Emotions

What are Emotions?

•Emotions are burst of psychological arousal.

•They are feelings associated with mood, temperament, personality, disposition, and motivation.

•They’re formed when numerous regions of the brain work together.

The Limbic System

•The limbic system is a ring of structures are the brainstem.

•These structures interact with sensory areas of the neocortex and other higher brain centers, mediating primary emotions that manifest emotional responses such as crying or laughing.

•It attaches emotional feelings to basic survival-related functions such as aggression, feeding, and sexuality.

Structures of the Limbic System• Amygdala• Cingulate Gyrus• Hypocampus• Hypothalamus• Olfactory cortex• Thalamus

Related Structures• cingulate gyrus• ventral tegmental

area

Emotional Memory System•Uses both hippocampus and amygdala•Adults remember both image and

arousal when faced with aversive situation

•Electric shock- increase of heart rate when put in situation that mediates previous shocks

•Hippocampus damage: do NOT remember situation, arousal STILL occurs due to amygdala. Also works vice-vera.

Paul Ekman’s Six Basic Emotions•Anger•Joy•Surprise•Disgust•Sadness•Fear•Love?•Universal to all people- proven through

Fore Tribe of New Guinea (1972)

Robert Plutchick’s Eight Advanced Emotions

Human Feelings Basic Feelings

Optimism Anticipation + Joy

Love Joy + Trust

Submission Trust + Fear

Awe Fear + Surprise

Disappointment Surprise + Sadness

Remorse Sadness + Disgust

Contempt Disgust + Anger

Aggression Anger + Anticipation

The Story of Phineas Gage

• Efficient, capable, worker working on railroad construction site in 1848.

• BOOM! Dynamite explosion drives meter-long iron through his head. Entered below left eye and exited through top of his head.

• Destroys part of frontal lobe, but he recovers.

• Now “impatient, profane and capricious.”

The Story of Phineas Gage•Skull examined in 1990s by

nueroscientists.•Discovered the Frontal Lobe was used

to mediate emotions.•In past, “Frontal Lobotomy” was used

to treat emotional disorders by severing connection between frontal lobe and limbic system

•Discovery showed Frontal Lobe is necessary to keep motivation, foresight, decision making intact.