Exam 6: Emotion and the Central Nervous System
Describe the "emotional facilitation of memory" task, and explain how the performance of a typical person with amygdala damage would differ from that of someone without brain damage.
(i) People normally show stronger memory for items (words, story elements) with strong emotional content than for more neutral items.
(ii) Someone with amygdala damage would not typically show this facilitation effect, but would remember emotional and neutral content equally.
After a car accident in which his head hit the dashboard, Markus becomes increasingly impulsive, making poor decisions quickly rather than waiting to think them through. Markus likely experienced damage to his during the car accident.
B
Imagine that you had access to any technology needed to study activity in the brain - even technologies that have not yet been developed, but that you can imagine. If you used these technologies to study brain activity during human emotion, what would basic/discrete emotion theory predict you will find? What about psychological construction theory? What about the component process model?
Basic/discrete emotion theory would predict that by studying brain activity during human emotion, we would find distinct and specific patterns of neural activity corresponding to each basic emotion, such as fear, anger, happiness, sadness, and so on. This theory suggests that each basic emotion is associated with a unique set of physiological and neural responses in the brain.
On the other hand, psychological construction theory would predict that studying brain activity during human emotion would reveal a more complex and interconnected network of neural activity. This theory suggests that emotions are not discrete entities, but rather constructed from a combination of various cognitive and sensory inputs, and therefore, the neural activity associated with emotions would be more distributed and overlapping.
Finally, the component process model would predict that studying brain activity during human emotion would reveal a series of component processes that contribute to the experience of emotion, such as attention, perception, appraisal, and physiological response. This model suggests that emotions are the result of a combination of these component processes, and therefore, studying brain activity during emotion would reveal a dynamic and interactive pattern of neural activity.
In summary, while basic/discrete emotion theory predicts distinct patterns of neural activity for each basic emotion, psychological construction theory and the component process model predict a more complex and interconnected network of neural activity, reflecting the dynamic and multifaceted nature of human emotion.
Oxytocin nasal spray can be used as a "love potion," as it makes other people in general appear more attractive.
Which of the following brain functions is mediated, at least in part, by the neurotransmitter serotonin?
Several studies have shown that people with damage to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC) show greater risk-taking than people with no brain damage. Which of the following is a plausible explanation for this finding, considered on its own?
Explain the "wanting" versus "liking" distinction as described in the chapter on emotion in the brain.
According to MacLean's triune brain model, emotional responding emerged at a particular stage of evolutionary history, and as a result emotional processes are mediated by activity in a particular region of the brain. Which of the following was proposed by MacLean to be the "emotional" area of the brain?
Which of the following functions is mediated by the neurotransmitter dopamine?
Which of the following neurotransmitters serves as the body's natural painkiller?
The amygdala is an almond-shaped structure located within the lobe of the brain.
Neuroscientists consider the insular cortex to be the brain region specifically responsible for the experience of disgust.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques measure the difference between oxygenated and deoxygenated blood in the brain.
Neuroscience has identified a distinct network of structures that mediate emotional experience - the emotion region of the brain.
Which of the following brain structures plays the strongest role in sexual arousal?
Although many studies have examined brain activity during different emotions, meta-analyses of these studies have not yet determined conclusively whether the experience of different, basic/discrete emotions is associated with different patterns of activity.
Which of the following is an example of the reverse inference problem?
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