Emotion

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Emotion
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Three Minute Review Motivation 1

• what drives people to behave the way they do?
• regulatory drives
• homeostasis
• thermostat analogy
• non-regulatory drives
• hypothalamus
• tiny area, important functions, links with limbic
  system, 4Fs
• Hunger
• hunger centre (LH) vs. satiation centre (VMH)
  
• how does the body maintain the correct level of
  food intake?
• interplay between VMH and LH
• see also more detailed explanations, Gray Ch. 6,
  FQ10
• feeling full
• blood glucose levels
• fat cells secrete leptin

3

• obesity
• twin studies and adoption studies can be useful
  in nature vs. nurture questions
• genetic factors play a large role in weight gain
  and weight distribution
• thrifty gene in a Supersize culture?
• set point theory
• changes to food intake may shift the set point
  making it harder to change your weight
• eating disorders
• anorexia nervosa
• bulimia nervosa
• have our cultural ideals become unreasonable?

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• Sex
• What determines sex drive?
• Hormones
• androgens
• estrogens
• Cultural influences and situations more important
  to women
• Genetics
• Is there a gay gene?
• Sex Differences in Sex Drive
• Women
• status, money, age, and concern for children
• Men
• beauty, youth and sex
• Evolutionary theory
• women find a solid guy with good resources
  wholl stick around
• men sow your seeds far and wide

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Test Yourself

• Which of the following could cause a rat to eat
  (true/false)?
• (From the lecture)
• electrical stimulation to the ventromedial
  hypothalamus
• a lesion (damage) to the ventromedial thalamus
• electrical stimulation to the lateral
  hypothalamus
• a lesion to the lateral hypothalamus
• a decrease in blood glucose below the set point
• a decrease in body fat below the set point
• (From the book)
• an injection of leptin
• an injection of insulin
• a water-filled balloon in the stomach
• the presence of especially tasty rat chow even if
  the rat isnt particularly hungry
• bell-ringing for a rat with a bell-food
  association (Pavlovs rat?)

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You asked

• Can leptin be used as a diet aid?
• Your TA, Ben Bowles, looked into this and said
• Apparently there was much hype about leptin as a
  potential obesity therapy about 5 years ago.
  However, a science paper that came out in 1999
  showed that leptin was not an effective therapy.
• Although they are not exactly sure why, it seems
  as though one reason it might not be effective is
  because obesity stems not from a lack of leptin
  but due to an insensitivity to it. It may be that
  if the cells don't detect it while it is there,
  adding more might not have the intended effect.
• Recent and current work on the subject is geared
  towards finding out why leptin doesn't work
  properly in people who are overweight. The
  insensitivity of some people to leptin may be due
  to an evolutionary adaptation that aims to store
  fat for times where no food is available.

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Clarification What do men want?

• (Clark Hatfield, 1989)
• Attractive men and women hired to approach
  strangers of the opposite sex on a college campus
• "I have been noticing you around campus. I find
  you very attractive."
• "Would you go out with me tonight?
• of women who said Yes 50
• of men who said Yes 50
• "Would you come over to my apartment tonight?
• of women who said Yes 6
• of men who said Yes 69
• "Would you go to bed with me tonight?
• of women who said Yes 0
• of men who said Yes 75

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Why have emotions?
What is this man from New Guinea feeling --
anger, happiness, disgust, sadness?

• Emotions communicate
• consistent across cultures and even species
• Emotions aid in decision-making
• gut feelings often right
• people with damage to the emotional system
  (orbitofrontal cortex) are poor at using past
  outcomes to regulate future behavior in a
  gambling task
• Emotions capture attention and aid memory
• Emotions strengthen interpersonal relations
• guilt, embarrassment, jealousy

Video Cavanagh Disk 3 Emotion Expression (210)
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Dimensions of Emotion
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Autonomic Nervous System
Fig. 5.4
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Arousal

• Imagine youre writing an exam of average
  difficulty. How well would you do if you were
• really mellow or drowsy
• average
• really stressed (or hooped on chocolate-covered
  espresso beans)?

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Arousal

• How much coffee would you want to drink if you
  were
• driving?
• writing an exam?
• giving an important talk for the first time?

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Yerkes Dodson (1908)
Rats could avoid shock by going into brighter of
two compartments
Experimenters varied the strength of the shocks
given to the rat and measured their accuracy at
picking the brighter compartment.
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Yerkes-Dodson Curve

• Yerkes Dodson (1908)
• rats did best if
• the task was easy and they were highly aroused
  (by strong shocks)
• the task was moderately difficult and they were
  moderately aroused (by moderate shocks)
• the task was difficult and they were weakly
  aroused (by weak shocks)

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Theories of Emotion1. Common Sense Theory
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Theories of Emotion2. James-Lange

• we feel sorry because we cry, angry because we
  strike, afraid because we tremble, and not that
  we cry, strike or tremble because we are sorry,
  angry or fearful.
• -- William James

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Facial Feedback Theory
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Theories of Emotion3. Cannon-Bard Theory
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Schachters Experiment

• Schachter Singer (1962)
• subjects were injected with adrenaline (or a
  placebo)
• adrenaline ? sweaty palms, increased heart rate,
  shakes
• some subjects were told they would feel aroused
  some were told nothing
• left subjects in a waiting room with a
  confederate
• euphoria condition
• confederate played with a hula hoop and made
  paper airplanes
• angry condition
• confederate asked obnoxious personal questions
  (e.g., With how many men other than your father
  has your mother had extramarital relations (a)
  lt5 (b) 5-9 (c) gt9)

Stanley Schachter 1922-1997
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Schachters Results
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Theories of Emotion4. Schachters Attribution
Theory
Cognitive appraisal TYPE of Emotion
Degree of Arousal INTENSITY of Emotion
This figure is simpler than Fig. 6.24 (which you
can ignore) in your text
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Misattribution of Emotion

• emotions can be attributed to the wrong source
• (Dutton Aron, 1974)
• male subjects were asked to meet the experimenter
  on a bridge across the Capilano River in B.C.
• Group 1 Capilano suspension bridge
• Group 2 sturdy modern bridge
• attractive female research assistant interviewed
  them in the middle of the bridge and gave her
  phone number
• Men interviewed on the scary bridge were more
  likely to call her

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Which woman is more attractive?
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An idea for your next date?
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Emotion in the Brain
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The Amygdala

• part of the limbic system (with the hippocampus
  and hypothalamus)
• amygdala almond
• processes emotional significance of stimuli and
  generates immediate reactions
• damage to amygdala ?
• inability to recognize facial emotions
• absence of fear
• absence of conditioned fear response
• abnormal activation of amygdala ?
• sudden violent rage
• in brain imaging studies, the amygdala is
  activated by scary stimuli (even if youre not
  aware of them)

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Frontal Lobes

• Phineas Gage
• Gage is no longer Gage

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Frontal Lobotomies

• 1935 chimps who were neurotic before surgery
  became more relaxed after it
• 1930s Egaz Moniz begins frontal lobotomies in
  humans (and eventually wins Nobel Prize)
• 1950s psychosurgery in vogue 40,000 frontal
  lobotomies in North America
• The story of Agnes (Kolb Whishaw)
• no outward signs of emotion
• no facial expression
• no feelings toward other people (but still liked
  her dog)
• felt empty, zombie-like
• Other patients lose prosody emotional component
  of speech
• orbitofrontal cortex
• Patients with damage can remember info but dont
  have emotions associated with it

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Lie Detectors

• Polygraph tests are far from infallible
• In one study (Klein-muntz Szucko, 1984),
  polygraph tests identified guilty person 76 of
  time but falsely accused a truth-teller 37 of
  the time

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Frontal patients show flat skin conductance to
disturbing stimuli
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Right hemisphere specialized for emotion

• Happy or sad?

• Why?
• right hemisphere specialized for recognizing
  emotions

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Do the two hemispheres have different
personalities?

• left hemisphere
• activated by positive emotions
• left frontal damage ? depressed
• sometimes overly catastrophic and weepy about
  injury
• diminished left hemisphere activation in
  depressed people
• right hemisphere
• activated by negative emotions
• right frontal damage ? fewer negative emotions
• often not appropriately upset or concerned about
  injury