Download Emotional Behaviors

Chapter 11:
Emotional Behaviors
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An emotional state has three aspects:
1. Cognition
2. Readiness for action
3. Feeling
The “readiness for action” component of
emotions is a product of the autonomic nervous
system
Suggests that the autonomic arousal and skeletal
action occurs first in an emotion
 The emotion that is felt is the label that we give the
arousal of the organs and muscles
 We need to check our body responses to determine
our emotions
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William James
(1842-1910)
According to this theory:
1. People with a weak autonomic or skeletal response
should feel less emotion
2. Increasing one’s response should enhance an
emotion
Cobos, Sanchez, Perez, & Vila (2004)
 Paralyzed people report feeling emotion to the same
degree as prior to their injury
 Indicates that emotions do not require feedback from
muscle movements
 However, paralysis does not affect the autonomic
nervous system
Pure Autonomic Failure
 Output from the autonomic nervous system
almost entirely fails
Heims, Critchley, Dolan, Mathias, & Cipolotti
(2004)
 These individuals report feeling emotion just like
anyone else would
Pure Autonomic Failure
Critchley, Mathias, & Dolan (2001)
 These individuals report feeling emotion much
less intensely than before
 They appear to only have a cognitive sense of
what they should be feeling
Havas, Glenberg, Gutowski, Lucarelli, & Davidson
(2010)
 Participants had recently gone through Botox
procedure
 Asked to read unhappy passages from a book
 Participants read these passages slower than normal
Davis, Senghas, Brandt & Ochsner (2010)
 Participants had recently gone through Botox
procedure
 Asked to watch videos with emotional content
 Participants had weak emotional responses to the
videos
Pistoia et al. (2010)
 Participants were individuals with brain damage
preventing voluntary facial movements
 They had trouble recognizing the emotional
expressions of others
Strack, Martin & Stepper (1988)
 Procedure
 All participants were asked to read and rate comic strips
 Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups
See next slide 
Strack, Martin & Stepper (1988)
Procedure
 Group 1:
 Grip the end of the pen firmly with your lips, making sure it
doesn’t dip downward (activates a frowning muscle)
 Group 2:
 Gently hold a pen between your teeth, making sure it
doesn’t touch your lips (induces a smile)
 Group 3:
 Control group was told to hold the pen in their hands
Results
 Group 2 (smile) > Group 3 (control) > Group 1 (frown)
Mobius Syndrome
 Rare condition where patients cannot use facial muscles
to make a smile
 They still experience emotions related to smile
Before Surgery
After Surgery
Emotional experiences arouse many areas of the
brain
 Limbic system includes the forebrain areas
surrounding the thalamus and has traditionally
been regarded as critical for emotion
 PET and fMRI studies also suggest many other
areas of the cerebral cortex, especially the
frontal and temporal lobes, are activated
during an emotional experience
Insular Cortex
 Localization in the brain seems to exist for the emotion
of disgust
 This area of the brain is strongly activated during
exposure to stimuli perceived as “disgusting”
 Also reacts to frightening stimuli as well
The two hemispheres of the brain play different
roles in emotion
 Activation of the frontal and temporal areas of
the left hemisphere is associated with
“approach” and the Behavioral Activation
System (BAS)
 Marked by low to moderate arousal
 Characterizes either happiness or anger

The Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) is
associated with increased activity of the frontal
and temporal lobe of the right hemisphere
 Increases attention and arousal
 Inhibits action
 Stimulates emotions such as fear and disgust
Frontal Cortex
 People with greater activity in the left
hemisphere tend to be happier, more out-going
and friendlier
 People with greater right hemisphere activity
tend to be socially withdrawn, less satisfied
with life, and prone to unpleasant emotions
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The right hemisphere seems to be more responsive
to emotional stimuli than the left
Damage to the right temporal cortex causes
problems in the ability to identify emotions of others
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One major function of emotion is to help us
make decisions
Emotions are an important component to moral
decisions
Brain scans show
activation in dilemma
like these 
Green et al. (2001)
Attack Behaviors
 Pain, threat or other unpleasant stimuli usually
trigger an attack behavior
 Attack behaviors are associated with increased
activity in the corticomedial area of the amygdala
 After experiencing a provocation, people are more
likely to attack for a period of time afterwards
 An initial attack behavior increases the probability
of a second attack behavior
Rhee & Waldman (2002)
 Monozygotic twins resembled each other much
more than dizygotic twins in violence
 Adopted children resemble their biological
parents more than their adoptive parents in
violence
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On average, males engage in more aggressive
and violent behaviors than do females
Male aggressive behavior is influenced by the
hormone testosterone
Research shows that men with the highest
rates of violent behavior also have slightly
higher testosterone levels
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Testosterone alters the way people respond to
stimuli
Increased testosterone levels show:
 Increases in heart rate
 The tendency to attend longer and more vigorously
to situations related to conflict and aggression
Nonhuman studies suggest a connection between
aggressive behavior and low serotonin release.
 Turnover is the amount of release and resynthesis
of a neurotransmitter by presynaptic neurons
Valzelli’s (1973)
 Study with mice found that isolating male mice for
4 weeks increased aggressive behavior and
decreased serotonin turnover
5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)
 A serotonin metabolite found in the blood,
cerebrospinal fluid, and urine that allows
researchers to infer turnover rate.
 High levels of 5-HIAA imply much serotonin
release and turnover
 Research with monkeys has demonstrated that
low levels of 5-HIAA increases the probability of
attack on larger monkeys and few survived past
age 6
In human studies, low serotonin turnover has been
linked to:
 People with a history of violent behavior and violent
crime
 People who attempt suicide by violent means
 Recurrent violent behaviors and subsequent suicide
attempts
Genes control the production of tryptophan
hydroxylase
 Tryptophan hydroxylase is the enzyme that
converts tryptophan into serotonin
 People with less active form of this enzyme are
more likely than others to report frequent anger
and aggression
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Genes also control the production of the
enzyme monoamine oxidase
Monoamine oxidase breaks down serotonin into
inactive chemicals
However, low production of this enzyme in
conjunction with mistreatment in childhood
increases the probability of violence and
antisocial behavior
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Fear is associated with a strong tendency to
escape from an immediate threat
Anxiety is a general sense that something
dangerous might occur
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The startle reflex is the extremely fast response
to unexpected loud noises
Auditory information stimulates an area of the
pons that commands the tensing of the neck
and other muscles
 Information reaches the pons within 3 to 8
milliseconds after a loud noise

The startle response occurs within two-tenths
of a second
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Stimuli previously associated with the startle
response enhances the startle response
 Cells in the amygdala, especially the basal lateral and
central nuclei, are responsible
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Cells in the amygdala receive information from
pain, vision, and hearing circuits
Axons extend to areas in the midbrain that relay
information to the nucleus in the pons
 The relay enhances the startle reflex
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Output from the amygdala to the hypothalamus
controls autonomic fear responses
Axons extending from the amygdala to the
prefrontal cortex regulate approach and
avoidance responses
Damage to the amygdala interferes with:
 the learning of fear responses
 retention of fear responses previously learned
 interpreting or understanding stimuli with emotional
consequences
In the early 1900s, studies of monkeys with KluverBucy syndrome illustrated the effects of amygdala
damage
 Monkeys with this syndrome are calm and placid
and display less than normal fear of snakes and
larger, more dominant monkeys
 Also alters social behaviors in that they have
decreased ability to interpret threat gestures
 Amygdala damage can also lead to an increase in
the approach motive
fMRI studies of humans suggest the amygdala responds
strongly to emotional stimuli and facial expressions
 Not necessarily associated with just fear
 Activity is strongest when the meaning is unclear and
requires some processing
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Adams et al. (2003)
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In humans, damage to the amygdala does not
result in the loss of emotion
Damage to the amygdala impairs the
processing of emotional information when the
signals are subtle or complicated
Amygdala damage affects the ability to judge
“trustworthiness” in people
People with amygdala damage focus on
emotional stimuli the same as irrelevant stimuli
or details
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Amygdala damage also affects the ability to
recognize emotions specifically in photographs
or pictures
Effect is particularly strong for fear or disgust
Urbach-Wiethe Disease
 Rare genetic disorder
 Case study SM basically fearless
 Fail to recognize the emotional expressions in faces,
especially expressions of fear or disgust
Drawings by SM, who has a
damaged amygdala 
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Drugs intended to control anxiety alter activity
at amygdala synapses
The main excitatory neuromodulator in the
amygdala is CCK, and the main inhibitory
transmitter is GABA
 Injections of CCK-stimulating drugs into the
amygdala enhance the startle response.
 Drugs that increase GABA activity inhibit anxiety
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Barbituates were a drug widely used to control
anxiety in the past, but have high overdose
potential
Benzodiazepines are the most commonly used
anti-anxiety drugs
Benzodiazepines bind to the GABAA receptor
complex, and facilitate the effects of GABA.
Benzodiazepines exert their effects in the
amygdala, hypothalamus, midbrain, and other
areas
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Ethyl alcohol has behavioral effects similar to
benzodiazepines
Alcohol, benzodiazepines, and barbituates all
exhibit cross-tolerance
Cross-tolerance is tolerance that develops to
one drug when a similar drug is taken
Alcohol enhances GABA effects
Becker (1988)
 An experimental drug Ro-15-4513 blocks the
effect of alcohol on the GABAA receptors
complex
 Besides affecting the GABAA receptor complex,
Ro15-4513 blocks the effects of alcohol on
motor coordination, its depressant action on
the brain, and its ability to reduce anxiety
Becker (1988)
 Both rats were given the same amount of alcohol; the
one on the right was given experimental drug
 Within two minutes coordination improved
significantly
Selye (1979)
 Defined stress as the non-specific response of
the body to any demand made upon it.
 Threats on the body activate a general
response to stress called the general adaptation
syndrome
Selye (1976)
 GAS model illustrates the effects of stress
 Selye felt that the body’s adaptive response to stress was very
general – like a burglar alarm that would sound off no matter
what intruded
 His model has three overlapping stages - alarm, resistance, and
exhaustion
Sapolsky (1998)
 Argues that the nature of today’s crises are
prolonged
 Accounts for widespread stress-related illnesses
and psychiatric problems in industrial societies
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Long-term, inescapable issues activate the
general adaptation syndrome which is harmful
to our health over time
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Stress activates two systems in the body:
1. The autonomic nervous system - “fight or flight”
response that prepares the body for brief
emergency responses
2. The HPA axis - the hypothalamus, pituitary gland,
and adrenal cortex
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The HPA axis becomes the
dominant response to prolonged
stressors
Activation of the hypothalamus
induces the pituitary gland to
secrete adrenocorticotropic
hormone (ACTH)
ACTH stimulates the adrenal
cortex to secrete cortisol
Cortisol enhances metabolic
activity and elevates blood levels
of sugars and other nutrients to
mobilize energies
Immune System
 Consists of cells that protect the body against viruses
and bacteria
 Leukocytes – white blood cells
 B-cells – leukocytes that mature in the bone marrow and
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secrete antibodies
Antibodies –Y-shaped proteins that attach to particular kinds
of antigens
Antigens – surface proteins that are antibody-generator
molecules
T cells – attack intruders directly and help other T cells or B
cells to multiply.
Natural killer cells – leukocytes that attack tumor cells and
cells that are infected with viruses.
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During an infection, leukocytes and other cells
produce small proteins called cytokines
 Combat infection and communicate with the brain
to inform of illness
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Cytokines in the brain produce symptoms of
illness
 Fever, sleepiness, lack of energy etc.
 Sleep and inactivity are the bodies way of
conserving energy to fight illness
Psychoneuroimmunology
 The study of the relationship between the
nervous system and the immune system
 Deals with the way in which experiences,
especially stressful ones, alter the immune
system
 Also deals with how the immune system
influences the central nervous system
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Prolonged stress response is damaging to the
body
Prolonged increase of cortisol detracts from the
synthesis of proteins of the immune system
Prolonged stress of longer than a month
significantly increases the likelihood of illness
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Prolonged stress can also be harmful to the
hippocampus and can affect memory
Cortical enhances metabolic activity in the body
When metabolic activity is high in the
hippocampus, the neurons are more sensitive to
damage by toxins or over-stimulation
Stress also impairs the adaptability and the
production of new hippocampal neurons
Some slides prepared with the help of the following websites:
• http://web.campbell.edu/faculty/asbury/ppt/chapter12.ppt
• http://faculty.mansfield.edu/fcraig/download/460/460_12.ppt