to determine what I think trembling caused by
      • Fear
  • 4. Cognitive Mediation
    • Component process model
    • Brain senses lots of things
    • Make low-level appraisal of rel.
    • Triggers bodily reactions, behaviors & feelings
  • I see the bear
    • I think I’m in trouble
    • I breathe fast, run, and feel fear
  • Cognitive awareness is fast
    • Brain can categorize events as pleasant or unpleasant as quickly as 120 ms

Sometimes things don’t go so well.

Outline

• Major Depressive Disorder
  • Lasts for weeks at a time
  •  Symptoms
    • Little pleasure from sex or food
    • Thoughts of suicide or death
    • Don’t enjoy usual activities
    • Feel worthless, sad, guilty
    • Lack energy & pleasure
    • Pull away from friends
    • Trouble concentrating
    • Suicidal thoughts
    • Trouble sleeping
    • Helpless
    • Sad
  •  Findings
    • React normally to sad images
    • React normally to fearful images
    • Rarely smile are happy images
    • Rarely laugh at jokes
    • Decreased R to likely reward
  •  5% of US adults
  • Childhood depression
    • Equal for boys and girls
    • Beyond 14, more common in female
• Range
  • Long-term depression
  • More common to have episodes
    • periods of normal mood
  • First episode longest
  • More intense first episode
  • Easier to start another
•  Causes
  • 1. Genetics
    • Early-onset (before age 30)
    • More relatives with depression
    • Bulimia, irritable bowel syndrome
    • Alcohol or marijuana abuse
    • Anxiety & migraines
    • ADHD & OCD
    • Late onset (after 45 to 50)
    • Relatives have circulatory problems
  •  2. Infections
    • Viral infections in farm animals?
    • Borna disease
    • 1/3 have it
    • Infectious neurotropic virus
    • Abnormal behavior
    • Death
  •  3. Estrogen
    • More women than men
    • Postpartum depression
    • 20% of mothers
    • Recover quickly
  • 4. Brain Abnormalities
    • Hemisphere Dominance
    • Decreased activity in left hemisphere
    • Increased activity in right prefrontal cortex
• Treatments
  • Untreated
    • Recover within few months
    • Episodes
  •  Drugs
    • Some respond to one drug and not another
    • Takes effect minutes to hours
    • Weeks before mood elevation
• Antidepressant drugs
  • 1. Tricyclics
    • Prevent reuptake of serotonin+
  • 2. SSRIs
    • Prevent reuptake of serotonin
    • fluoxetine (Prozac)
  • 3. SNRIs
    • Block reuptake of serotonin & norepinephrine
  • 4. MAOIs
    • Monoamine oxidase inhibitors
    • Block enzyme from metabolizing
  • 5. Atypical antidepressants
    • bupropion (Wellbutrin)
      • inhibits reuptake of dopamine & some norepinephrine
• Placebo vs drug
  • Mild to moderate depression, no clear benefit
  • Severe depression, drugs don’t always work
•  ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy)
  • Seizures with electric shock
  • Every other day for two weeks
  • Invented by Ladislas Meduna
    • 1930’s for schizophrenia
    • Ineffectual on schizophrenia
    • Overused in 1950’s
  • Major side effect = memory loss
    • Lasts for several months
  • 50% relapse within 6 months if used alone
• Altered Sleep Patterns
  • Sleep problems precede mood changes
  • More eye movements in REM
    • Enter REM within 45 minutes
    • 80 minutes for non-depressed
  • Like jet lag
  •  Change sleep cycle
    • Stay awake all night
    • Alternate sleep schedule
• Exercise
  • Regular, non-strenuous exercise
    • increase blood flow to brain
• Unipolar vs Biploar
  • Unipolar
    • Between depression & normal
    • Bipolar disorder
      • (also called manic-depressive)
    • between depression & mania
  •  Manic
    • Side effects of steroids & SSRIs
    • Drug intoxication
      • (cocaine & amphetamine)
    • Tumors
    • Mood disorder
  • Presence of mania = bipolar
    • Don’t need to have been depressed
  •  Cyclical changes in mood
    • Even if never hit depression
    • Sleep (too much, too little)
•  Bipolar I
  • Large swings
  • Switch between
    • good moods (happy, highly active, up)
    • bad moods (irritable, angry, depressed)
  • Men & women (about equal)
  • Starts early: 15-25 years old
  • Also called manic-depression
    • At least 1 manic episode
    • Often many depressive episodes
  • Mania can last for day or months
  • Unknown cause
    • More likely among relatives
  •  Triggers
    • Medications (antidepressants, steroids)
    • Sleeplessness
    • Drug abuse
    • Childbirth
  • Manic Symptoms
    • Elevated mood; boost of energy
    • Don’t sleep much (not tired)
    • Easily distracted
    • Racing thoughts
    • Bursts of cleaning, doing
    • Talking more or faster
    • Overestimate abilities
    • Poor self control
    • Binge eating, drinking or drugs
    • Promiscuity
    • Spending
    • Temper
    •  Restless activity
    • Excitement & laughter
    • Self-confidence
    • Rambling speech
    • Loss of inhibitions
•  Bipolar
  • I = large swings
  • II = sad and guilty
  • Cyclothmia = “bipolar light”
•  Bipolar II
  • Never had manic episode
  • Alternate between
    • Sad and guilty
    • High energy-impulsiveness
  • Milder episodes
    • Also called hypomania
    • More common in women
  • More depression
  • More “mixed” episodes
    • mania & depression at same time
  • Women 3x more likely to also have:
    • Alcoholism
    • Anxiety disorder
  • 1+ episode per year
  • Genetics
    • Strong hereditary basis
    • Twin studies
    • Two genes increase probability of bipolar II
      • Same genes
        • predispose major depression
        • predispose bipolar disorder
• All Types
  • High risk of suicide
  • Both when manic & depressed
  • Manic & depressive moods can overlap
• Treatment
  • Drugs for mood stabilization
  • Carbamazepine (anti-convulse)
  • Lamotrigine (anti-seizure)
  • Valproic acid (anti-seizure)
  • Lithium salts (anti-manic)
    • Most effective therapy
    • Don’t know why
  • Consistent sleep schedule
• Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
  • Usually in winter
  • Most common closest to poles
  • Treatment
  • Expose to very bright lights
    • for about an hour
    • early in morning or evening
• Anxiety Disorders
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  • Obsessive-Compulsive
  • Panic Disorder
  • Social Phobia
  • PTSD
• 1. Generalize Anxiety Disorder
  • Extremely worried
    • Little or no reason to worry
  • Anxious about getting thru day
    • Fear things will go bad
  • Develops slowly
    • Often starts as teen
  • Symptoms come & go
    • Worse under stress
  • Symptoms
    • Headaches
    • Trouble falling asleep
    • Excessive worry
    • Aware you’re worrying
    • Unexplained pain
    • Stomach aches
    • Difficulty swallowing
    • Tremors, twitches
  • Can run in families
    • No clear genetic link
  • Treated with combo of:
    • Medications
      • Anti-anxiety
      • Anti-depressants
    • Therapy
      • Thinking, breathing
• 2. Obsessive-Compulsive
  • OCD
  • Episodes
  • Obsessions: upsetting thoughts
  • Compulsions: stress reducers
  • Development
    • Starts in childhood or teen
    • Most diagnosed by age 19
  • Symptoms
    • Need to repeatedly check things
    • Repeated thoughts or images
    • Fear of dirt, gems, intruders
    • Routines & rituals
    • Spend 1+ hrs per day
    • Prefer round numbers (lucky)
    • Count lines in paragraph
    • Wash hair three times
    • Morning routine
  • Runs in families
    • No direct genetic link
  • Treatment
    • Cognitive therapy
    • fear without obsessive thoughts
    • Exposure-Response prevention
    • See image, change response
    • Medication
    • Anti-anxiety medications
    • Antidepressants
    • Work better than anti-anxiety
    • 2-3 months to work
• 3. Panic Disorder
  • Frequent periods of anxiety
  • Occasional attacks
  • Rapid breathing
  • Increased heart rate
  • Sweating
  • Symptoms
    • Fear for several minutes
    • Fear of disaster
    • Fear losing control
    • May feel like heart attack
    • Worry about next attack
  • Young Women
    • More common in women
    • More in adolescent & young adult
  • Treatment
    • GABA
      • main inhibitory NT in amygdala
      • GABA blockers induce panic
    • Benzodiazepines
      • Diazepam
      • Chlordiazepoxide
      • Alprazolam
      • Bind to GABAA receptor
        • receptor changes shape
        • attach easily & bind more
      • Affect amygdala, midbrain & hypothalamus+
      • Can be addictive
      • Temporary relief
    • Beta-blockers
      • Less sweat & pounding heart
    • Propranolol
      • Drug
      • Affects synapses in amygdala
        • Interferes with protein synthesis
        • Weakens emotional R
      • Persisting decrease in fear intensity
  • Runs in families
    • No direct genetic link
• 4. Social Phobia
  • Strong fear of being judged
  • Strong feeling of embarrassed
  • Fear gets in way of work, etc
  • Afraid of doing common things in front of others
    • sign a check in front of a cashier
    • eat or drink in front of others
    • use a public restroom
  • Know its irrational but can’t control the fear
  • Starts as child-adolescent
    • Diagnoses if symptoms last 6 months+
    • Can last for many years
  • Symptoms
    • Anxious being with other people
    • Hard time talking to others
    • Self-conscious
      • Afraid others will judge them
    • Worry for days before an event
    • Avoid groups & crowds
      • Blush or sweat around people
      • Feel nauseous when with others
    • Afraid of being called on in school
    • Hate to meet with my boss
    • Don’t eat lunch with co-workers
    • Worried about being stared at
    • Heart pounds if go to meeting
    • Can’t eat or sleep for days before staff meeting
• 5. PTSD
  • Some get, not most
  • See event (observer)
  • In event (participant)
  • Anyone
  • Any age
  • Symptoms
    • Three categories:
    • 1. Re-experiencing symptoms
      • Flashbacks
      • Bad dreams
      • Frightening thoughts
    • 2. Avoidance symptoms
      • Stay away from places, events
      • Avoid reminders of experience
      • Emotionally numb
      • Guilty, depressed or worried
      • Loss of interest hobbies, etc
      • Difficulty remembering event
    • 3. Hyperarousal symptoms
      • Relatively constant symptoms
      • Not triggered
      • Easily startled
      • Feel tense or “on edge”
      • Trouble sleeping
      • Angry outbursts
  • Diagnosis
    • 1 month+
    • 1+ re-experiencing symptom
    • 3+ avoidance symptoms
    • 2+ hyperarousal symptoms
  • Most people don’t get PTSD
  • Risk factors
    • Previous dangerous events
    • History of mental illness
    • Getting hurt
    • Seeing people hurt or killed
    • Lack of social support after event
  • Resilience factors
    • Support group
    • Feeling did right thing
    • Coping strategies
    • Respond even though afraid
  • Medications
    • 1. Zoloft
    • 2. Paxil
      • Both are antidepressants
      • sadness, worry, anger & numb
    • Side effects
      • annoying but go away (few days)
      • headaches, nausea, sleepy
  • Other medications
    • Benzodiazepines
      • relax and sleep
      • may cause memory problems or become dependency
    • Antipsychotics
      • Tend to gain weight
  • Other antidepressants
    • Prozac & Celexa
    • Feel less tense or sad
    • Co-occurring depression