Emotions

No sooner had the warm liquid mixed with the crumbs touched my
palate than a shudder ran through me and I stopped, intent upon the
extraordinary thing that was happening to me. An exquisite pleasure
had invaded my senses, something isolated, detached, with no
suggestion of its origin. And at once the vicissitudes of life had
become indifferent to me, its disasters innocuous, its brevity illusory
- this new sensation having had on me the effect which love has of
filling me with a precious essence; or rather this essence was not in
me, it was me. I had ceased now to feel mediocre, contingent,
mortal. Whence could it have come to me, this all-powerful joy? I
sensed that it was connected with the taste of the tea and the cake,
but that it infinitely transcended those savours, could not, indeed, be
of the same nature. Whence did it come? What did it mean? How
could I seize and apprehend it?
I drink a second mouthful, in which I find nothing more than in the
first, then a third, which gives me rather less than the second. It is
time to stop; the potion is losing its magic. It is plain that the truth I
am seeking lies not in the cup but in myself.

M. Proust, In Search of Lost Time

Wife: Bob
“Well, it has been 5 weeks today since you have been in the hospital. I’m sorry for being
frustrated, but it is very hard to deal with a person I don’t even know anymore. You do
not show any emotion to me at all. No kisses, no hugs or I love you’s….The Bob I knew
is sleeping. And maybe someday he’ll wake up.”
Bob:
“To give you an example of how I used to feel -- when she got upset, I got upset. I don’t
get upset anymore. It’s almost like I don’t care. When she says I don’t have emotions
and can’t pick up on her emotions, she’s very right. There is a big piece missing.”
 Neural basis of emotions
• Incompletely understood
• Multiple areas of brain act together in any given emotion
• Some areas, though, are of prime importance
• fMRI studies have been key
 Emotions and Arousal

Is the brain organized this way?

 Model of Emotion
Emotion is an increase or decrease in physiological activity
accompanied by feelings characteristic of the emotion
Emotions have characteristic facial expressions
 Emotional Facial Expressions across Cultures

Limbic system Frontal cortex

Monty Python
joke memory laugh (happiness) In church? Suppress
Impaired facial expression limits social interaction
Parkinson disease, schizophrenia, facial nerve paralysis

Moebius syndrome Bell’s palsy

 Facial Feedback in Emotion
Posed expressions produce the intended emotion, and the associated
physiological arousal; so we can create our own emotion
Gray skies are gonna clear up,
Put on a happy face;
Brush off the clouds and cheer up,
Put on a happy face.
Take off the gloomy mask of tragedy,
It's not your style;
You'll look so good that you'll be glad
Ya' decided to smile!
Pick out a pleasant outlook,
Stick out that noble chin;
Wipe off that "full of doubt" look,
Slap on a happy grin!
And spread sunshine all over the place,
Just put on a happy face!
Some posed emotions Put on a happy face
Put on a happy face
And if you're feeling cross and bitterish
Don't sit and whine
Think of banana split and licorice
Use this to your advantage: And you'll feel fine
I knew a girl so gloomy
She'd never laugh or sing
You can’t think your way into a new behavior, but you She wouldn't listen to me
Now she's a mean old thing
can act yourself into a new way of thinking So spread sunshine all over the place
Just put on a happy face
 Posed facial expressions affect how we interpret our environment

• A stimulus is more painful when making

a sad face

• Cartoons are rated as funnier during

induced smiling

• Women given Botox are less able to

frown and have less negative mood
• When they imitate an angry expression
they have less amygdala activity
Brain areas involved in emotion

Brainstem
Orbitofrontal cortex
Limbic system
Brain Areas for Emotion

1) Brainstem (maybe the power)

locus coeruleus
• norepinephrine

• emotional arousal

• depression/pleasure

• stress

VTA, substantia nigra

• dopamine

• pleasure, exhilaration

2) Orbitofrontal cortex (maybe the controller)

Inhibits raw emotion from amygdala
 Brain Areas for Emotion
3) Limbic system (the integrator)

hypothalamus
• ANS reactions
amygdala
• aggression & fear
• emotional memory
hippocampus
• memory
cingulate gyrus
• pain processing
• empathy
 Pleasure/happiness

Recall: Self-Stimulation
Sites in Rat Brain

norepinephrine

dopamine
Medial forebrain bundle – tract rises from midbrain through the hypothalamus
– contains many sites for self-stimulation
 Why comedians curse
fMRI activation of right ventromedial prefrontal cortex and left orbitofrontal cortex by
exposure to cartoons with increasing funniness and violation of social norms

the more ‘shocking’ the material, the funnier it is, and the more frontal cortex fires
 Unexpected surprises are the best

Give flowers on your

anniversary - 2 points

Give flowers on a random day -

10 points

Forget flowers - fail

(Nucleus accumbens)
 Amygdala - Fear
Amygdala
• Participates in memory formation, especially emotional ones
• People with amygdala damage are unusually trusting
• Anxiety-reducing drugs act on receptors in the amygdala

fMRI: Fearful expression Amygdala activation

(recognition of fear)

Ahmad Hariri’s study

 Case
A 6-year-old boy was hospitalized at Enfants Malades Hospital because of
seizures. During the first 3 days, he exhibited fatigue, incoherent speech, visual
hallucinations, verbal agnosia, and behavior disorders.
One month later he lost speech and developed visual agnosia, memory deficits,
and perseverative behavior. His aggression increased and he became hyperoral.
Behavior alternated between apathy and hyperactivity.

Klüver–Bucy syndrome
The amygdala, in the
temporal lobe, is a key
structure in fear

Klüver–Bucy syndrome – removal of temporal lobes in

monkeys has a taming effect;
they are socially clueless
 Neural circuitry in other emotions
Disgust – activates the insula (purple). Guilt (inward disgust) does too. When we
hear a ‘that’s disgusting’ story (moral disgust) our insula lights up
Laughter – activates the orbitofrontal cortex (yellow)

Anterior cingulate cortex combines emotional,

attentional, and body information in a conscious
emotional experience
 Empathy: I Feel What You’re Feeling

Red: actual touching

Blue: movie of touching
White: overlap

Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11, 417-428 (June 2010)

 Romantic love
College students in the throes of new love - while being scanned, looked at
a photo of their beloved
Right caudate, ventral tegmental area (involved in drug craving) -
became very active

Love or lust?
Septal stimulation produces pleasure, accompanied by sexual fantasies and
arousal
 Our two hemispheres process emotion differently
Left side of the face, controlled by right hemisphere, is more expressive
than the right face

Hemispheres differ in recognition of emotions in vocal messages

Right hemisphere identifies emotional tone
Left hemisphere interprets meaning of the message

• Patients with right-hemisphere damage from stroke are

more likely to be unbothered or euphoric, even if their
arm or leg is paralyzed

• People with damage to the left hemisphere express

more anxiety and sadness
 Prefrontal (orbitofrontal) Cortex
Prefrontal cortex is the final destination for much of the brain’s information about
emotion before action is taken

• Prefrontal cortex judges our behavior and its consequences

• People with damage here understand moral and social rules but can’t apply the rules
in their own lives
• People who sustain damage early in life never learn these rules and are motivated
only to avoid punishment

• Abnormalities in PFC are associated with aggression, depression, and

schizophrenia
 Frontal Lobe in Emotion
Left frontal activation
Behavioral approach. Emotions regulated by this area are anger, joy
Right frontal activation
Behavioral withdrawal. Emotions regulated are fear, sadness

Right frontal lobe is more active during

negative emotions;
L R
left hemisphere is more active during
positive emotions

Brain activation during compassion meditation

 Aggression - Bullies find sadism rewarding
In aggressive teens, areas of brain linked with feeling reward -- amygdala and
striatum -- become active when they watch pain inflicted on others
 Stress is a demanding condition in the environment and it is the individuals’
internal response to that situation

• Stress response activates the sympathetic nervous system, largely under

hypothalamic control
• Resulting increases in heart rate, blood flow, and respiration rate help the person
deal with the situation
Stress Activates Many Bodily Responses
 Adrenal cortex Adrenal medulla
secretes cortisol releases:
epinephrine
norepinephrine

Cortisol is a stress
hormone that increases
blood glucose and breaks
down protein

(cortisol)
Autonomic Activation during a Stress Situation (Skydiving)

“Each time we face our fear, we gain strength,

courage, and confidence”
Hormonal Response to Social Stress
 Acute Stress
• Hypothalamus and pituitary stimulate adrenals to release:
• epinephrine and norepinephrine,
which increase output from the
heart and liberate glucose
• cortisol, which provides sustained
release of energy to cope

• Immune system is boosted

Kirby et al. eLife, April 16, 2013

Stress hormones stimulate astrocytes (pink) to release fibroblast growth factor 2

(green), which in turn leads to new neurons (blue)

So acute stress can be beneficial

 Acute Stress
is harmful if too high

Heart attacks
• increased fivefold after Los Angeles area
earthquake
• increased in Germany during 2006 World
Soccer Cup
• increase following daylight saving time
changes

Cardiac deaths on the day of an

earthquake
 Chronic stress
is harmful too

• interferes with memory, appetite, sexual desire and performance;

• depletes energy and disrupts mood;

• compromises the immune system

• Six years after Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Pennsylvania, residents showed
impaired concentration and lowered immune responses
Stress Hormones released during chronic
stress suppress immune system
 Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

• PTSD develops in response to a stressful event of exceptionally threatening

or catastrophic nature: assault, car wrecks, rape
• Symptoms include:
• re-experiencing (e.g., flashbacks, nightmares)
• avoiding people or situations associated with event
• hyperarousal symptoms (panic)

• Treatments: behavioral desensitization

propranolol
ecstasy?
 What is the natural course of PTSD?

Duration of symptoms for PTSD treated and untreated

1
Usual onset of Many recover without treatment
Proportion surviving without recovery

symptoms a few days within months/years of event (50%

after the event natural remission by 2 years), but
0.8
some may have significant
Treatment
impairment of social and No treatment
occupational functioning
0.6

0.4

Treatment means that Generally 33% remain

0.2
about 20% more symptomatic for 3 years or
people with PTSD longer with greater risk of
recover secondary problems

0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3.25 4 4.5 5.25 6 6.5 7.5

Duration of symptoms (years)

 Stress leads to brain changes and damage
Frontal cortex and hippocampal volume is reduced in combat veterans with
PTSD and in victims of childhood abuse

Cortical tissue is reduced in torture victims

Damage due to stress is caused by cortisol - perhaps increased receptor
sensitivity
 Hippocampal Damage in a Stressed Monkey

Compare the number of cells between arrows in a

control monkey (left) and a monkey that died of
apparent stress (right)
 Social/personality influences have a physiological basis

• Introverts with HIV have higher virus titers than extoverts with HIV
• may be due to the link between introversion and norepinephrine level;
• NE levels are higher in introverts; NE blocks immune system

Flu antibodies increase more following vaccinations in subjects who had higher
activity in the left hemisphere - associated with positive emotions

Post-vaccine antibody levels

in relation to hemispheric activity level
 FYI: Buddhist coping strategies

1. Meditation: Focusing in a relaxed, nonjudgmental way on one structured

aspect of a situation (e.g., breath, mantra)

2. Mindfulness: Nonjudgmental awareness and acceptance of the present

moment

3. Lovingkindness: Being nonjudgmental, compassionate, kind to oneself and

others

4. Morality: Practicing right speech, right action, and right livelihood, and
doing these things with good intention

5. Impermanence: Realizing nothing lasts forever

these work for me

 Biological Origins of Aggression

Aggression - behavior that is intended to harm

Two types of aggression:

• Reactive aggression is impulsive, provoked, and emotional
• Proactive aggression is premeditated, unprovoked, emotionless
 Aggression - Role of Hormones
• Aggression increases in female monkeys around the premenstrual period,
when estrogen and progesterone are low
PMS may be reduced by progesterone treatment
• Testosterone levels are higher in men convicted of violent crimes, as well as in
aggressively dominant women prisoners

BUT: Aggression can increase testosterone

• Testosterone increases after winning a
sports event, watching one’s team win, and
even receiving the MD degree
 Aggression in people

Tumors in amygdala, hypothalamus or

septal area can cause aggression
Seizure activity in the amygdala
increases aggression
Murderers have higher activity of the
amygdala and hypothalamus

Removing the amygdala reduces aggression

in 33-100% of patients

13 y/o old boy made multiple suicide attempts, tried to ride his skateboard on the
freeway, and attempted violent acts against others, ranging from impulsive physical
abuse of other children to an attempt to drop a brick on the head of an adult. He was
placed in restraints up to 6 hours per day.
 Reactive and proactive aggression involve different brain areas

Murderers (reactive aggressors) have lower activity in prefrontal cortex

• Less gray matter in prefrontal cortex associated with antisocial personality
disorder
• They behave recklessly, overreact to provocation, and are sexually
promiscuous
Consider road rage

Proactive aggression is associated with psychopathy. They have:

• less autonomic response to stress
• impaired amygdala function
It's just a Cuban crime of passion
• Consider the Boston bombers Messy and old fashioned
Yeah, that's what the papers did say
It's just a Cuban crime of passion
Anejo and knives aslashin'

- Jimmy Buffett
 Emotional sociopathy

Sociopaths are incapable of remorse –

they may commit very violent acts

Charles Manson Ted Bundy