Affect

• Feelings associated with motivation

– Positive – things are going well, keep doing
what you are doing
– Negative – something wrong, change
behavior
• Related with goals
– Positive – succeeding toward/accomplishing
goals
– Negative – something is interfering/blocking
goals
 Affect States - Emotions
• Emotions – affective states that are object
directed
– Appraise/evaluate specific object and guide present
or future behavior
• Arise in presence of object/situation
• Arise due to memories/thoughts about object/situation
– Noxious food – disgust; threatening dog – fear;
person – happiness
– Relatively transient and dissipate once situation is
resolved
• Emotions can lead into moods
 Affect States - Emotions
• Appraisal &
Emotion
– Outcome
• Goal
Consistent
• Goal
Inconsistent
– Agent
• Circumstan
ce
• Other
• Self
– Control
• Low
• High
 Affective States - Mood
• Moods – affective states that are not object directed
– Monitoring/evaluation of internal body state
• Positive – things are going well, keep doing what you are doing
– Motivation/feelings – approach, interested, enthusiastic, alert, etc.
– Daily cycle – starts low and raises rapidly, gradual slow rise to midday;
declines in late afternoon/early evening
• Negative – something wrong, change behavior
– Hunger, tired, infection, doing too much of something
– Feelings/motivations – withdrawal, boredom, dissatisfaction, etc.
– Protective – negative moods associated with infection help limit activity
– Relatively long lasting relative to emotions
– Not directed toward objects but can be triggered by them
• Emotions, music, gifts, praise, nice days, etc.
 Affective States & Traits
• Affective State
– Transient affect that might last seconds, minutes, or
days
– Typically associated with environmental stimulus that
triggered state
• Dissipates when stimulus or memory of it is gone
(diminishes)
• Affective Trait
– Individual difference in tendency toward states
• Some people more inclined to experience fear (anxiety,
phobia), sadness (depression), happiness etc.
 Affective States & Traits
• Affect correlates with two
rudimentary motivational
systems
– Approach – positive
(happiness, pleasure)
– Avoid – negative (fear,
disgust)
• Motivation/affect &
prefrontal cortex
– Left PFC – happiness &
pleasure
– Right PFC – anxiety &
depression
 Affective States & Traits
• Motivation/affect & prefrontal cortex
– Brain Damage
• Left side – depression & withdrawal
• Right side – mania & inappropriate approach
behavior
– Electrical Brain Activity
• Left > right – positive affect
• Right > left – negative emotion
• Occurs with both states and traits
 Affective States & Traits
• Affect may reflect extension of reflexive systems
– Evaluative Reflexes
• Approach – food intake, sex
• Withdrawal – pain, startle/defense to intense stimuli
– Extensions
• Fear - extension of pain system
• Disgust – extension is food rejection
• Happiness\Pleasure – extension of approach system for food
intake & sexual stimulation
• What about anger?
 What are emotions?
• Source of motivation
– Disgust – reject/avoid noxious foods
– Fear – protection from threat
– Anger – eliminating/removing obstruction
– Happiness – social bonding, intimacy
• Subjective feelings
– Internal experience/perception of emotion
 What are emotions?
• Preparatory body responses
– Internal changes to help prepare for physical activity
• Changes in heart rate, sweating, blood pressure, blood flow, etc.
– Some theories postulate that perceptions of physiological
reactions important or essential for emotions
• Each emotion has different physiological pattern
– Extensively studied
– Very little evidence for this
• Physiological response depends on task, metabolic needs, and
other task relevant aspects and not emotion per se
– Joy/pleasure/happiness – talking with friends, playing sports/video
game, eating food, having sex
– Many emotions are associated with physiological states
but not necessarily specific state for any one emotion
What are emotions?
 What are emotions?
• Social
– Communicate internal states to others
• Facial expressions
• Voice tone
– Influence others behavior
• Social interaction
• Close relations
 Theoretical Perspectives
• Diversity of Approaches
– Evolutionary
• Evolutionary function of emotion
• Darwin – The Expression of the Emotions in Man
and Animals
• Common facial expression across people and
animals
 Theoretical Perspectives
• Diversity of Approaches
– Biological
• Physiological responses associated with emotions
• Peripheral
– Autonomic responses – HR, sweating, breathing, etc.
– Somatic – facial expressions
– Are not necessary for emotion but can contribute (posing facial
expressions, epinephrine injections, etc.)
• Central
– Neural circuits necessary for emotion (e.g., fear)
– Important neurotransmitters – dopamine, opiate,
 Theoretical Perspectives
• Diversity of Approaches
– Cognitive
• Emotion depends on how a stimulus is appraised
(evaluated) by cognitive system
– e.g. grandmother vs. friend falling on ice
– Physiological arousal interpreted as either anger or fear
– Social
• Communicative functions of facial expressions
• Cultural differences
– Pride
– Passionate Love
 Theoretical Perspectives
• Theoretical Disputes
– Diversity of approaches has lead to
acrimonious discussion
• Relation between cognition and affect
– Evolutionary/Biological – emotion before cognition
– Cognitive/Social – cognition necessary before emotion
• Necessity of physiological responses
– Evolutionary/Biological – essential
– Cognitive/Social – not
 Theoretical Perspectives
• Theoretical Disputes
– Number of “basic” emotions
• “Basic” implies a core emotion that can have many
subcategories depending in circumstances (cognitive
interpretation) Happy – relief, contentment, thrill, pride,
peaceful, etc.
• 2 – pleasure, displeasure
• 3 – approach (happy), fight/flight (fear & anger), inhibition
(anxiety)
• 6 – interest, fear, surprise, anger, distress, happiness
• 6 – fear, anger, sadness, disgust, enjoyment, contempt
• Etc.
 Fear & Anxiety
• Fear
– Processing circuits that detect and respond to danger
• Learning is important
– Species-typical fear/defensive responses
• Somatic NS responses (defensive behaviors such as freezing)
• Autonomic NS responses (heart rate, blood pressure)
• Endocrine responses (hormone release)
• Hypoanalgesia (reduced pain sensitivity)
• Reflexive alterations (startle)
• Anxiety
– Negative emotion that alerts us to potential threats
– Trait or State
 Pavlovian Fear Conditioning
• Aversive event (electric shock) produces species typical
fear/defensive response
– Shock – unconditioned stimulus (US)
– Fear/defensive response – unconditioned response (UR)
• Pair neutral stimulus (tone) with US (shock)
• Neutral stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus capable
of producing fear/defensive response
– Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – neutral stimulus after pairing
– Conditioned Response (CR) – learned fear/defensive
response
• Demonstrated in worms, fish, pigeons, rats, dogs,
monkeys, humans, and many others species
 Pavlovian Fear Conditioning
LeDoux, J. E. (2000). Emotion circuits in the brain. Annual Review of
Neuroscience, 23(1), 155-184.
 Fear Conditioning Brain Areas
• Sensory Areas
– Thalamus – simple
representations, fast input
– Cortex – complex
representations, slow input
• Amygdala
– Collection of nuclei
– Fear Relevant Areas
• Lateral (LA) – sensory
inputs
• Central (CE) – output
 Fear Conditioning Brain Areas
• Amygdala
– Input from all sensory areas and projects back to
them
• Input from later sensory, projections to earlier
• Allows sensory regulation
– Projects to “response” areas
– Projects to “arousal” brain networks
• basal forbrain cholinergic system, brainstem cholinergic
system, & locus cerouleus noradrenergic systems
• these systems can activate widespread cortical areas
 Fear Conditioning Brain Areas
• Hippocampus
– Memory & learning
• Pre-frontal Cortex
– Behavioral regulation &
control
• Left – approach & positive
affect
• Right – withdrawal &
negative affect
• Output Areas
– Somatic (voluntary
muscles)
– Autonomic (heart, blood
vessels, etc.)
– Endocrine (hormones)
 Amygdala and Fear
Conditioning
• Inactivation of Amygdala during learning prevents learning
but inactivation immediately after learning has no effect
– Memory storage does not necessarily have to be in amygdala
• Lateral Amygdala (LA) integrates sensory information (from
CS and UCS)
– LA receives sensory input from many areas
– Damage to LA eliminates conditioning
– LA cells that respond to tone CS (unit recordings) change
responsiveness after paired with US
– LTP – responsiveness of a neuron changes due to synthesis
of proteins (e.g., due to paired activation of pain and CS)
 Amygdala and Fear
Conditioning
• Central Amygdala (CE) organizes output
– CE receives input from LA
– CE sends information to many efferent brain areas
– Damage to CE eliminates all fear responses
– Selective damage to CE output areas eliminates
specific responses
• Damage to lateral hypothalamus affects blood pressure but
not freezing
• Damage to peraqueductal gray affects freezing but not blood
pressure
• Bed nucleus of stria termanalis affects pituitary adrenal
stress hormones but not freezing or blood pressure
 Pre-frontal Cortex

Hippocampus

Sensory Cortices
Somatic NS

Amygdala
Autonomic NS

Thalamus

Endocrine

Sensory Information
 Fear Extinction
• Learning not to fear
– Presenting CS without US will lead to extinction
(gradual process)
– Important adaptation that can allow suppression of
previous fear
• New learning and not forgetting
– Context dependent – fear response can still occur
(renewal) in contexts different than where extinction
occurred
– Response of some LA neurons returns to normal after
extinction but others remain elevated
 Fear Extinction
• Neural processes involved in extinction
• Less well understood
– Hippocampus (dorsal)
• Reversible inactivation (muscimal) eliminates contextual fear
renewal
• Hippocampus projects to amygdala (basal area) but this
does not explain effect
– Medial Prefrontal Cortex (mPFC)
• Lesions lead to more resistance to extinction
• Hippocampus projects to mPFC
• mPFC projects to LA
• mPFC suppresses fear to CS when in context where
extinction occurred
 Amygdala and Fear in Humans
• Fear conditioning leads to amygdala activity
• More active during fear than anger or happiness
• Psychopaths (emotional detachment) show deficits in fear conditioning
(but no clear evidence yet of amygdala involvement)
• Emotional Preservation
– Failure of suppressing (extinguishing negative emotions)
– Can occur in depression, anxiety, fear (posttraumatic stress disorders)
disorders
– Amygdala is overactive (hyper) in these conditions and mPFC is under
active (hypo)
– Inverse relation between mPFC and amygdala activity
• Perception of Fear – Amygdala damage leads to deficits in emotional
(especially fear) facial and voice perceptions
 Posttraumatic Stress
• Emotional reaction to extreme trauma
– Last longer than month (shorter is termed acute
stress)
– Comorbid disorders – depression, general anxiety,
substance abuse (sedatives [alcohol] are treatment
for anxiety)
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-IV
– the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted
with an event or events that involved actual or
threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the
physical integrity of self or others
– the person’s response involved intense fear,
helplessness, or horror
 Posttraumatic Stress
• Symptoms
– Intrusions – nightmares & flashbacks
– Hyperarousal – startle response
– Avoidance – avoiding contact with
things/others
• Neural Signals
– Hyperactive amygdala
– Lower control from medial prefrontal cortex &
hippocampus
 Depression
• Loss of motivation & interest in everyday
activities, pessimistic, etc.
• Important qualities that are low in
depression
– Control
– Self-esteem
• Instrumental Learning
– Learned helplessness – learning that your
actions do not affect outcomes
 Depression
• Attributions
– Non-depressed
• Good things – internal cause
• Bad things – external cause
– Depressed
• Good things – external cause
• Bad things – internal cause
• Neural
– Serotonin & norepinephrine
• Tricyclics (Tofranil & Elavil) – block re-uptake of these NTs
• Monoamine Oxidiase Inhibitors, MAOIs (Narplan, Nardil, Parnate) –
block enzyme that destroys these NTs
• Selective Serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs (Prozac) – blocks re-
uptake of only serotonin
– Effectiveness suggests that serotonin may be the more important NT
 Happiness
• Progress toward goals
– Assessment of our goals and progress toward
them
• More difficult to study in non-humans than
negative emotions
– Know less about happiness than negative
emotions (fear, anger, etc.)
 Happiness
• Sensory Pleasure
– Pleasure arises from sensory feedback
• Sex
• Homeostasis – food, temperature, etc.
• Liking (opiate) and wanting (dopamine) brain
systems
– Stimuli that are useful are liked more and “consuming”
them leads to pleasure
 Happiness
• Is happiness extension of Sensory Pleasure?
– Not clear
• More sensory pleasure does not equate to greater happiness
– Drugs that hijack these systems do not lead to greater
happiness
• Some evidence that lowering dopamine (e.g., drugs for
treating schizophrenia) reduce happiness
– Phasic vs. chronic levels of pleasure brain areas
might explain differences
• Phasic – brief spike in system that signals sensory pleasure
• Chronic – overall background levels that might be associated
with happiness
 Happiness
• Individual/genetic differences in happiness
– Twin studies suggest sizable (perhaps 50%) of
happiness has genetic/biological roots
• Big 5 personality dimensions – Extroversion,
Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness,
Conscientiousness
– Higher Extroversion higher happiness
• Extrovert: tend to enjoy human interactions, are enthusiastic,
talkative, assertive, and gregarious, take pleasure in
activities that involve large social gatherings
• Introvert: tend to be quiet, low-key, deliberate, and relatively
non-engaged in social situations, take pleasure in solitary
activities such as reading, writing, watching movies, listening
to music, etc.
 Happiness
• Big 5 personality dimensions
– Higher Agreeableness relates to higher
happiness
• Agreeable people are empathetic, considerate,
friendly, generous, helpful
• Believe that most people are honest, decent, and
trustworthy
• are more responsive to others than are their peers
– Lower Neuroticism higher happiness
• Tendency to experience negative emotions
(anxiety, fear, guilt, etc.)
 Happiness
• Social Networks
– Quantity and quality of social networks important
– May help explain importance of big 5 (extroversion &
agreeableness)
– Secure attachment in children (parents that are sensitive,
responsive, consistent & supportive)
• Self-esteem
– Attitude our view of yourself
• Control
– Self-efficacy – belief that you have the ability to alter and affect
things in your life
– May help explain decreased overall happiness with pleasurable
stimuli (e.g., drugs) that involve loss of control
– Predictability important in absence of complete control
• Uncertainty lowers happiness
 Happiness
• External
– Money
• only to a minimum amount – once people have
enough to meet basic life requirements more does
not increase happiness
– Music
• Powerful effects on mood (both happy and
unhappy)
 Happiness
• Consequences
– Health
• Happiness influences immune function
– Rats (control/helplessness training) & cancer
– Stress & sickness
– Longevity