Descarte’s Error
A patient with intact cognition but an impaired ability to use emotion to guide decision making, due to ventromedial prefrontal cortex damage.
Emotional Expression
Emotions allow us to signal our internal state to others, constant across cultures and ages, include fear, anger, surprise, joy, sadness, and disgust.
The James-Lange Theory of Emotion
Physiological reaction in the body causes the Emotion, bottom-up theory because stimuli are detected by the peripheral nervous system and transmitted to the brain.
Stim -> Phys. Response -> Emotion
● Fight or flight system reacts very rapidly to
stimuli
● Physiological reaction in body causes emotion
The Cannon-Bard Theory
the Emotion causes physiological reaction in body,
- top-down theory because information about the emotion spreads from the brain to the body
Schachter- Singer Two factor Therory
Emotions do not need to be either top-down or bottom-up, could involve some combination of both theories
: physiological arousal and cognitive label.
Purpose of Capillano Suspension Bridge
Evidence for two factor theory and misattribution of physiological arousal to emotional state
=Men more likely to give a girl their number if their heart was pumpin fast = it could be LOVE
Core Limbic Structures
Hypothalamus: Internal States, Homeostatic Drives.
Amygdala: Externally Generated States and Drives.
Hippocampus: Emotional Memories
Ventral Striatum: Pleasure and Reward
Bringing It All Together: The Circuit of Papez and the Ring of Limbic Cortex
Hypothalamus fx
- maintain homeostasis, Receptors in the bloodstream report composition of blood to the hypothalamus
- Reproductive fx
- Defensive/Offensive Aggresion
Hypothalamus Output pathways
-Autonomic output pathway stimulates the sympathetic
and parasympathetic nervous systems
-Neuroendocrine pathway regulates hormone levels
throughout the body
-Motivational pathway stimulates the forebrain (striatum
and cerebral cortex) to generate complex plans and to
achieve goals
Can Hypothalamic Circuits Generate
Inner Emotional Experiences?
hypothalamus, brings together:
- Survival-relevant stimuli
- Internal drives caused by these stimuli
- A means to change the internal state to respond to the stimuli
Amygdala Output pathway
Much of the input to the amygdala is from the outside world.
- Down to the brainstem and spinal cord
- To hypothalamic nuclei that are important for secreting
hormones - Up to the striatum and the cortex
Parts of the Amygdala
-basolateral amygdala tracks value and projects to the
higher sensory regions in the cortex.
-centromedial amygdala projects to and influences the
hypothalamus and brainstem.
-amygdala is important for fear learning in classical
conditioning experiments.
Damage to amygdala?
Can impact behavior and emotions
have difficulty learning and expressing fear
Anterior vs Posterior Hippocampus
- The posterior hippocampus is involved in spatial functions.
- The anterior hippocampus is involved in emotional memory
Ventral Striatum: Pleasure and Reward
stimulation = intense reward (social praise, monetary reward, positive outcomes
Lesions = associated with severe depression
with anhedonia.
The Circuit of Papez
- Interconnected areas involved in emotional responses.
- Hypothalamus monitors the internal environment.
- Amygdala monitors the external environment.
- Anterior hippocampus generates emotional states based on past experiences.
- Ventral striatum represents reward value.
- Cingulate Gyrus
The Limbic Cortex
- Interoceptive Insula: The “Feeling” Side of Emotions
- Cingulate Cortex: A Motor Cortex for the Limbic System
- Ventromedial Prefontal Cortex: Gut Feelings
Insula
regulates the sensory, subjective experience of
emotions,
insula produces whole-body sensations that are associated with emotional states
Posterior vs anterior insula
-Posterior insula is associated with the inner-world
sensations such as pain, cold, tension, hunger etc.
-Anterior insula is involved in the complex, integrated
sensations - “feel part of feelings”.
Patients with anterior insula seizures describe the feeling as very pleasant and enjoyable - “a well-being inside”
Cingulate Cortex
-cingulate cortex provides motor control for the autonomic nervous system, brainstem, amygdala, and hippocampus.
Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
-responsible for generating the internal signals - gut
feeling- + big part of personality
damage causes impulsive, irresponsible and angry emotions/ behaviors
anterior vs posterior Hippocampus
● Posterior: more involved in spatial aspects of memory
● Anterior: more involved in emotional aspects of
memory
Anterior vs Posterior Cingulate Cortex
Posterior Cingulate
● Connects to posterior hippocampus to support navigation
Anterior cingulate
● Connects to dorsolateral prefrontal cortex to influence emotional feelings of effort in activities
Damage to Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex
● Normal intelligence, language and motor control
● But, cannot get along well in daily life = Phineas Gage no longer himself
-More impuslive = picks big pay off with high loss
