Lecture 09 - Emotion
What is an Emotion
🧠 the components to emotion
○ feeling
○ bodily/physical reaction
○ cognition
🧠 can be defined in diff ways
○ avalenced experiencewith particular pattern of physiologicalactivity
■ boredom = low arousal ; anger = high arousal
○ amental and physiologicalstate associated w/ a widevariety of feelings, thoughts,
and behaviours
■ incorporates cognition
■ generally involves
● subjective report (feelings)
● physiological/behavioural response (changes in sweating,heart rate, etc.)
● cognitive appraisal (interpreting feelings and determininghow to use it)
Universal Emotions and the Brain
🧠 the six primary emotions
○ anger
○ fear
○ disgust
○ surprise
○ happiness
○ sadness
🧠 distinct patterns of expression:facial action actioncoding system (FACS)
○ determining emotion based on the facial muscles that are activated
■ i.e. smile = activates the smiling muscles in the face
🧠 emotions in the brain are more complex
○ many brain areas contribute together to emotions
○ i.e. VLPFC, Insula, ATL, etc.
Emotion and Memory
🧠 theamygdalaactivates more for negative emotions
○ responsible for responding to emotions
🧠 boost of activity in the amygdala leads to a better memory
🧠 incidental memory test (w/ fMRI)
○ manipulate the valence of pictures shown to participants
, ■ either negative or neutral
○ ask them to judge the valence of the picture
○ once done judging valence, surprise memory test
■ participant isn’t aware of a memory test prior to
○ emotional pictures are more remembered
○ neutral pictures are more known
■ know = a version of memory
○ higher activity observed in the amygdala for remembering emotional pictures compared
to the neutral pictures
Fear Conditioning
🧠 learning to be afraid of something
🧠 a form of classical conditioning
🧠 study with fear conditioning through experience
○ before training
■ present a light alone (neutral stimulus), no response
■ present a foot shock alone, causes a normal startle
■ present a loud noise alone, causes a normal startle
○ during training
■ present light and foot shock, causes a normal startle
■ present light alone, causes normal startle
● light = conditioned stimulus
● reacting in anticipation for the shock because it’s been mentally connected
to the foot shock
■ present light and loud sound but no foot shock, potentiated startle
● increased likelihood of a startle
🧠 instructed fear conditioning
○ fear conditioning but through tell an individual about an experience that could instigate
fear rather than having the individually personally experience it
○ i.e. the fear of public speaking is commonly known to be a result of instructed fear
conditioning
■ hear about other people’s experience with public speaking, and anticipate it to be
scary or bad without actually experiencing it ourselves
○ study for instructed fear conditioning
■ tell participant “the blue square means you will be shocked”
■ present various colours of squares one at a time on the screen
■ when a blue square is presented, the participant anticipates a shock and starts
showing symptoms of fear (sweaty palms)
What is an Emotion
🧠 the components to emotion
○ feeling
○ bodily/physical reaction
○ cognition
🧠 can be defined in diff ways
○ avalenced experiencewith particular pattern of physiologicalactivity
■ boredom = low arousal ; anger = high arousal
○ amental and physiologicalstate associated w/ a widevariety of feelings, thoughts,
and behaviours
■ incorporates cognition
■ generally involves
● subjective report (feelings)
● physiological/behavioural response (changes in sweating,heart rate, etc.)
● cognitive appraisal (interpreting feelings and determininghow to use it)
Universal Emotions and the Brain
🧠 the six primary emotions
○ anger
○ fear
○ disgust
○ surprise
○ happiness
○ sadness
🧠 distinct patterns of expression:facial action actioncoding system (FACS)
○ determining emotion based on the facial muscles that are activated
■ i.e. smile = activates the smiling muscles in the face
🧠 emotions in the brain are more complex
○ many brain areas contribute together to emotions
○ i.e. VLPFC, Insula, ATL, etc.
Emotion and Memory
🧠 theamygdalaactivates more for negative emotions
○ responsible for responding to emotions
🧠 boost of activity in the amygdala leads to a better memory
🧠 incidental memory test (w/ fMRI)
○ manipulate the valence of pictures shown to participants
, ■ either negative or neutral
○ ask them to judge the valence of the picture
○ once done judging valence, surprise memory test
■ participant isn’t aware of a memory test prior to
○ emotional pictures are more remembered
○ neutral pictures are more known
■ know = a version of memory
○ higher activity observed in the amygdala for remembering emotional pictures compared
to the neutral pictures
Fear Conditioning
🧠 learning to be afraid of something
🧠 a form of classical conditioning
🧠 study with fear conditioning through experience
○ before training
■ present a light alone (neutral stimulus), no response
■ present a foot shock alone, causes a normal startle
■ present a loud noise alone, causes a normal startle
○ during training
■ present light and foot shock, causes a normal startle
■ present light alone, causes normal startle
● light = conditioned stimulus
● reacting in anticipation for the shock because it’s been mentally connected
to the foot shock
■ present light and loud sound but no foot shock, potentiated startle
● increased likelihood of a startle
🧠 instructed fear conditioning
○ fear conditioning but through tell an individual about an experience that could instigate
fear rather than having the individually personally experience it
○ i.e. the fear of public speaking is commonly known to be a result of instructed fear
conditioning
■ hear about other people’s experience with public speaking, and anticipate it to be
scary or bad without actually experiencing it ourselves
○ study for instructed fear conditioning
■ tell participant “the blue square means you will be shocked”
■ present various colours of squares one at a time on the screen
■ when a blue square is presented, the participant anticipates a shock and starts
showing symptoms of fear (sweaty palms)
