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Emotion

Expression & Experience


What is emotion?

• No scientific definition
• Controlled by distinct neuronal circuits
within the brain
• We experience emotion consciously
– therefore there is a cognitive element, most
likely involving the cerebral cortex
• Emotion can be viewed as an outcome
of the interaction of peripheral & central
factors
Responses to Emotion
• Emotion is accompanied by autonomic,
endocrine & skeletomotor responses
• Thus it also depends on sub-cortical
parts, including:
– amygdala
– hypothalamus
– brain stem
Peripheral Responses
• Peripheral responses prepare the body
for action
• Communicate emotions to other people
• Example – fear:
– increased heart rate & respiration
– dry mouth
– tense muscles
– sweaty palms
The Autonomic Nervous System & Emotion
• Most changes that accompany
emotional states are mediated by
autonomic nervous system
• The autonomic system is primarily an
effector system
– controls smooth muscles, heart, exocrine
glands
– autonomic is involuntary
Three Divisions of the ANS
• Sympathetic
– governs fight or flight response
– response to stress
• Parasympathetic
– rest and digest
– Normal conditions
• Enteric
Role of the Hypothalamus
• Contains many of the neuronal circuits that
regulate functions that vary with emotion:
– Temperature
– heart rate
– blood pressure
– water and food intake
• also controls pituitary gland & thereby the
endocrine system
• controls output of autonomic nervous system
Hypothalamic Control of the ANS
• The hypothalamus acts on ANS in 2 ways:
• Projects to 3 important regions in the brain stem &
spinal cord:
– to the nucleus of the solitary tract
– receives sensory input from viscera
– to the brain stem in the rostral ventral medulla
– leads to general sympathetic activation
– directly to the autonomic outflow of the spinal cord
• The hypothalamus acts on endocrine system to
release hormones that influence autonomic
function
Experimental Evidence
• Emotional states are elicited by stimulating
the hypothalamus
• Stephen Ranson - 1932
– stimulated different regions of the
hypothalamus in anesthetized animals
– Evoked autonomic reactions including changes
of heart rate, blood pressure, etc.
• Walter Hess - 1940’s
– used awake animals
– produced behaviors and physiologic changes
characteristic of particular emotions e.g. fear
Cortical Centers of Emotion
• Physiological inputs to the hypothalamus act
on the brain stem & autonomic nervous
system.
• This information reaches the cerebral cortex
from the peripheral organs.
• This gives rise to the conscious perception of
emotion
• So where is the cortical representation of
emotion?
The Limbic System Concept
• Is there a “system” ( a group of
structures that function together)
responsible for emotion?
• Scientists identified the limbic system as
the key pathway in emotion – 1930’s
– Paul Broca
– James Papez
Broca’s Limbic Lobe
• Paul Broca – 1878
• Identified a portion of cortex present in all
mammals which is different from surrounding
cortical tissue
– These areas form a ring or border around the brainstem
– Limbus = border , thus limbic lobe
• Includes:
– cortex around the corpus callosum, especially in the
cingulate gyrus
– Cortex on the medial surface of the temporal lobe,
including the hippocampus
• Broca did not relate these structures to emotion
The Papez Circuit
• James Papez- 1930’s
• Proposed that there is an emotion system that links
the cortex to the hypothalamus
– Emotion is determined by the activity of the cingualte
cortex
– Emotional expression is governed by the hypothalamus
• The Papez Circuit
– A group of structures, each connected to the next by a
major fiber tract
– The cingulate cortex projects to the hippocampus, which
projects to the hypothalamus through the fornix; the
hypothalamus projects to the anterior nuclei of the
thalamus, which reach back to the cortex
Papez Circuit
Studying Emotion
• Emotional expression
– behavioral manifestations of internal emotion
• Emotional experience
– subjective feelings of emotion
• Limitations of animal models
– can study emotional expression but cannot
investigate emotional experience
• Limitations of human experiments
– very often the medical situation which provides
information involves damage to or compromise of
other neural structures and functions in an
uncontrolled way
Theories of Emotion- James & Lange
• William James & Karl Lange - 1884
• Proposed that the experience we call emotion occurs
after the cortex receives signals about physiologic
changes
– Emotional expression precedes emotional experience
– Physiological changes occur in response to stimuli, then
we feel emotions
• Emotion is the consequence of information from the
periphery
– We feel sorry because we cry
• The physiological changes are the emotion
Critique of James & Lange
• Emotions are experienced even if
physiological changes aren’t sensed
– Patients & animals with transected spinal
cords do not have lessened emotions
• The same physiological changes
accompany different emotions and can
have other causes
– e.g. fear, anger & disease can all increase
heart rate & cause sweating
Theories of Emotion – Cannon & Bard
• Walter Cannon and Phillip Bard - 1927
• Stimuli cause emotional experience
• Emotional experience can occur independently of
emotional expression
• The thalamus plays a pivotal role in emotional
sensations
• Emotions are produced when signals reach the
thalamus directly from sensory receptors or by
descending cortical input
• The emotion is determined by the pattern of
activation of the thalamus
The Somatic Marker Hypothesis
• Stanley Schacter:
• The cortex constructs emotion out of
signals received from the periphery
• This is called the somatic marker
hypothesis:
• Emotion is a story the brain concocts to
explain bodily reactions
– Depends expectations, experience, social
context
– Thus the same responses can accompany
different emotions
Current Theories
• Antonio Damasio -
• Expanded somatic marker hypothesis
• Draws a close connection between emotion and
cognition.
• Emotions are biologically indispensable to decisions.
• Studied patients with damage to the amygdala or
prefrontal cortex
– Research on patients with frontal lobe damage indicates
that feelings normally accompany response options
– Operate as a biasing device to dictate choice.
• “Descartes error” – separating mind & body
The Current View
• No single neural system produces emotions
• Different emotions may depend on different neural
circuits, but many of these circuits converge in the
same parts of the brain
• The limbic system may be involved in some
emotional experiences, but it is not the sole neural
system underlying emotion
• Feelings (emotion) result from the interplay
between:
– The amygdala, hypothalamus, brain stem & autonomic
nervous system and . . .
– between amygdala and frontal & limbic cortex
Fear & Anxiety
• The amygdala is the critical structure
• Also involves the hypothalamus & ANS
• Demonstrated by:
• Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
• Electrical stimulation experiments
• Patients with damage to the amygdala
Klüver-Bucy Syndrome
• Heinrich Kluver & Paul Bucy - 1939
– bilateral removal of the temporal lobes in
monkeys (which contains the amygdala &
hippocampal formation) 
• Radical changes in emotional behavior
– increased and bizarre sexual behavior
– highly oral
– failed to recognize familiar objects (psychic
blindness)
• temporal lobe destruction of visual cortices
– emotionally flat
• absence of fear - amygdala missing
Kluver-Bucy Syndrome
The Amygdala
• Structure critical to emotional part of Kluver-Bucy
syndrome is the amygdala
• The amygdala is part of the limbic system
• Human patients with damaged amygdalas have
reduced ability to recognize fear in others
• Electrical stimulation leads to fear and anxiety
• A learned fear response, where pain is associated
with a sensory input, may involve a circuit through
the basolateral nuclei & central nucleus of the
amygdala
• These effects are mediated through the
hypothalamus & autonomic nervous system.
The Amygdala
Anger and Aggression
• Definitions:
• Predatory aggression
– leads to an attack for food
– motive is to kill other animal
• Affective aggression
– behavior for show to scare other animal
– lots of sympathetic ANS activity
• Mediated by the hypothalamus, midbrain &
amygdala
• May also involve serotonin
The Role of the Hypothalamus
• When the entire cerebral hemispheres are removed,
sham rage results
– Small stimuli provoke violent responses
– Difficult to interpret because the entire neocortex is
missing
– Removal of anterior hypothalamus, sham rage still occurs
– Removal of the posterior hypothalamus, sham rage
vanishes
– Conclusion: posterior hypothalamus is important for
aggression and is normally inhibited by neocortex
• Electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus
– Stimulation of medial hypothalamus leads to affective
aggression - hiss and spit at mouse
– Stimulation of lateral hypothalamus leads to predatory
aggression
Possible Role of the Midbrain
• Major outputs of hypothalamus to brain stem are
• Medial forebrain bundle (mfb)
– project to ventral tegmental area
– Electrical stimulation of ventral tegmental area can
cause predatory aggression
– Lesions in ventral tegmental area can abolish affective
aggression
• Dorsal longitudinal fasciculus (dlf)
– project to periaqueductal gray matter
– Electrical stimulation of PAG can elicit affective
aggression and lesions can abolish affective aggression
Possible Role of the Amygdala
• Ablation experiments indicate that the amygdala is
also involved in aggression
– amygdalectomy reduces aggression
• Two pathways for aggression:
• Predatory aggression - cortex > amygdala > lateral
hypothalamus > mfb > ventral tegmental area
• Affective aggression - cortex > amygdala > medial
hypothalamus > dlf > periaqueductal gray matter
• Led to psychosurgical procedures to destroy
amygdala in humans
– Frontal lobotomy is another example of psychosurgery
Possible Role of Serotonin
• Experimental evidence suggests that blocking or
reducing the synthesis or release of serotonin may
increase aggressive behavior
• When the gene for serotonin receptors are
removed in mice, they become more aggressive
• The type of receptor that is most effective when
deleted is normally found in the amygdala,
periaqueductal gray matter, and basal ganglia, as
well as the raphe nuclei
Summary
• No single neural system produces emotions
• Brain structures involved in emotion are
multi functional
– there are interesting relationships among
emotion, memory, and olfaction
• Emotion results from the interplay
between:
– The amygdala, hypothalamus, brain stem &
autonomic nervous system and . . .
– between amygdala and frontal & limbic cortex

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