Chapter 12 Emotional Behaviors

1. Chapter 12Emotional Behaviors

2. What is Emotion? • An emotional state has three aspects: • Cognition • Readiness for action • Feeling

3. What is Emotion? • Autonomic nervous system arousal • James-Lange theory

4. Fig. 12-1, p. 355

5. Cannon-Bard Theory

6. 2 factor (cognitive) theory • Schacter-Singer

7. What is Emotion? • Emotional experiences arouse many areas of the brain • The limbic system • PET and fMRI studies

8. Fig. 12-3, p. 357

9. What is Emotion? • Most emotions tend not to be localized in specific parts of the cortex.

10. What is Emotion? • BUT localization in the brain seems to exist for the emotion of disgust. • The insular cortex

11. What is Emotion? • The two hemispheres of the brain play different roles in emotion.

12. What is Emotion? • The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS)

13. What is Emotion? • Differences in frontal cortex activity relates to personality. • left hemisphere • right hemisphere

14. What is Emotion? • The right hemisphere seems to be more responsive to emotional stimuli than the left. • Damage to the right temporal cortex causes problems in the ability to identify emotions of others.

15. What is Emotion? • Function of emotion

16. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Pain, threat or other unpleasant stimuli usually trigger an attack behavior. • Attack behaviors are associated with increased activity in the corticomedial area of the amygdala. • After experiencing a provocation, people are more likely to attack for a period of time afterwards. • An initial attack behavior increases the probability of a second attack behavior.

17. Fig. 12-5, p. 361

18. Attack and Escape Behaviors • genetic contribution • Dizygotic twins • Monozygotic twins

19. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Smoking habits of the mother

20. Fig. 12-6, p. 362

21. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Nature versus Nurture

22. Attack and Escape Behaviors • males versus females. • testosterone.

23. Fig. 12-7, p. 363

24. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Testosterone alters the way people respond to stimuli. • Increased testosterone levels show: • Increases in heart rate. • The tendency to attend longer and more vigorously to situations related to conflict and aggression.

25. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Electrical stimulation of certain areas of the brain can evoke aggressive behaviors. • The exact area of the stimulation affects the type of response: • Ranging from attack to facial movements or growls in animals.

26. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Intermittent explosive disorder

27. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Studies also suggest a connection between aggressive behavior and low serotonin release. • Turnover • Valzelli’s (1973) study with mice found that isolating male mice for 4 weeks increased aggressive behavior and decreased serotonin turnover.

28. Attack and Escape Behaviors • 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) • High levels of 5-HIAA imply much serotonin release and turnover.

29. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Research with monkeys has demonstrated that low levels of 5-HIAA increases the probability of attack on larger monkeys and few survived past age 6. • Monkeys with high levels of 5-HIAA were more likely to survive.

30. Evolution seems to select for an intermediate amount of anxiety and aggression. • Evolution might also select for high aggressive behaviors. • may die young, but are more likely to achieve a dominant position within the troop.

31. Attack and Escape Behaviors • In human studies, low serotonin turnover has been linked to:

32. Fig. 12-9, p. 365

33. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Genes control the production of tryptophan hydroxylase.

34. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Genes also control the production of the enzyme monoamine oxidase.

35. Attack and Escape Behaviors • The role of serotonin is very complicated and should not be thought of as the “anti-aggression” transmitter. • During aggression, the brain, in fact, releases serotonin.

36. Attack and Escape Behaviors • “Fear” is associated with a strong tendency to escape from an immediate threat. • “Anxiety” is a general sense that something dangerous might occur. • Not necessarily associated with the desire to flee.

37. Fig. 12-10, p. 367

38. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Output from the amygdala to the hypothalamus controls autonomic fear responses. • Axons extending from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex regulate approach and avoidance responses.

39. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Damage to the amygdala interferes with: • the learning of fear responses • retention of fear responses previously learned • interpreting or understanding stimuli with emotional consequences

40. Attack and Escape Behaviors • In the early 1900s, studies of monkeys with Kluver-Bucy syndrome illustrated the effects of amygdala damage.

41. Attack and Escape Behaviors • fMRI studies of humans suggest the amygdala responds strongly to emotional stimuli and facial expressions. • Not necessarily associated with just fear.

42. Attack and Escape Behaviors • In humans, damage to the amygdala does not result in the loss of emotion.

43. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Amygdala damage

44. Fig. 12-14, p. 370

45. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Genetic variations in amygdala

46. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Drugs intended to control anxiety alter activity at amygdala synapses.

47. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Barbituates • Benzodiazepines

48. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Diazepam-binding inhibitor (DBI)

49. Attack and Escape Behaviors • Ethyl alcohol • Cross-tolerance