Emotion and Social Function

ž  What is an emotion?

ž  Everyone knows what an emotion is until they are asked to define it
                                                                                 (LeDoux, 1996)

—  ‘1. Agitation of the passions or sensibilities often involving physiological changes.
2. Any strong feeling, as of joy, sorrow, reverence, hate, or love, arising subjectively rather than through conscious mental effort’
                                                (American Heritage Dictionary)

ž  How do cognition & emotion relate?

ž  Without emotion we would have to ‘drag out an existence of merely cognitive or intellectual form’
                                                                (William James, 1884)

ž  But are emotion and cognition separate systems?

—  We are not consciously aware of some emotions

—  Emotions impact on cognition

—  Thinking can generate emotions

—  Computer metaphor of cognitive psychology cannot hold

ž  à Affective neuroscience – the study of emotion in the brain

ž  Where does field stand on
defining emotion?

ž  Little consensus

—  Serious study of emotion in brain very new

—  Ignored for most of last century – rationality still regarded as highest attribute; purely human

—  Case studies and then later experimental work by Damasio clearly indicated that emotion key
to adaptive functioning (somatic marker hypothesis)

—  Some within cognitive neuroscience try act as though emotion is just another part of cognition
(Ward is one; Lane & Nadel also)

—  Some hang on to computer analogy – eg. network models propose that emotion is an epiphenomenon
of computational processes in the network

ž  Where does field stand on
defining emotion?

ž  Others work from an evolutionary framework

—  Emotions are evolved response tendencies

—  They involve specific neural pathways, physiological changes and instinctive
response patterns

—  Basic emotions present across mammals

—  Evolved to improve adaptive fitness –
eg. rapid response in threat situations (fear; rage); adaptive behavior in mate selection and parenting (care, separation-distress)

ž  Where does field stand on
defining emotion?

ž  Implications of this perspective ..

—  Conscious, reflective experience not necessary

—  Emotion predates rationality in evolutionary terms

—  Emotion thus likely to have major influence on all cognition as is primary

—  Development of prefrontal cortex (inhibitory function is huge) to stop automatic emotion responses and allow greater flexibility of response; BUT emotion provides essential impetus for all behavior and cues for decision-making & social behavior

ž  What about physiology & emotion?

ž  Do emotions always involve peripheral physiological changes?

ž  Are these the cause or the result of conscious experience of emotion?

ž  EARLY THEORY:

—  James-Lange theory:

—  Bodily changes à experience of emotion

—  (ie physiological changes are causal)

—  Crying à sadness

—  Freezing/fleeing à fear

ž  What about physiology & emotion?

ž  Ward argues that research in humans discredits this idea:

ž  Inject participants with stimulant, don’t necessarily report emotion change, unless context also changes – eg presence of angry
or happy person

ž  Other experiment on bridge – interpret feeling state differently depending on context (fear vs excitement)

ž  Argument is that physiological arousal is non-specfic; can be interpreted in various ways

ž  What about physiology & emotion?

ž  I don’t find this argument particularly convincing

ž  Much emotion occurs outside of conscious awareness; basic emotions occur instantaneously in response to particular stimuli, so vagaries of labelling in artificial situations where there often is no emotion trigger present do not persuade

ž  Many in affective neuroscience view physiological changes as integral part of experience of emotion

ž  Neural substrates of emotion

ž  Still largely in the dark about how this works

ž  Papez circuit (1937) – emotional brain includes hypothalamus, hippocampus, anterior thalamus, cingulate cortex

ž  MacLean (1949) expanded on this à limbic system – added various regions including amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex

ž  Neural substrates of emotion

ž  Later research has indicated that different pathways, chemistries and structures are involved in different emotions

ž  Idea that undifferentiated ‘emotional brain’ exists is defunct

ž  Debate continues around whether the concept of the ‘limbic system’ has any
value at all

ž  Amygdala and FEAR system

ž  Amygdala and FEAR system

ž  Amygdala and FEAR system

ž  The best information we have comes from systematic animal work done by
Joseph LeDoux

ž  Clearly indicated role of amygdala in fear conditioning

ž  Can learn to fear aversive stimulus in single trial – very effective (and adaptive)

ž  Does not extinguish – even if get rid of behavioral response, functional imaging shows that subcortical fear pathway still lights up

ž  Amygdala and FEAR system

ž  Idea of ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ routes to amygdala

ž  ‘Hot’ route is rapid, subcortical – enables instantaneous response to threat stimuli without time-consuming conscious processing (thalamus à amygdala)

ž  ‘Cold’ route is more cortical, conscious; top-down processing impacting on more basic structures (primary visual pathway à amygdala)

ž  Amygdala and FEAR system

ž  Amygdala clearly involved in experiencing fear, processing fear-related stimuli, and in fear learning and memory

ž  More recent research has indicated that amygdala does not only play a role in fear

ž  EG in humans amygdala responds when viewing ANY emotional facial expression; and enhances ANY emotional memory

ž  Precise role still not clear – seems nb in evaluating threat stimuli; and in processing facial emotions (which are critical social signals)
Seems to have quite broad or multifaceted role

ž  What is an emotion?

ž  Everyone knows what an emotion is until they are asked to define it
                                                                                 (LeDoux, 1996)

ž  …and from that point on no-one can agree about anything

ž  Are some emotions more basic/universal than others?

ž  Are emotions and feelings different things?

ž  Basic emotions?

ž  Early work in humans by Ekman (1970’s)

ž  Studied facial expressions across various cultures

ž  Ended up with set of 6 facial expressions that seem to exist in all cultures, and that all cultures recognize as indicating the same feeling state

ž  Basic emotions?

ž  SAD

ž  HAPPY

ž  DISGUSTED

ž  SURPRISED

ž  ANGRY (nice face!)

ž  FEARFUL

ž  Basic emotions?

ž  This brings us back to the question of ‘What is an emotion?’

ž  Affect ≠ Emotion

ž  Emotion is one type of affect

ž  But visceral states like dizziness, fatigue etc are also affects

ž  Are disgust and surprise emotions like fear or anger?

ž  Or is disgust closer to visceral affect, and surprise simply a startle reflex?

ž  What about more complex emotions?

ž  Great resistance to idea that emotions exist in animals

ž  To get around this, some researchers (eg LeDoux and Damasio) distinguish between ‘emotion’ and ‘feeling’

ž  Emotion = basic experience of basic emotions – need not be conscious

ž  Feeling = conscious reflective experience

ž  ‘Higher’ emotions argued to happen at this level – purely human

ž  What about more complex emotions?

ž  ‘Moral emotions’ – shame, guilt & pride

ž  Require self-consciousness and awareness of what others think of you

ž  Argued to also have adaptive function within complex social groups

ž  Where co-operation and abiding by social norms key to group function, these emotions serve to help regulate behavior

ž  What about more complex emotions?

ž  Do all emotions exist across all cultures?

ž  EG Germans have word ‘schadenfreude’
Means happiness at another’s misfortune

ž  English doesn’t have the word, but we sure do have the emotion

ž  Did study looking at recognition of complex emotions here a couple years ago – often students said that they recognized what emotion the person was feeling, but none of the words offered as options were correct

ž  What about more complex emotions?

ž  Disgust and the Insula

ž  Insula (Island) is layer of cortex found when you pull back the temporal lobe

ž  Strong connections to other limbic areas
(Amyg; OFC)

ž  Plays NB role in
interoception – the
ability to be aware
of own bodily states
(eg heart rate)

ž  Disgust and the Insula

ž  In primates & humans, part of insula serves as primary gustatory area – taste

ž  Disgust means ‘bad taste’

ž  In humans, part of insula NB in disgust

ž  Current idea is that disgust starts out as recoil from bad food; generalizes to more complex, abstract stimuli – like moral repulsion

ž  Disgust and the Insula

ž  Research evidence:

ž  In 1950’s, Penfield found stimulating this area à feelings of unpleasant taste and nausea

ž  Imaging studies indicate insula involved in processes related to feeding (tongue stimulation, odor, taste, swallowing, hunger)

ž  Also involved with unpleasant tastes, and when watching disgusting scenarios, and when seeing someone else exhibit disgust

ž  Damage to insula impacts on ability to experience and recognize disgust

ž  Panksepp’s Basic/Core emotions

ž  SAD

ž  HAPPY SEEKING

ž  DISGUSTED

ž  SURPRISED

ž  ANGRY

ž  FEARFUL

ž  Panksepp’s Basic/Core emotions

ž  Based on decades of animal work

ž  These 4 emotions observable in most mammals soon after birth

ž  Each involves specific neurochemistries and neural pathways

ž  Evolved to guide behavior

ž  Panksepp’s Basic/Core emotions

ž  So emotions feature both innate, instinctive response patterns

ž  AND are open, and serve to guide learning

ž  INNATE EG:

ž  Threat stimulus (snake/predator) triggers specific pattern of behavior/reaction that happens without conscious decision-making

ž  Adaptive – unlikely to have many chances to learn that this stimulus is deadly

ž  Panksepp’s Basic/Core emotions

ž  LEARNING EG:

ž  As go through life, various situations turn out to be positive or negative, and those emotions facilitate learning how to handle such situations in the future

ž  Can think of this in behaviorist terms – positive emotions act as positive reinforcers; while negative emotions foster avoidance

ž  Emotions thus innate value systems – help us assign ‘good’ or ‘bad’ value to objects, other animals, conspecifics, situations

ž  Fear and Anger

ž  Fear system well-elucidated by LeDoux

ž  Anger

ž  Panksepp distinguishes between predatory rage (cold; goal directed) and defensive rage (hot; reactive)

ž  SEEKING

ž  Positive, appetitive, motivational system

ž  Gets animal to get up, engage with world to seek out ‘multiplicity of things’ needed to survive

ž  Non-specific – ie not aimed at satisfying any one particular need; covers ALL

ž  Dopamine driven

ž  Anhedonia = when this system is hypoactive – lack of interest in anything, inability to experience pleasure

ž  Cocaine mimics DA, (hyper)activates this system

ž  SADNESS

ž  Initial work on separation-distress in animals

ž  When separated from mother, most mammals exhibit vocalizations (called separation-distress vocalizations)

ž  NB that this phase accompanied by great anxiety/stress à HPA hormones/chemistries highly active

ž  If not reunited with mother, very different phase follows

ž  SADNESS

ž  Animal becomes inert; no more vocalizations, no more searching for mother; simply lies down – and (if mother does not return) many actually die

ž  This cessation of activity may have evolutionary benefits – will not stray far from nest; stops making sounds that could alert predator to its vulnerable presence; à better chance of mother returning and finding alive

ž  Neurochemistry of this phase = that seen in depression (reduced dopamine; reduced
mu-opioids)

ž  SADNESS

ž  Robust model of how social loss à depression

ž  Early social loss à long-term changes in key neurochemistries that causes life-long vulnerability to depression

ž  Panksepp Social Emotions

ž  PLAY & CARE

ž  CARE = maternal nurturance system, emerges over development

ž  PLAY emerges in all young mammals

ž  “PLAY and the antecedents of human joy”

ž  PLAY

ž  Widely accepted that play has adaptive benefits; ito practicing hunting and social skills, defining place in social hierarchy

ž  BUT Panksepp looks at affective quality of this interaction

ž  When you tickle rats, they laugh

ž  Identified a particular frequency vocalization that is associated with positive hedonic states

ž  Rats like to be tickled – emit this vocalization; seek out more tickles; approach people who tickle them (ie ‘like’ those people) more than people who don’t