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Social & Affective Neuroscience (Emotion/Cognition Interactions (Fear…
Social & Affective Neuroscience
Foundations of Affective Neuroscience
Theories of emotion
Discrete
There are basic emotional categories such as angry, sad, happy, and disgusted.
Dimensional
All emotions can be characterized by where they fall on a 2-dimensional plane, where one axis is "valence" and the other is "intensity"
Process-oriented
All emotions invoke different biases toward responses to a particular stimulus. For example, anger involves a negative affect but an approach motivation, whereas sadness involves negative affect but a withdrawal motivation.
Evolution over time
I think theories of emotion have gradually shifted to dimensional models, and I
believe
this theory might have more neuroanatomical support.
Newer methodological approaches
that scan the brain have helped us identify how emotions are registered in the brain, allowing us to see emotions as a
vertically-integrated process
Vertically-integrated models
Emotion involves activity in many areas of the brain, from the cortical structures that are responsible for executive function to the sub-cortical structures that are responsible for fear conditioning.
James-Lange Feedback Theory
Emotions originate from bodily feedback to emotional stimuli
"We are afraid
because
we run, we do not run because we are afraid."
Cannon-Bard
Early parallel model of emotion
Centered on diencephalon
Cortical pathway
Responsible for the feeling of emotions
Sub-cortical pathway
Responsible for the expression of emotions
Role of diencephalon
Papez Circuit
Pre-dated limbic system model
Also parallel process (stream of thought vs. stream of feeling)
Differentiated conscious feeling and physiological expression
Cingulate Gyrus
Center of emotion
Limbic System Model
A sub-cortical system is primarily responsible for the processing of emotion
Hypothalamus
Thalamus
Hippocampus
Amygdala
Critiques
Why the hippocampus?
Only sub-cortical structures?
Individual differences in affective processing styles
Left-PFC vs. Right-PFC
baseline activation
Left-PFC
Goal-approach responses, mechanisms to achieve goals, more positive affect
Right-PFC
Behavioral inhibition, vigilant attention, accompanied by negatively valenced emotional states
Studies to show this
Right-PFC activation correlated with BIS self-reports.
Consistent over time to prove trait, rather than state status
Left-PFC activation correlated with BAS self-reports
Consistent over time
Anger dispositions correlated with left-PFC activation
Teases out difference between positive-negative valence and approach-avoidance models
Left-PFC lesions associated with symptoms of depression
Depressed people are also more likely to have less baseline activity in left-PFC.
Inhibited babies show higher less left-PFC activation
They are also more likely to cry at distressing events
Affective Chronometry
Sustain Envelope of Emotion
How long does an emotion take to run its course?
2 Factors
Dispositions
Amygdala reactivity
Resilience (IPFC)
Emotion regulation strategies
Reappraisal
Rumination
Distraction
What is affective processing style?
Individual differences in valence-related emotional reactivity and regulation.
Emotion/Cognition Interactions
Fear conditioning
Acquisition
Amygdala
Fear learning and conversion to motor control
Studies to show this
Patient S.P.
Bilateral amygdala damage prevents learned SCR, although able to make declarative statements about association between CS and CR.
Declarative vs. non-declarative memory
Declarative does not always match up with non-declarative
Rat studies
Amygdala lesions prohibit acquisitions of fear responses
Imaging studies
Show thalamus, amygdala, and cingulate cortex could be a system for acquiring fear.
Pavlovian/Behavioral Paradigm
US to create UR paired with CS, in order to link CS and UR, becoming CR.
Extinction
Reconsolidation
Reconsolidation "neutralizes" the "unsafe" memory, turning it into a "safe" memory
Memories enter
"labile state"
for about ~6 hours, during which extinction training is more effective.
Extinction learning
A new "safe" memory is created alongside the old "unsafe" memory - over time that "safe" memory becomes the most activated, but the "unsafe" memory can always spontaneously reappear given the right context.
PFC (especially vmPFC)
PFC modulates the ITC of the amygdala to help with extinction learning by suppression.
vmPFC aids memory of extinction learning.
Studies to show this
vmPFC lesions in rats
inhibited memory of extinction 24 hours after extinction training.
Stimulation of PFC neurons in rats
stimulates ITC neurons which reduces "fear output" (motor, SCR) from Amygdala.
Contextual gating
Hippocampus
Contextual gating of fear responses
Studies to show this
Hippocampal lesion studies
in rats and amnesic patients show difficulty with contextual reinstatement of fear.
Fear reinstatement
Context can prompt the spontaneous return of fear responses
Why fear?
Rapid learning
Less susceptible to cultural influence?
Easy to measure
Translates across species
Emotional influence on memory
Emotion enhancing memory
Emotionally arousing
stimuli benefit memory encoding and retrieval
Encoding
Amygdala lesioned patients
do not have enhanced memory for emotionally arousing words.
Amygdala-MTL interactions predict successful emotional memory encoding
Seen through correlated activity
Release of hormones
predicts greater encoding capacity
Retrieval
Vocab
Familiarity
Remembering that an event happened, but not its contextual details
Recollection
Remembering an event and its contextual details
Evidence
Year-long picture experiment
Enhanced activity in Amygdala and MTL
for retrieval of emotionally arousing pictures.
Emotionally arousing pictures
retrieved more accurately than neutral pictures after one year
Autobiographical
Intensity matters more than valence
for accurate retrieval according to autobiographical studies
Hippocampus and r-PFC
implicated in access of emotional memory
Visual and l-PFC
implicated in elaboration of emotional memory (reliving)
Valenced
stimuli benefits mediates memory encoding and retrieval
Positively or negatively valenced words
are more likely to be remembered (even in patients with amygdala damage)
Semantic networks
are better created with affective valence, because it acts as a category under which words can be placed.
Translating models to real-world studies
Duke basketball
Unique case
Opposite valence
for opposing teams
Equal intensity
for each shot
Highly emotionally intensive
event
Brain Body Links in Decision Making
Somatic Marker Hypothesis
The vmPFC links situational emotional stimuli with body states, which eventually become learned such that the body states can cause the production of emotional states that guide decision making (through Amygdala)
Tests of hypothesis
Iowa gambling task pt. 1
Insula-damaged patients perform worse than neurotypical controls
Iowa gambling task pt. 3
SCR in healthy controls guides decision-making without people being consciously aware. vmPFC-damaged patients do not have anticipatory SCRs, and thus cannot have this response.
Iowa gambling task pt. x
Amygdala-damaged patients do not exhibit SCRs at all, which means the amygdala is responsible for the execution of bodily states.
Critiques of test
Bias
Test is biased towards bad decks, because insula-damaged patients have trouble changing ANYTHING
Ecological validity
How representative is the card game of real-world decision making?
Cognitive processes
involved require more than one isolated one.
Iowa gambling task pt. 2
vmPFC patients do not show anticipatory SCRs when selecting from risky decks, despite normal SCRs to reward and punishment.
Critiques of theory
As-if loop
is relatively unfalsifiable
Vague in details
Body Loop
Physiological reactions send signals to the brain that guide emotion and thus decision-making
As-if Loop
Relevant brain structures produce feeling without registering a physiological response
Why do somatic markers help?
Constrain the decision-making space
Neural substrates
Insula
Detects body state (interoception)
Posterior
Responsible for taking in sensory-based inputs
Anterior
Responsible for integrating posterior signal with social/contextual clues
Insula activation
correlated with heartbeat detection
Amygdala
Execution of bodily states due to emotional stimuli, such as SCR.
vmPFC
Learns links between emotional stimuli and body states
Interoception
Literally the perception of what is inside - how the body perceives its physiological state.
Example
The body can detect:
faster heart-rate
SCR
stomach ache
Emotion Regulation
Gross Model of Emotion Regulation
Situation selection
antecedent
Situation modification
antecedent
Attentional deployment
antecedent
Appraisal
antecedent
Reappraisal
Changing the meaning attached to an emotional stimulus.
Consequences of reappraisal
Affective
Fewer negative emotions
Social
No difference than acting naturally
Behavioral
No difference in SCR compared to "view" condition
Response expression
post
Suppression
Inhibiting the expression of emotion
Consequences of suppression
Affective
Fewer positive emotions
Same level of negative emotions
Social
Worse memory
Higher blood pressure of partner
Behavioral
Higher SCR compared to view and reappraise conditions
Neurophysiological evidence
Executive regions
regulate
sub-cortical structures
related to emotion
Critiques of the model
Linearity
Comprehensiveness
Are we always regulating?
Nothing about social regulation
Socioemotional Perception & Communication
Perception of Social Cues in Face
Dual system model of face perception
Identity processing
Determines the identity of the target
Ventral cortical pathway
Including visual area
Interaction effect
Recent studies have shown that these 2 pathways are interdependent through feedback loops.
Amygdala modulates FFA
Affective processing
Determines the affect, intentions of the target
Dorsal cortical pathway
Superior temporal sulcus interacts with subcortical emotional structures
Evidence for dual system model
Spatial frequency experiments
Different pathways activated for low spatial frequency (emotion) and high spatial frequency (identity)
FFA activated with high-spatial frequencies whereas amygdala activated with low spatial frequencies
Monkey studies
have dissociable regions for emotion and identity processing in STS.
Gaze processing
Use in social situations
Signals intent
Could be used in joint attention
Processes in brain
STS
Perceptual coding of another's gaze direction
Anterior STS
Elementary gaze direction
Posterior STS
Gaze and head direction
Studies
showed that STS has cells that fire to specific turnings of the head and specific gaze directions
Parietal lobe
Attentional orienting through gaze following
Responds with saccades
that follow someone else's eye movement.
medial PFC
Joint attention
mPFC responds more
when following a dot also followed by another person.
Amygdala
Analayzes intensity of emotion
Amygdala damaged
patients have trouble analyzing intensity of emotions, especially fear.
Sclera of eyes
is all that is needed to activate amygdala response to fearful expression
Responds to fearful faces even if attention is not being deployed
Gestural cues & biological motion processing
The role of the STS
Sensitive
to implied or actual biological motion
Hand gestures
STS responds more actively to
meaningful actions
Light experiment
Head Movements
Ventral vs. dorsal flexion in monkeys
Ventral flexion triggered specific cells in STS
Mouth Movements
Lip reading
Cross-modal activation
as STS fires along with auditory cortex
Meaningful mouth movements in monkeys
activate regions of the STS. This
translated to humans
.
Implied motion
Pictures with implied motion
activated STS more than pictures without implied motion.
Lesion studies
show that damaged STS impairs gaze recognition.
Social value of emotions
Vocal emotions
Conveying affect vocal theories
Our voice modulates to reflect our affect and communicate that with others.
Discrete:
our vocal tone indicates specific emotions
Dimensional:
our vocal tone includes both valence and level of arousal
Experimental evidence lacking here
Actor study with bad identification of affect (discrete)
Fo
Fundamental frequency is what best characterizes our voice (maybe)
What does Fo signify? Arousal, or other aspects like valence?
Inductive vocal theory
Our voice modulates to get other people to respond to something.
Based in evolution: voice carries farther than sight, and can alert others to danger
Social functions of emotion
Affiliation
Emotions that serve to create a deeper bond between people or groups
Affiliative emotions
Sadness
Happiness
Excitement
Distancing
Emotions that serve to draw boundaries between people
Distancing emotions
Anger
Contempt
Pride in self
Dominance and submission
Anger typically works to show dominance and moral superiority
Adaptiveness
Can be useful in showcasing emotions that can right wrongs (couples who fight more [to a point] stay together longer)
Social function != social outcome
Intentions for emotion can be different than what results
Functional conflict theory
describes why intentions do not equal outcomes. It's because they can be perceived in different ways on different levels.
Effect on group-based behavior
Distancing
Distancing emotions
expressed to dissimilar member of group creates affiliative emotions among group members
Anger vs. contempt
Anger alone works to resolve difficulties
Anger with contempt works to create deeper divisions
Affiliative
Interpersonal regulation
Social Identity Theory
Self-esteem comes in part from status of groups with which we identity
Culture and Emotion
What is the role of language in emotion?
Language can instantiate basic emotions
to form culturally specific complex emotions
How can you test the universality of emotions?
Difficulty in modern era
Removing social mediators
Narrative story-telling
How do cultural attitudes moderate and regulate emotion and emotional displays?
Dual process model
Emotion is regulated by culture before it even occurs.
Self-regulation is the product of culture
Emotional responses feedback to create culture
Evidence of Dual-process Model
Cultural reinforcement
Which acts are encouraged, and which acts are discouraged?
Subjective well-being
is constituted differently. In America, this often comes from feelings of pride, whereas in Japan it comes more often from feelings of duty.
Cultural affordances
Which acts are made easier to engage in by the culture?
In therapy,
Americans focus on exerting control whereas Japanese focus on adapting to changing circumstances
Individualism vs. Collectivism
Each offers a different model of self, which in turn influences which emotions can be brought to the surface
