Physiology of Emotion

Andrea Finazzi 2nd year Medical Student at

Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele Milano (Italia)

[email protected]

Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele

mailto:[email protected]

Physiology of Emotions

- Overview and Definition - Emotional Response - Bodily Changes

- James-Lange and Cannon-Bard Dispute - Somatic Marker Hypothesis

- Facial Expressions - Emotional Processing

- Subcortical Areas - Cortical Areas

- Summary

Overview and Definition

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- Affective Revolution - ↑ research on emotions - ↑ affective disorders - ↑ drug addiction - doctor-patient relationship

- Emotion ≠ Feeling - affective quality - personal experience

- Ex movere (from latin: to move) - emotional arousal - approach to something convenient - move away from a problem Troy Stith, Columbus (OH) - Constructed Chaos



- JL-CB Dispute - Somatic Marker Hypothesis



- Summary

Emotional Response

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- Automatic component - physiological reaction - related to somatic, autonomic, endocrine responses - prepare action - report the internal state - show the intensity of emotion

- Cognitive component - conscious experience - related to memory, attention and language - control impulsiveness

Subcortical Structures

Cortical Structures

in an emotional state






- Summary

JL-CB Dispute

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- James-Lange theory 1. emotion perception 2. physiological reaction 3. conscious experience

- congruent facial expression facilitates emotion perception - most of body changes are the same in all emotions - visceral responses are slow

the conscious experience of somatic and visceral alterations

generates corresponding emotions

✓✗✗

1. 2. 3.

JL-CB Dispute

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- Cannon-Bard theory 1. emotion perception 2. conscious experience + physiological reaction

- complexity of emotions - block ANS: normal perception of emotions - activation of cortical structures

subcortical and cortical processes generate

emotions

✓✓✓

1.

2.

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

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- Antonio Damasio's theory - in continuity with JL theory

- Body feedback - incentivize/discourage an action

- Choice recorded in memory - VentroMedial PreFrontal Cortex - available in future - choose between different actions - avoid disadvantageous choices

VMPFC - medial and ventral views






- Summary

Facial Expressions

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- Human face is a crossroads - physiology - psychology

- Facial muscle - ↓ constraints - ↑ expressions - universal language

- Facial expressions of emotions - individual variability - inherited in part

Charles Darwin, London Fear (from The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)






- Summary

Emotional Processing

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- Emotional brain is difficult to identify - use same cortical areas - cognitive component - integration of theory of mind processes

ability to attribute mental states (beliefs, intents, desires…) to

oneself and others and to understand that others have different beliefs, intentions,

desires from one’s own

Nina Paley, Urbana (IL) - Mimi & Eunice

Emotional Processing

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Hypothalamus

Brain areas involved in emotions - Pessoa, 2008

Amygdala

Hippocampus

Brainstem

PeriAqueductal Grey matter

Nucleus Accumbens

OrbitoFrontal* and VentroMedial

PreFrontal Cortex

Anterior Cingulate Cortex

Septum Ventral Tegmental Area

Posterior Cingulate Cortex

red: most frequently used green: others

OrbitoFrontal* Cortex

Anterior Temporal Lobe

Somatosensory Cortex

Superior Temporal Sulcus

Anterior Insular CortexPreFrontal Cortex

Basal Ganglia

Subcortical Areas

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- Hypothalamus - key role in emotional states expression - voluntary/involuntary emotional responses

- mutual projections - OFC - VMPFC - Amygdala

Amygdala

Hypothalamus

OFC and VMPFC

Subcortical Areas

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- Amygdala - cognitive component - appetitive/aversive connotation

- mutual projections - Thalamus - Hypothalamus - Primary cortices - Associative cortices

Amygdala

Thalamus

Primary and Associative Cortices

Hypothalamus

- OFC and VMPFC - pleasant/unpleasant connotation - emotional rational processing - affective value - regulation of subcortical areas

- Phineas Gage’s case - localized lesion VMPFC - no cognitive/motor deficit - personality changes

- fitful, moody and irreverent - capricious and vacillating - persistent

Cortical Areas

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Cortical Areas

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observe an emotion activates the visceromotor

representation of that emotion (empathy)

- AIC - aversive stimuli (pain, nausea..) - adverse events (economic loss) - craving (addiction) - faces expressing disgust

Berk Ozturk, Turkey - Empathy

Anders M. Leines - This is ParkinsonsElvind, 50 - diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013

Cortical Areas

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- Basal Ganglia - automatic facial expression of emotions - emotional facial hemiparesis - emotional component of prosody - poker face (Parkinson’s disease)






- Summary

Summary - Final definition

- adaptive sensorimotor transformations in response to certain stimuli that have motivational value to the body

- OFC and Amygdala - affective valence - immediate trigger adaptive responses - no cortical processing

- Basal Ganglia - body language - facial expression

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Troy Stith, Columbus - Wilhelm Reshoot

Valeria Marta Fonisto - Rita Levi-Montalcini’s Tribute

Rita Levi-Montalcini, Torino (1909-2012)

"Everyone says that the brain is the most complex organ of the body. As a doctor I might agree! But as a woman,

I assure you that there is nothing more complex than the heart; its

mechanisms are still unknown. In the brain there is logical reasoning; in the

reasoning of the heart there are emotions.”

Physiology of Emotion

Health & Medicine

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