Download Emotional Behaviors

Chapter 12: Emotional Behaviors
Module 12.1: What is emotion anyway?
Module 12.2: Stress & Health
Module 12.3: Attack & Escape Behaviors
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
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
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
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
Evidence of Mind-Body Interactions


Psychosomatic Illness
– Onset of illness due to someone’s 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
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
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
The hypothalamus-anterior
pituitary-adrenal cortex axis
Prolonged 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.
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
More Immune System Cells

B Cell
– attaches to an intruder and produces specific antibodies
to attack the intruder’s 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
More Immune System Cells/Products

Cytokines
– Chemicals released by the immune system that attack
infections and also communicate with the brain to elicit antiillness 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
Immune system responses to a bacterial infection
A macrophage cell engulfs a bacterial cell and displays one of the
bacteria’s 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.
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
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
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
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
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
Location of amygdala in the
human brain
The 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.
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
The GABAA receptor complex
Of its four receptor sites sensitive to GABA, the three a sites are also
sensitive to benzodiazepines.