Cognitive- emotion

• circuit model of emotions
• Papez circuit = hippocampus, hypothalamus, anterior thalamus and cingulate cortex. 
• later extended to include: amygdala, orbitofrontal cortex and parts of basal ganglia = limbic system 
  
• outdated, hippocampus no longer as central or strictly necessary for prcept/triggering of emotions 
  
• Amygdala = key role in processing emotions 
• amygdala mostly involved in process of aversive emotions (FEAR) 
  
• lesions to medial temporal lobe (AMYGDALA) = Kulver Bucy Syndrome - psychic blindness. inability to appropriately discriminate objects. result in extreme oral tendancies, placidity, lack of fear, unselective sexual behaviour

Explicit emotional learning= type of learning that occurs through instruction 

• e.g. subject told cue will predict occurence of event which will trigger emotional reaction (electric shock trigger fear) 
• knowledge that predicts an upcoming event alone is sufficient to cause change in heart rate, skin resistance etc. 
• triggers full emotional response even when predicted event never occurs. 
• aniticipation= sufficient 
• hippocampus neccessary for explicit learning BUT amygdala may still influence learning 
• memories related to emotional events 
• if amygdala activated results in aroual response which aids memory formation (ensures hippocampus is at its peak performance)
• memory enhancement effect aboloshed when amygdala lesioned. 
• arousal after event also enhances learning 

Implicit emotional learning = emotional conditioning 

• emotional conditioning studied through fear conditioning 
• neutral stimulus (conditioned) paired with aversive stimulus (unconditioned) results in unconditioned response 
• pairing results in learning that conditioned stimulus predicts averisve stimulus + presentation of conditioned stimulus will result in fear response (conditioned response)
• automatic process. 
• place preference- prefer environment we had positive encounter in
• gradual extinction occurs if conditioned stimulus regularly followed by absense of unconditioned stimulus (no more conditioned response)
• lesions to amygdala result in impairements for implicit learning (emotional conditioning) 
• amygdala= number of different subnuclei, lateral nucleus of amygdala recevives incoming sensory information (from diff. sources) + sends info. to basolateral + basomedial nuclei which are connected to central nucleus of amygdala which is connected to variety of brainstem nuclei which coordianted automatic responses to emotive stimuli. 

• automatic social responses (reading facial expressions) requires amygdala involvement 
• amygdala activation to fearful expressions automatic + doesnt require conscious perception that a face has been presented at all (subliminal perception)
• amygdala lesions= still have range of emotions themselved  + can still read others feelings states those with orbitofrontal lesions cant 
• suffer from deficit in interpreting visual expressions because they suffer from unconventional eye-scan paths (dont look at eyes)
• fear expression most evident from wide eyes
• most other emotions have multiple clues hat aid their interpretation 
• if asked to look at eyes can do so and read fear 
• amygdala also involed in social grouping evaluations- benefical in tribal but may lead to racial stereotyping 

• orbitofrontal cortex lesions= loss to make decisions about appropriate social behaviour + decisions about ones own life. (evaluation processes= an emotion)
• orbitofrontal cortex- most strongly activated when viewing angry faces
• Anterior cingulate cortex- most strongly activated when viewing angry faces
• Insular cortex- strongly activated with  disgust 
• amygdala + anterior temporal pole- sadness

emotions hold attention

• studied in emotional stroop paradigms + in reaction times task with automatic capture of attention by emotional stimulation
• based on reaction times associated with the latter- emotional stimuli hold attention (not draw)

• during evolution= beneficial, stops dangerous + stupid things which would result in harm
• modern society- maladaptive
• anxiety can trigger fear and vice versa
• anxious apprehension = 'high cognitive state' worry about the future. prominent state in generalised anxiety disorders (GAD) and OCD. left frontal hempisphere
• anxious arousal= perceived threat in present or immediate future. panic disorders. panic attacks- direct fear response. right frontal + parietal 
• two disorders atleast partly lateralized in terms of cortical representation 
• supported by patients with specific cortical lesions. l
• lesion to left frontal cortex results in 'catastrophic' emotional propensity. left frontal= emotional survalence (worries) which balances (inhibits)
• lesions to right hemishere can result in response entirely inapropriate for situation. involved in processing of neg emotion (and triggering of fear) abolishing can result in imbalance

Ekman + Friesen- universal emotional expressions. 

• anger
• disgust 
• fear
• happiness
• sadness
• surpise 

one classification- subdivide emotions along two orthogonal axes which indicate valence (pleasent-unpleasantness) on one axis and arousal (intensisty- high-low) on the other. 

others argue emotions can be alligned along approach withdrawal dimensions. 

others argue emotions have to entail certain components (e.g. psychological response) (subjective feelings) (motor pattern)

none can claim ultimate truth. just useful frameworks within which to classify certain aspects of emtotional processing. 

• periphery debate 
• James lange theory- psychological reactions precede the feeling state. 
• Cannon-Bard theory- emotions can arise even when feedback from periphery is abolished (cant sense a change in physiological reaction) 
• Zajonc-Lazarus debate- similar debate
• experiments by LeDoux group- both views may be right
• . fear conditioning in rats involves 2 pathways of information flow. one being 'low road' and one being 'high road'
• . low road- fast connection from the senses to amygdala. minimally processed info reaches amygdala quickly, possibly priming reaction.
• high road= input from the cortex + provides info to amygdala that is more readily processed.
• combined info likely to result in fast and accurate responses when emtoionally relevant stimuli encountered