WHAT IS AFFECTIVE
NEUROSCIENCE?
Affect:
= study of how the brain creates emotional responses
Affect; emotion, mood, and stress
What is an emotion?
Many emotion researchers agree emotion entails at least:
1. Physiological component
2. Behavioral component
* Facial feedback?
3. Subjective feeling
The Limbic System
Complex neural circuits proposed by Maclean that involved in Processing of emotion
Papez circuit
then what Maclean do?
identified a neural circuit related with emotional process.
MacLean (1949, 1952)
expands Papez circuit to
the limbic system
* Some errors
- Consequences?
* Locationist view of
emotion
EMOTIONAL NETWORKS
- Recently, more focus on human
emotion - No single emotion circuit
- Case study: S.M.
- Focus on neural systems involved in emotional tasks & specific emotional behaviors
Case study: S.M.
The person here have damage in the amygdala, she still capable to draw happy, sad, angry, surprise faces, but no AFRAID (so she draw something se saw in a TV about it)
Basic emotions: Nonhuman animals
Disagreement
* Jaak Panksepp: seeking, rage,
fear, lust, care, grief, play
Do animal researchers
investigating basic emotions
need to be concerned that
animals can’t report on their
feelings?
Not necessarily, because researchers can infer basic emotions in animals through observable behaviors, physiological responses, and neural patterns without relying on self-reports. This allows for the objective study of emotions such as fear or pleasure.
Basic emotion human
- Not a consensus
on these - Facial expressions
Ekman: Complex emotions
extended
duration, no distinct
facial expressions
* Examples: love, jealousy
DIMENSIONAL THEORIES OF
EMOTION
- Most agree emotions can be
characterized by: - Motivational direction:
- Most agree emotions can be
characterized by: - Valence
- Arousal
- Motivational direction
- Approach
- Avoidance
- Approach-avoidance conflicts
MAOA AND VIOLENCE
Antisocial behaviors and childhood maltreatment study
Monoamine oxidase A: what does this do?
* Deficiency in MAOA too much serotonin
inside neurons
* Alter early brain development
* MAOA coded on X gene
THE AMYGDALAE
Single entity?
Three main complexes?
Is no a single entity
- Basolateral nuclear complex: actions
during threat - Centromedial complex: innate emotional
behavior & response - Cortical nucleus: olfaction, modulate
memory formation?
AMYGDALA: FUNCTION?
- Most knowledge in context of fear processing
EMOTION PROCESSING
Emotions are functional & involved with # of other cognitive & behavioral processes
* E.g., learning, memory, etc.
BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE
Emotions influence people’s
illness and recovery patterns
Hans Selye (1979) definition for stress?
stress is the non-specific response of the body to any demand made
General adaptation syndrome:
threats to the body
activate a general response to stress
Stress activates two systems in the body
- Sympathetic nervous system
- HPA axis
HPA axis precess?
- HPA axis becomes dominant response to prolonged stressors
- Activation of hypothalamus induces pituitary gland to secrete
adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) - Stimulates the adrenal cortex to secrete cortisol
- What does cortisol do?
- Cortisol helps metabolize energy to fight a difficult situation
Stages of STRESS AND THE GENERAL ADAPTATION SYNDROME
- Alarm stage: increased sympathetic nervous system activity
- Resistance stage: sympathetic response declines; adrenal cortex continues releasing cortisol and other hormones to prolong alertness
- Exhaustion stage: occurs after prolonged stress; individual no longer has energy to sustain responses
- Sapolsky (1998)
nature of today’s crises are
more prolonged
* widespread stress-related
illness & problems
* Long-term, inescapable issues activate the general adaptation syndrome
* Results in exhaustion
STRESS AND THE HPA AXIS
Immune system protects?
- Immune system protects the body against viruses and bacteria by producing leukocytes (white blood cells)
