Emotional Behaviors

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Chapter 12 Emotional Behaviors Module 12.1
What is emotion anyway? Module 12.2 Stress
Health Module 12.3 Attack Escape Behaviors
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Introduction

• Defining Emotions
• subjective
• behavioral
• physiological
• Consciousness Emotion
• cannot be unconscious and experience emotion
• absence seizures
• emotion can be caused by unconscious influences
• Tranel Demasio, 1993

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Usefulness of Emotions

• Assist in decision making
• Prefrontal cortex damage lose their emotions and
  their decision making suffers
• affective feedback gone (feeling good, bad about
  consequences
• anticipation of consequences reduced
• morality
• Emotions and readiness behavior
• Emotions and increased motivation
• Emotions start the fight-or-flight response
• sympathetic activation
• parasympathetic activation

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Theories of Emotions/Emotional Arousal

• James-Lange theory- (note text description is
  incorrect)
• primacy of autonomic arousal (and skeletal
  actions) in emotional identification
• Cannon-Bard theory-
• a stimulus evokes the emotional experience and
  the physical arousal simultaneously but
  independently
• Schacter-Singer theory-
• the physiological changes tell you how strong
  your emotion is, but need some contextual or
  cognitive cue to identify which emotion being
  felt.
• Primacy of cognition and importance of
  environment
• Support for J-L Theory-
• facial feeback hypothesis (Ekman)
• Spinal Cord Patients (Hohmann)
• Locked-in syndrome

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Stress and Health

• Behavioral Medicine
• stress, personality, experience in health and
  disease processess
• Stress-the nonspecific response of the body to
  any demand made upon it (Selye).
• Physiological based definition (there are others)
• Stress Activates
• Autonomic Nervous system (nervous)
• HPAC System (hormonal)

Pathways of the sympathetic and parasympathetic
nervous systems
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Evidence of Mind-Body Interactions

• Psychosomatic Illness
• Onset of illness due to someones personality,
  emotions, or experiences
• Ulcers
• Ulcers can be formed when an individual
  experiences a great deal of stress
• effect on digestive system (saliva secretion, HCL
  secretion, peristaltic action)
• Control of the stress can alter ulcer formation
• yoked pairs, executive monkey research,
  predictability control
• Ulcers are formed when the parasympathetic
  nervous system rebounds after the stress
• post stress rebound effects
• heliobactor pylori

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Evidence of Mind-Body Interactions

• Heart Disease
• Data may indicate that people who experience
  frequent hostility are more prone to heart
  disease
• Voodoo Death
• Richter found that voodoo death may be due to
  parasympathetic rebound

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Stress Activation in the Body

• HPA Axis (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal)
• Slower to respond
• Important in chronic stress
• Activation of hypothalamus causes release of ACTH
  from pituitary and release of cortisol from
  adrenal
• Cortisol mobilizes resources but can be harmful
  if prolonged exposure
• Autonomic Nervous System
• Rapid Response System
• Important in more Acute Stressors
• Results in activation of Sympathetic Nervous
  System

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The hypothalamus-anterior pituitary-adrenal
cortex axisProlonged stress leads to the
secretion of the adrenal hormone cortisol, which
elevates blood sugar and increases metabolism.
These changes help the body sustain prolonged
activity but at the expense of decreased immune
system activity.
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Immune System Cells

• Consists of cells that protect the body against
  invaders like bacteria and viruses
• Leukocytes
• White Blood Cells
• Patrol blood and other body fluids for invaders
• Identifies antigens on intruders and signal
  attack from immune system
• Macrophage
• Surrounds intruder, digests it, and exposes its
  antigens on its own surface

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More Immune System Cells

• B Cell
• attaches to an intruder and produces specific
  antibodies to attack the intruders antigen
• antibodies are Y-shaped proteins that circulate
  in the blood, specifically attaching to one kind
  of antigen
• T Cell
• Cytotoxic-directly attack intruder cells
• Helper-stimulate other T cells or B cells to
  multiply more rapidly
• Natural Killer Cells
• blood cells that attach to certain kinds of tumor
  cells and cells infected with viruses

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More Immune System Cells/Products

• Cytokines
• Chemicals released by the immune system that
  attack infections and also communicate with the
  brain to elicit anti-illness behaviors
• Fevers make the body a lest hospitable host
• sleepiness, decreased muscle activity, decreased
  sex drive conserve energy
• decreased appetite may deprive body of iron
  needed by viruses

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Immune system responses to a bacterial
infectionA macrophage cell engulfs a bacterial
cell and displays one of the bacterias antigens
on its surface. Meanwhile a B cell also binds to
the bacteria and produces antibodies against the
bacteria. A helper T cell attaches to both the
macrophage and the B cell it stimulates the B
cell to generate copies of itself, called B
memory cells, which immunize the body against
future invasions by the same kind of bacteria.
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Stress Effects on the Immune System

• Short-term stress acts to increase immune system
  function
• Long-term stress decreases immune system function
• Reduced levels of natural killer cells, B cells,
  and T cells
• Reduced T cell function
• Reduced NK cell function
• Reduced resistance to infection

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Stress Effects on the Brain

• Selective cell death to hippocampal cells
• Due to high cortisol levels
• damage to hippocampus can lead to an increase in
  cortisol levels creating a vicious cycle of cell
  death and high cortisol levels
• Aged people with high cortisol levels show the
  greatest deterioration of the hippocampus and
  resulting memory impairment

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

• Who is Affected?
• People who have had a traumatic experience of
  being severely injured or threatened
• people who have seen other people harmed or
  killed
• What are the Symptoms?
• Frequent flashbacks and nightmares about the
  event
• avoidance of reminders of the event
• exaggerated arousal in response to noises and
  other stimuli

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Attack Behaviors

• Affective Attack
• highly emotional attack behavior
• triggered by pain or threat or when primed
• Heredity and Environment in Human Violence
• Evidence for a genetic or prenatal environment
  component
• Children exposed to families experiencing
  discord, depression, substance abuse or legal
  problems are more likely to demonstrate
  aggressive behaviors

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Physiology of Aggression

• Hormones
• High levels of testosterone are associated with
  aggression
• Serotonin
• low serotonin turnover is associated with
  increased aggression
• Temporal Lobe
• Stimulation of ventromedial hypothalamus or
  amygdala can result in aggression

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Location of amygdala in the human brainThe
amygdala, located in the interior of the temporal
lobe, receives input from many cortical and
subcortical areas. Part (a) shows a blow-up of
separate nuclei of the amygdala.
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Escape Behaviors

• Two Types
• Fear-transient
• Anxiety-can be long lasting
• Brain Mechanisms
• Associated with excitation of amygdala
• Most likely associated with GABA pathways
• Anti-anxiety drugs decrease fear and anxiety by
  facilitating inhibition at GABA synapses

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The GABAA receptor complexOf its four receptor
sites sensitive to GABA, the three a sites are
also sensitive to benzodiazepines.
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