Emotion and the Brain

Abstract

Previous chapters discussed how the body and the face react in emotional situations. This chapter moves on to examine several layers of brain control, envisioning a three-tier organization that involves the brain stem (responsible for emotional arousal); the brain core (responsible for emotional organization); and the brain cortex (responsible for performing emotional executive functions). This chapter closes with a discussion of reward structures in the brain.

Learning Exercises for This Chapter

7.1.1 Questions and Important Concepts for This Chapter

This section will help you review your learning for this chapter. It is composed of numbered questions (which are also the headings of this chapter). Concepts (important terms and phrases, labeled with letters) appear below most questions. These questions and concepts serve as an outline and summary of this chapter. If you have mastered the material in this chapter, you will be able to answer all the questions and define all the concepts. You should be able to answer each question in about 50 to 100 words and define each concept in about 20 to 50 words. Questions and concepts are best understood in the context of the entire chapter, and the information for answering them is always available within this chapter.

• 1. How do emotional responses in the body and the face relate to activity in the brain?

  • (a) Input or afferent connections

  • (b) Output or efferent connections

• 2. How is the brain structured?

  • (a) Descriptive theory

  • (b) Benefit of simplified models

• 3. What is the triune brain?

  • (a) Triune

  • (b) Brain stem

  • (c) Brain core

  • (d) Brain cortex

• 4. How is the brain stem implicated in emotion?

  • (a) Reptilian brain

  • (b) One of the last parts of the brain to be disabled by alcohol

• 5. How is the brain core implicated in emotion?

  • (a) Old mammalian brain

  • (b) Hippocampus

  • (c) Hypothalamus

  • (d) Amygdala

  • (e) Limbic system

  • (f) Frontal lobes and executive system

• 6. How is the brain cortex implicated in emotion?

  • (a) Executive function

  • (b) New mammalian brain

  • (c) First parts of the brain to be influenced by alcohol

  • (d) How do the three levels of the brain interact?

• 7. What about positive emotions in the brain?

  • (a) Reward pathways

  • (b) Addiction

7.1.2 Experiential Learning Element 7.1: Emotional Memory Tags

This ELE is designed to let you experience the interaction of emotion and memory.

IMPORTANT! Do you want to be the participant in this brief study of memory tags? If so, do not turn the page until you have read all these instructions!

• 1. This task is about memorizing a bunch of words. When you are ready (not yet!), you will turn the page (or scroll down) and see a list of 30 nouns.

• 2. You will time yourself and give yourself 1 minute to study the 30 nouns.

• 3. Then you will hide the page, and, using a blank sheet of paper, write down as many of the nouns as you remember.

• 4. After you complete the task, you can answer several questions. You are ready to complete the task by turning the page now. Return to these questions once you have written down the words you remember.

GO!

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• 5. How many words did you write down on your blank page?

• 6. How many of them were actually on the list?

• 7. Consider the possible emotional tags that each of the 30 words might have. Ten of them were intended to have negative emotional tags and represent negative emotions. Ten were intended to have positive emotional tags and represent positive emotions. The last ten were intended to have neutral tags with no strong emotion in them. Return to the page of 30 words and see if you can identify each group of ten words (they are randomly scrambled). This task is pretty obvious, so you should be able to do it with no problem.

• 8. Now look at your memory list and find out what tags the words you remembered have. What you learned about the hippocampus suggests that you should remember negatively tagged words best, positively tagged words next, and neutral words least of all. Did this happen?

• 9. If you are writing a report of this ELE, provide:

  • (a) A table of all 30 words, indicating the emotional tags of each.

  • (b) A table of your remembered words, indicating the emotional tags of each.

  • (c) A score for your memory words in terms of numbers of each type remembered.

  • (d) A discussion of up to 250 words of the results of this task. Note that sometimes words might have special meanings to you and might be memorable for that reason as well as their general tag.

You have one minute to try and memorize as many of these words as you can:

Love	Birthday	Computer
Panic	Note	Sunshine
Hate	Table	Paper
Flower	Beauty	Cup
Dish	Book	Suicide
Smile	Hand	Life
Fury	Murder	Vomit
Pencil	Wall	Hugs
Blood	Killer	Cancer
Health	Gift	Cruelty

7.1.3 Experiential Learning Element 7.2: Sketching the Brain

The ELE is design to help you get some practice in thinking in terms of emotion and the brain. The trick is to perform the ELE several times until you can complete it with few errors. Feel free to use a search engine and consult diagrams of the brain as you complete the exercise.

Sketch the outline of a human brain in profile (looking at it from the side). On this brain, roughly indicate the location of the following:

• (a) The frontal lobes

• (b) The brain core

• (c) Brain cortex

• (d) The brain stem

• (e) The amygdala

• (f) One possible reward pathway

7.1.4 Experiential Learning Element 7.3: The Hippocampus and Dementia

This ELE focuses on the activities of the hippocampus—part of the brain core—and on what happens to this brain structure in cases of dementia. Take a look at this article on the shrinking hippocampus: https://doi.org/10.5402/2013/174524 (Vijayakumar & Vijayakumar, 2012).

• 1. What different kinds of dementia did the authors study? (25 words).

• 2. How did they define dementia? (25 words).

• 3. What use did they make of a test called the MMSE (Mini-mental for short)? (50 words).

• 4. Which type of dementia was associated with the greatest shrinkage in the hippocampus? (25 words).

• 5. What does a shrinking hippocampus imply for memory? (50 words).

7.1.5 Experiential Learning Element 7.4: The Amygdala as Emotion Tagger

Take a look at this report of research on the amygdala: https://news.mit.edu/2016/two-neuron-populations-encode-happy-fearful-memories-1017 (Trafton, 2016). What the researchers did (with mice) was use light to “shut up” two different types of neurons in the amygdala. This had two different effects on memory:

• 1. What were the two different kinds of neurons? (25 words).

• 2. What happened when each was caused to “shut up”? (50 words).

• 3. What did the researchers conclude?

7.1.6 Mind-Benders for This Chapter

Each Mind-Bender asks you a question that you cannot answer simply by reading this chapter. You have to think beyond this chapter. Mind-Benders are prompts for long essay answers of 500 or more words. Even if you are not asked to write the full essay, think of each of these in terms of how you might answer them.

• 1. In the early days of neuroscience, researchers used to “disconnect” the gray matter (cortex) of research animals such as cats and rats from the rest of the brain, and destroy it. Emotionally, what do you think this would do to the animals?

• 2. One main argument of evolutionary theory is that the behaviors we have are evolved to help us survive. How can this be true about something like addiction? Is addiction an evolved behavior or is there some other explanation for it?

• 3. I have seriously annoyed many people with reptilian pets such as turtles and lizards by stating “It’s no use loving them, they can’t love you back!” Why would I reach the harsh conclusion that reptilians cannot be affectionate in the same way that we understand humans to be? Use the triune brain theory in your answer.

• 4. Can your pet cat or dog feel guilty? (Not an easy question!) Try reading Scientific American on this issue and tie your answer in to the triune brain: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/thoughtful-animal/do-dogs-feel-guilty/ (Goldman, 2012).