Emotion and Aggression What is the James Lange theory of emotion What predictions does it make What research supports this hypothesis Event appraisal action emotion emotional feeling Predictions People with weak skeletal responses paralyzed should feel less emotion NOT TRUE People with weak autonomic responses pure autonomic failure should feel less emotion YES still feel emotions but not as strongly as before Enhancing someone s response should increase emotion YES Research That Supports This Hypothesis short of breath think suffocating panic attack panic disorder make person smile show them something potentially funny think it s funny Exceptions depression isn t cured by smiling smiles aren t necessary for the feeling of happiness Are emotional expressions learned or innate Emotional expressions are innate What is the role of imitation in understanding emotions Imitation helps with communicating in order to understand emotions People in different cultures even isolated environments use same patterns of movements of facial muscles to express various emotions What are some brain areas involved in emotion What are some examples of the right hemisphere being more responsive to emotional stimuli Limbic System traditionally though of as emotion center amygdala especially Cortex strong response to all emotions different emotions seen all over especially frontal and temporal lobes and sometimes different emotions activate same regions some cells respond mainly to pleasant pictures others to unpleasant pictures haven t seen cells specific to different types of unpleasantness fear vs anger Insular Cortex Insula lights up a lot especially when experiencing or recognizing on someone else disgust also fear Examples Personality More activity in left frontal cortex happier outgoing fun loving more activity in the right hemisphere socially withdrawn less satisfied with life prone to unpleasant emotions Right Hemisphere More Responsive To Emotional Stimuli activity in right amygdala more than left when listen to laughter or crying pay attention to emotional expression on face right more than left temporal cortex damage to right temporal cortex difficulty identifying others emotional states people with left hemisphere damage outperformed other groups on knowing when people were lying or telling the truth inactivate right hemisphere can remember facts surrounding emotional event but not the emotion itself How is the prefrontal cortex involved in emotion What is the general interaction b t the prefrontal cortex the amygdala How is serotonin involved Prefrontal cortex is involved with strong response to all emotions and is used when contemplating a moral decision We tend to make decision based on how they feel reason through them justify them later People with prefrontal damage tend to choose based on logic not emotion Interaction Between Prefrontal Cortex and Amygdala Amygdala gives you a knee jerk aggressive reaction to scary or anger provoking stimuli Prefrontal cortex puts the breaks on that reaction in part by helping you understand how you would feel aafter such a response Serotonin is an excitatory to prefrontal cortex helps you to make good decisions approach and avoidance What types of emotions are the amygdala especially important for What kinds of stimuli activate the amygdala What are some behavioral cognitive consequences of damage to the amygdala Know the experiment about the resident and intruder hamsters and the activation of the amygdala in those hamsters Amygdala receives highly processed sensory information vision audition olfaction somatosensory from cortex Output to hypothalamus for autonomic response prefrontal cortex to control approach and avoidance midbrain then pons then spinal cord for startle reflex associates appropriate emotional response with extrapersonal objects associates drive with appropriate target The amygdala is activated when looking at photos of something frightening or someone looking fearful judging someone s goodness or badness or when responding even to the name of someone widely known to be very bad or seeing words that denote threatening situation trying to discern complicated emotional stimuli fear directed at you or anger directed away from you are hard to discern looking at someone else whose expression is fear or anger even if observer isn t conscious or presentation brief presentation of image or cortical blindness during fear conditioning Behavioral Cognitive Consequences of Damage still feel emotions impairment in processing emotional information when it is complicated or subtle or ambiguous impairment in focusing on emotional details as opposed to oter details trouble recognizing arrogance guilt anger surprise admiration and flirtation trouble rating trustfulness in another person especially difficult to recognize fear kluver bucy syndrome Hamster Experiment Hamster in cage introduce another hamster intruder home hamster eventually attacks take out intruder wait put in another intruder home hamster attacks quicker during that time increased activity in amygdala or if stimulate amygdala prime the hamster to attack We don t attack due to the prefrontal cortex helping to put the breaks on a knee jerk response initiated by the amygdala What do twin studies and adoption studies tell us about the role of heredity in aggressive behavior adolescent delinquent behavior dizygotic fraternal monozygotic identical therefore more environmental contribution but adult crimes monozygotic dizygotic therefore more genetic contribution probably adults have more control over their environment therefore magnifying the influence of the genetic contribution adopted kids aggressive behaviors are most pronounced with biological parents with criminal records and dysfunction in adoptive family What is the potential contribution of 1 smoking while pregnant 2 low serotonin turnover and 3 high testosterone to aggressive behavior 1 smoking during pregnancy is correlated with increased likelihood of son to be arrested for violent criminal activities in adolescence and early adulthood low serotonin turnover occurs in people with history of violent behavior including arson and other violent crimes Adolescents with history of aggressive 2 behavior those with lowest turnover more like to get in trouble again in the next two years people released from prison lower serotonin turnover increased probability of more convictions for violent crimes Attempted suicides by violent means
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