What are the 6 basic emotions
Anger Fear Happiness Surprise Disgust Sadness
Define emotion
Increase or decrease in physiological activity that is accompanied by feelings that are characteristic of the emotion
What are the 3 components of an emotional response
- cognitive
- affect
- behavioural
What’s the James Lange theory
Emotions as a result of the physiological arousal that comes before it
Eg- we feel sorry because we cry
What’s the cognitive theory to emotion
Arousal only contributes to the emotions intensity
How does facial feedback effect emotion
Paul elkman
Posed expressions could produce the intended emotion and a distinct pattern of physiological arousal
Examples of facial expressions and response
- stimulus is more painful when making a sad face
- cartoons are more amusing during induced smiling
- we mimic others emotional expressions (contributes to our emotional empathy)
What happens when you inactivate the medial frontal cortex
Lose the ability to identify angry expressions
What happens when you damage the insular cortex
You don’t experience disgust or recognise events that trigger disgust
Which hemisphere is more responsive to emotional stimuli
The right
- recognition and identification of facial expression related to sensomatory cortex in the right hemisphere
- crying/ laughter activates right amygdala
What does the amygdala do
Primary area in emotion and fear analysis
Causes deficits in feeling fear/ knowledge of fear
What are the two paths to emotion
Low road (amygdala)
- faster reaction
- more automatic
High road (prefrontal cortex)
- slower
- more conscious
What can frontal lesions do?
Disrupt emotional processing
What happens with damage to the VMPFC
Impaired decision making in life
How does stress affect the brain
Destroys neurons in the hippocampus
What happens when you have ptsd
- smaller than average hippocampus
- short allele of 5HT transporter gene increases susceptibility
