EMOTION-FEAR-AGRESSION

Erikavitri Yulianti

WHAT IS EMOTION ?

Emotion has long been considered fundamental to cognitive processing.

Research paradigms have required careful control of variables and therefore have often
attempted to not focus on the role of emotions in various measures of processing, such as
attention, perception, and memory.
However, the role of emotion in these and other aspects of cognition is now well established.
What is an emotion? The answer to this question is as complex as the mind itself.
One view considers emotion as a primary value system of the brain, allowing activations to be
selectively reinforced. For example, emotionally charged experiences may be more readily
recalled than uneventful ones.

ASPECT EMOTION

The organization of patterns of responses that deal with the situation that provokes the
emotion
The communication of emotional states with other
Subjective component: Feeling of emotion

EMOTIONAL AS RESPONSE PATTERNS

Positive or negative feelings, produced by particular situations
Emotional as response patterns consists of 3 types of components:
Behavioral: involved muscular movements
Autonomic: facilitate the behaviors and provide quick
mobilization of energy increases while parasympathetic decreases
Hormonal: reinforce the autonomic response, adrenal medulla hormone (epinephrine &
norepinephrine) and adrenal cortex secretes steroid hormones make glucose available to
the muscles
FEAR:
Amygdaloid complex: in temporal lobes
Divided into 12 region: 5 major region: medial nucleus, lateral nucleus, basal nucleus,
accesory basal nucleus, central nucleus
The medial nucleus: receive sensory input (presence of odors and pheromones), relay to the
medial basal forebrain and to the hypothalamus
The lateral nucleus (LA): receives sensory information from the primary sensory cortex,
association cortex, thalamus and hippocampal formation, sends to other part of the brain:
ventral striatum (reinforcing stimuli on learning), the dorsomedial nucleus of thalamus whose
project it to prefrontal cortex; also to basal (B) and accessory basal (AB) nuclei; and all the
LA, B, AB send info to central nucleus
The central nucleus (CE): for expression of emotional response provoked by aversive
stimuli, the production of FOS protein incrrease;
Long-term stimulation of the CE produces stress-illnesses such gastric ulcers important for
aversive emotional learning
CE projects to the lateral hypothalamus: change in blood pressure and the caudal
periaqueductal gray matter: interfered with the freezing response
Amygdala contains a high concentration of BZD receptors, regio project to the central
nucleus
Central nucleus contains high concentration of opiate receptors
Infusion of both into the amygdala decreases both learning and the expression of
conditioned emotional responses
Anxiety disorders: hyperactivity of the central nucleus
 ANGER & AGGRESSION:
Aggressive behavior are species-typical
Many related to reproduction
Other to self-defense
Neural control is hierarchical: controlled by hypothalamus and amygdala
Activity of serotonergic synapses inhibits aggression and controlling of risky behavior
Saudon et al. (1994) and Bouwknecht et al. (2001): mice lacking 5-HT1B receptors
attacked an intruder more quickly and intensely
Prefrontal cortex, especially the orbitofrontal cortex, play an important role in recognizing
the emotional significance of complex social situations and regulating our responses to
such situations
It is also involves experiences, memories, inferences, judgements
Orbitofrontal cortex, in the base of the frontal lobes: important role in control of emotional
behavior

HORMONAL CONTROL OF AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR

Related to reproduction
Reproductive behaviors are controlled by activational effects of hormones
Intermale aggresiveness begins around the time of puberty, stimulated by androgens
Beeman (1947) found that castration reduced aggresiveness and injections of testosterone
reinstated it
Androgens stimulate male sexual behavior by interacting with androgen receptors in neurons
located in the medial preoptic area (MPA)
Aggression between males appears to be facilitaed by testosterone
Van de Poll et al (1988) ovariectomized female rats and give them daily injections of
testosterone, estradiol and placebo for 14 days; unfamiliar female was introduced;
testosterone increased aggresiveness, whereas estradiol had no effect just like placebo
Androgens have an organizational effect on the aggressiveness of females
Certain amount of prenatal androgenization appears to occur naturally
Another period of fighting occur just before menstruation

COMMUNICATION OF EMOTIONS:
We communicate our emotions by means of postural changes, facial expressions, nonverbal
sounds
Facial expression of emotions: innate responses: Charles Darwin (1872-1965) emotional
expressions are innate, unlearned responses.
Ekman Friesen (1971): expressions were unlearned behavior patterns
The important aspects: recognition & expression

RECOGNITION OF EMOTIONS:
We recognize others feelings by means of vision and audition: seeing the facial expressions
and hearing the tone of voice and choice of words
Right hemisphere important role in comprehension of emotion, (Bryden and Ley, 1983)
better at detecting differences in facial expressions of emotion
Left hemisphere better in recognizing words or letter strings (Bryden and Ley, 1983)

EXPRESSION OF EMOTIONS:
Facial expressions of emotion are automatic and involuntary
Volitional facial paresis: damage to the face region of the primary motor cortex or to the
fibers connecting this region to the motor nucleus of the facial nerve
Emotional facial paresis: damage to the insular region of the prefrontal cortex, to the white
matter of the frontal lobe or to parts of the thalamus; can move their face muscles voluntarily
but dont express emotions on the affected side of the face
Amygdala is involved in the recognition of facial expression of emotions but not produce
facial expressions of emotion
 Bilateral amygdalectomy: lost the ability to recognize facial expressions of emotion, dont
impair the ability to produce her own facial expressions of emotions

FEELING OF EMOTIONS:
James (1884)-Lange (1887) Theory: William James (1842-1910), an American psychologist
and Carl Lange (1834-1900), a Danish physiologist, independently suggested similar
explanations for emotion
Emotion-producing situations elicit an appropriate set of physiological responses: trembling,
sweating, increase heart rate, elicit behaviors: fight or flight
The brain receives sensory feedback from the muscles, from the organs that procude
responses, this feedback that constitutes our feeling of emotion
FEELING ARE THE RESULTS NOT THE CAUSES OF EMOTIONAL REACTIONS