Fear
What are the main parts of the brain involved in emotion processing (especially fear)?
Amygdala, thalamus, sensory cortex, hippocampus (low versus high road)
What is the study of neuroeconomics?
Think "neuroscience" and "economics", but often more general study of rational decision-making (especially when concerned with money or value)
What are some of the hormones and NTs associated with stress?
Epinephrine/norepinephrine, cortisol
What are the two main forms of long-term (chronic) stress on health?
What was the Ultimatum Game used in Sanfey et al.?
Proposals of splitting $10 by humans versus computers
How is fear often operationalized in research?
Fear conditioning in rats, measure freezing response to conditioned fear stimulus. Limitations?
What is the Iowa Gambling task?
Damasio: two decks of cards, one "good" and one "bad", bad deck has higher reward; over time if you pick from good decks you'll win, bad decks you'll lose
Alarm, Resistance, Exhaustion (draw on board!)
What studies show the impact of long-term stress on the cardiovascular system?
Steptoe et al. (2012); Santosa et al. (2021)
Show higher health risk (including for cardiovascular issues) for groups with higher psychosocial (stress) factors
What theory of fear does this study support:
Levinson, Ekman & Friesen (1990)- looking at physiological measures (e.g., heart rate, skin conductance) during manipulation of facial expression across cultures
James-Lange
What is Damasio's somatic marker hypothesis?
Somatic marker = body response (conscious or not) that gives information to direct rational decision-making
What study supports this theory?
What is the HPA axis?
Mechanism of physiological stress response; integration of signals from hypothalamus, pituitary, and adrenal gland
What are studies showing the effect of long-term stress on the immune system?
Cohen et al. (1991)
Positive correlation between number of stressors and likelihood of getting sick
What does it mean that the low LG offspring had less "branchy" neurons?
Less opportunities for connection/functional applications
What are strengths and limitations of the facial feedback hypothesis?
Strengths: mimicry of facial manipulation leads to increased emotion (Coles et al. 2022); cross-cultural
Limitations: pen-in-mouth does not hold up
What area of the brain was Damasio interested in with the Iowa Gambling task?
What are the two paths in the HPA axis?
Fast path: quick, direct from hypothalamus, releases epinephrine/norepinephrine
Slow path: hypothalamus to pituitary, releases hormones (cortisol) to adrenal glands
What are the receptors responding to stress, and where are they located?
Mineralocorticoid and glucocorticoid, found in areas involved in emotion (Sapolsky 1996)
Consequences?
What are the strengths and weakness of Sanfey et al.?
Strengths: design of methods, addition of computer
Limitations: logical fallacy in conclusion with assigning function to activated areas (i.e., reverse inference)
Describe a study that shows how the amygdala is involved in the fear response.
Patient S.M. - missing much of amygdala; showed her and healthy controls scary movie scenes
Found that she had less fear response than controls
BUT recent discoveries show that S.M. and patients with similar damage can still experience "panic attacks"
What is a criticism of neuroeconomics reserach in general?
Often use reference inference (e.g., Sanfey et al.)
Draw the HPA axis on the board, and explain the different ways a physiological response can be generated.
(SEE PICTURE)
What is the role of perceived control in stress response? Give an example of this process from your own life.
Vistainer et al. (1982): sense of control and health effects of stress using yoked design with rats found greatest significant difference between escapable and inescapable (more than no shock and escapable)
Happy mid-point in stress? Control (and social support) important
What do the results from Champagne et al. suggest about early stress exposure?
Multiple layers to conclusion: early stress (low LG) related to decrease in neuron "branchiness", less LTP in normal condition
BUT show better memory during stressful task - perhaps you thrive in the condition you were raised