emotion

Question 1

what are emotions

Answer 1

states elicited by rewarding or aversive stimuli and their omission or termination

Question 2

what areas of the brain are associated with emotion

Answer 2

hippocampus, amygdala, hypothalamus, prefrontal cortex, meso-corticolimbic dopamine system

Question 3

what do fear and anxiety comprise of

Answer 3

protective/defensive responses normally elicited by aversive stimuli

Question 4

what does fear refer to

Answer 4

a phasic escape or avoidance responses to distinct aversive stimuli

Question 5

what does anxiety refer to

Answer 5

a tonic response to diffuse aversive situations and is associated with conflict and uncertainty

Question 6

what are fear and anxiety related disorders in humans

Answer 6

generalised anxiety disorder, ocd, panic disorder, phobias, and ptsd

Question 7

what is classical fear conditioning

Answer 7

pairing aversive stimuli with neutral stimuli - neutral stimuli elicits fear response through association

Question 8

what is the functional-anatomical model of conditioned fear; central role for the amygdala

Answer 8

amygdala receives sensory information through auditory thalamus and cortex and somatosensory thalamus and cortex. lateral amygdala sends senses to central and outputs

Question 9

which lesion areas caused fear response

Answer 9

central and lateral

Question 10

what did lesions to lateral hypothalamus do

Answer 10

triggers blood pressure response but not freezing

Question 11

what did lesions to the central gray area do

Answer 11

preserved blood pressure, freezing affected

Question 12

what is fear-conditioning-related plasticity in LA neurons

Answer 12

LA neurons come to fire in response to a tone when the tone is paired with a foot shock

Question 13

what does damage to the amygdala do

Answer 13

impairs conditioned fear

Question 14

what did bechara et al find about amygdala damage on fear conditioning

Answer 14

fear conditioning is absent in patients with amygdala damage in comparison to a control group but they have in tact declarative memory

Question 15

what did fmri scans show about amygdala fear (LaBar et al)

Answer 15

some evidence for amygdala activation in fear, inconsistent signal activation in the amygdala in early acquisition

Question 16

ptsd and amygdala activity

Answer 16

increased activity in patients with ptsd

Question 17

what is the hippocampus closely connected to

Answer 17

amygdala and hypothalamus - in particular the ventral part

Question 18

what was found about ventral hippocampus and conditioned freezing (Richmond et al)

Answer 18

dorsal hippocampus lesion show intact fear but ventral lesion shows affect on fear

Question 19

ventral hippocampus and innate anxiety responses - rats

Answer 19

hippocampal lesions increase the time rats spent in the open arms of the elevated plus maze

Question 20

what is the effect of hippocampal lesions on anxiety

Answer 20

reduces anxiety

Question 21

what did mcnaughton and gray find about hippocampal lesions and anxiolytics

Answer 21

similarities - they both reduce anxiety

Question 22

what did bremner et al find about panic disorder

Answer 22

decreased hippocampal benzodiazepine receptor binding in panic disorder.

Question 23

what is a reward

Answer 23

an object or event that elicits approach and is worked for

Question 24

what is reward associated with

Answer 24

wanting and liking

Question 25

what is wanting characterised by

Answer 25

feeling of desire and approach behaviours

Question 26

what is liking characterised by

Answer 26

feeling of pleasure (explicit liking) and other objective responses (implicit liking) e.g. facial expressions

Question 27

what are classical techniques to identify brain substrates of reward

Answer 27

instrumental conditioning, intracranial electrical self-stimulation, intracranial drug self-administration, intracerebral microdialysis to measure neurotransmitters associated with rewarding stimuli

Question 28

what is instrumental conditioning

Answer 28

a particular response is followed by a reward - can measure rewarding properties of stimuli - the more the animal works for it, the more rewarding

Question 29

intracranial electrical self-stimulation

Answer 29

animal spontaneously presses lever to stimulate certain brain regions - they find the brain stimulation rewarding

Question 30

intracranial drug self-administration

Answer 30

animals can self administer pharmacological stimuli into brain regions - tells us whether the drug in the specific brain region is rewarding - will the animal work to get the drug

Question 31

intracerebral microdialysis to neurotransmitters associated with rewarding stimuli

Answer 31

microdialysis probe on nucleus accumbens - flash liquid past membrane - diffuses and can be measured. - a way to directly measure neurotransmitter content in the nucleus accumbens

Question 32

how does self-stimulation in the VTA show mesolimbic/mesocortical dopamine system involvement in rewards

Answer 32

animals find self-stimulation rewarding as it increased dopamine in the nucleus accumbens

Question 33

what did radhakishun et al find about dopamine

Answer 33

food increases accumbal dopamine

Question 34

what drugs increase accumbal dopamine

Answer 34

amphetamine, cocaine, morphine, ethanol and nicotine

Question 35

PET imaging to measure dopamine in humans

Answer 35

measure radioactive compounds in the brain - inject pps with dopamine recpetor antagonist - binds to dopamine receptors - signal can be picked up using PET imaging

Question 36

meso-corticolimbic dopamine system and brain reward circuitry

Answer 36

- reward increase nucleus accumbens dopamine - systematic and intra-NAC dopamine antagonists block responses normally maintained by reward

Question 37

chloinergic projection from PPTg to VTA and brain reward circuitry

Answer 37

- electrical self-stimulation - cholinergic drugs are self administered into VTA

Question 38

glutamate projections from mPFC to VTA

Answer 38

- electrical self-stimulation - stimulate dopamine releases in NAc

Question 39

what did berridge and robinson suggest about measuring liking

Answer 39

we can look at facial expressions to measure liking. facial expressions to sweet or bitter tastes may serve as objective and direct measures of liking

Question 40

what did pecina and berridge find about dopamine and opioids

Answer 40

nucleus accumbens dopamine is not required for liking but opioids are.

Question 41

what is the relationship between opioids and liking

Answer 41

liking is increased when using opioids compared to a control group.

Question 42

what is the relationship between amphetamine and liking

Answer 42

decreases liking

Question 43

what is the relationship between amphetamines and wanting

Answer 43

increases wanting

Question 44

what did wyvell and berridge find about dopamine in the nucleus accumbens

Answer 44

dopamine in nucleus accumbens stimulates wanting but not liking

Question 45

evidence for dopamine and nucleus accumbens playing an important role in positive and negative emotions

Answer 45

DNQX injection into nucleus accumbens elicits both appetitive and defensive behaviours

Question 46

what are functional implications of overlap between brain substrates of positive and negative emotions

Answer 46

- a common currency of emotion may enable brain to generate adaptive responses based on integrated assessment of positive and negative stimuli - brain substrates, such as dopamine, nucleus accumbens, and amygdala, may not play specific role in emotion per se, but may contribute to fundamental cognitive processes that are associated with both aversive and appetitive stimuli