1. Emotion and Cognition
Historically emotion and cognition were thought to be distinct and separable mental activities
E.g., Plato proposed that the mind had 3 separable aspects: intellect, will, and emotion

2. Emotion and Cognition What is emotion
Controversial question
Emotions are (Ochsner & Gross Handbook of emotions)
1. Valenced (i.e., good/bad) response to external stimulus or internal representation that involves
2. result in changes across multiple types of responses (behavioral, physiological)

3. Emotion and Cognition Emotions 3. often have identifiable triggers
4. both learned (response to a bully) and unlearned (withdrawing hand from hot stove)
5. mediated by distinct neural systems

4. Emotion and Cognition
Recent focus on emotion comes from cognitive neuroscience research, which demonstrated that there are specific neural structures (esp. Amygdala), that are specialized for processing emotional stimuli

5. Emotion and Cognition Emotions Case of S.M. (damage to amygdala)
S.M. age 42
Last time S.M. appear to be scared was at the age of 10 although she has been physically assaulted and held up at knife point
S.M. has Urbach-Wiethe disease a genetic disorder that is progressive
Leads to degeneration of amygdalae

6. Emotion and Cognition S.M. Neuropsychological tests
S.M. intelligence in normal range
No perceptual or motor problems

7. Emotion and Cognition S.M. performance on tests of emotion
Impaired in fear identification in set of photos; normal performance on sadness, anger, disgust, happiness, and surprise
Could sketch facial diagrams showing each emotion above except for fear

8. Emotion and Cognition S.M. performance on tests of emotion
Studies showed that she understands situations that are fearful
But, this does not appear to prevent her from getting involved in fearful situations

9. Emotion and Cognition
Amygdala - small almond-shaped structure, just anterior to the hippocampus; it is located in medial temporal lobe
Amygdala is specialized in processing emotion
Amygdala also influences cognitive processes and is influenced by cognitive processes
Thus, both cognition and emotion need to considered in context of each other

10. Emotion and Cognition
Amygdala and related brain structures

11. Emotion and Cognition
Basic question: are emotions biologically hardwired or derived from other more basic causes
William James argued they were derived or assembled from more basic causes
Charles Darwin argued that certain emotions were hardwired

12. Emotion and Cognition
Darwin (1873) The expression of emotion in man and animals
Investigated emotion across cultures and argued that the expression of certain emotions through facial expression was the same across cultures
Eckman (1960) investigated cultures around the world and discovered that facial expression for the following emotions was the same: anger, fear, disgust, sadness, happiness, surprise

13. Emotion and Cognition
Conclusion: this suggests that these emotions are innate and that they may be elicited by the same brain mechanisms across people

14. Emotion and Cognition Analyzing emotions
1. Basic emotions: relatively small set of emotions developed through evolution, and reflected in facial emotion (e.g., fear, anger, happiness)
2. Complex emotions: combinations of basic emotions (e.g., satisfaction); often learned socially

15. Emotion and Cognition Analyzing emotions
3. Dimensions of emotions: emotions can be assessed in terms of
Valence (pleasant - unpleasant; positive - negative)
Arousal – assesses the amount of valence

16. Phineus Gage

17. Phineus Gage
Computer reconstruction of the path taken by tamping iron through skull of Phineus Gage

18. Emotion and cognition
Gage walked away from accident, could describe the accident the next day, and within a month was deemed able to resume work as a foreman
It became clear that Gage was “no longer Gage”
Prior to injury Gage was a sober, responsible, intelligent, home body, with no peculiar or bad habits; he was a responsible, valued employee
After injury he was erratic, given to grossest profanity, impatient, unwilling to listen to advice, and unable to plan effectively
Tamping iron damaged medial region of prefrontal cortex
Subsequent research has shown that damage to frontal lobes can lead to dramatic changes in personality while keeping perception, consciousness, and most cognitive functions intact

19. Emotion and cognition Neural circuits of emotion
Emotion is believed to be multifactorial and to involve several circuits
several different types of emotional behaviors exist and their expression depends upon the specific nature of the task
several different brain regions are involved in emotion
These include the anterior cingulate, hypothalamus, and basal ganglia
2 regions primarily involved in emotion are the amygdala and the orbitofrontal cortex

20. Emotion and cognition Orbitofrontal cortex
Forms the base of the prefrontal cortex and is adjacent to the upper wall of the orbit above the eyes
Orbitofrontal cortex is broken down into two distinct areas: the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the lateral orbitofrontal prefrontal cortex
ventromedial prefrontal cortex – is one of the primary areas damaged in Phineus Gage
Exact function of orbitofrontal cortex is unclear, but it appears to be involved in regulating our ability to inhibit, evaluate, and act in social and emotional decision making situations

21. Emotion and cognition
Human orbitofrontal cortex, divided into the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (green) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (red)

22. Emotion and cognition
Human orbitofrontal cortex

23. Emotion and cognition Emotional learning
places, persons, locations, and objects have an emotional valence or value associated with them
Valence is usually acquired through emotional learning
Some stimuli are inherently positive or negative; no learning is involved – e.g., shock, very loud noise; these are referred to as primary reinforcers
Other stimuli are neutral initially but take on a positive or negative valence because they have positive or negative consequences associated with them; i.e., the emotional valence is learned; called secondary reinforcers

24. Emotion and cognition Fear conditioning
Fear conditioning used to investigate emotional learning of negative valences
Paradigm with rats
An initially neutral stimulus (CS conditioned stimulus) such as a light is paired with an aversive stimulus such as a mild shock (US unconditioned stimulus)
Shock elicits a fear response to shock, called an unconditioned response
With repeated trials the rat learns that the light predicts the shock and exhibits a fear response to light, called the conditioned response

25. Emotion and cognition Fear conditioning
Results show that damage to the amygdala impairs conditioned fear responses
However, damage to the amygdala does not impair the fear response indicating that response does not depend upon the amygdala
Thus amygdala is associated with learning or memory of fear
The neural circuit associated with fear learning is complex

26. Emotion and cognition Fear conditioning
Neural circuit associated with fear learning
Emotional stimulus (e.g., CS light) seen by eyes; projects to thalamus; then sent (a) to amygdala “low road”; and (b) to sensory cortex (e.g., visual cortex) “high road” for further analysis
The “low road” provides quick and dirty crude signal to amygdala that a stimulus resembling the CS was perceived; high road provides a more detailed analysis of sensory input, which then, if it is CS, is projected back to the amygdala

27. Emotion and cognition Fear conditioning
Neural circuit associated with fear learning
Thus, there are 2 routes of projection to the amygdala; a fast signal that is susceptible to error and a slower route that less error prone
Advantageous when a danger is present to have dual routes
Information from amygdala projects to regions that activate behavioral, autonomic, and endocrine (hormone) emotional responses
It also projects to anterior cingulate and ventromedial frontal lobe

28. Emotion and cognition Emotional processing by human to rattlesnake
Note: “high and low road” routes to amygdala; autonomic responses (e.g., heart rate); actions of hiker modulated by ventromedial frontal regions

29. Emotion and cognition Emotional learning and memory
Neural circuit associated with fear conditioning is believed to be an implicit memory system; its effects are expressed indirectly through a behavioral or physiological response though of course humans can directly express the response
However, many emotional memories are believed to be implicit and explicit and are mediated by different brain regions

30. Emotion and cognition Emotional learning and memory
Neural circuit associated with fear learning and memory
Phelps (1998) Patient SP had bilateral amygdala damage
Fear conditioning experiment
SP and controls were presented a blue square and during acquisition phase of study, the blue square was paired with a mild electrical shock to the wrist
SP and controls showed normal fear response to shock as measured by skin conductance response (SCR), an autonomic nervous system response indicating arousal
However, SP did not show a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus (blue square) presented by itself

31. Emotion and cognition Aside Emotion elicits bodily reactions
when scared, heart beats faster and we sweat as a result of arousal of the autonomic nervous system
Skin conductance response (SCR) also called galvanic skin response (GSR) measures change in skin conductance resulting from activity of sweat glands; hence a measure of arousal

32. Emotion and cognition
Skin conductance response by SP and controls to conditioned and unconditioned stimulus

33. Emotion and cognition Emotional learning and memory
Neural circuit associated with fear learning and memory
SP however, had declarative memory for the experimental task and reported that she understood the association between the blue square and the electrical shock, and anticipated being shocked when shown the blue square
Using the same experimental paradigm, patients with hippocampal damage and intact amygdala showed the opposite pattern of results – i.e., normal autonomic conditioning, but were unable to report there was a blue square, or the association between the blue square and electrical shock
Conclusion- amygdala necessary for implicit expression of emotional learning, but not necessary for explicit memory emotional events

34. Emotion and cognition Social decision making
Frontal lobes are positioned to combine information from a variety of sources because of way information from the posterior regions projects to the frontal regions
Thus, it can select what behavior is appropriate in a given situation
The orbitofrontal lobes appear to help in the selection of appropriate actions when action is based on social cues
Patients with orbitofrontal lobe damage appear to have difficulty taking into account social context in their actions relying too heavily on perceptual cues, and producing inappropriate responses in a social context

35. Emotion and cognition Social decision making
In terms of Shallice’s SAS model, the perceptual input is not combined with contextual information to select an appropriate response

36. Supervisory Attentional System Trigger Data Base Effector System
Perceptual
Structures
Effector
System
Contention
Scheduling

37. Emotion and cognition Social decision making
Utilization and imitative behavior
Lhermitte (1983; 1986) showed that px with frontal lobe damage tended to rely excessively on perceptual input and show imitative and utilization behavior
E.g., px pick up pencil on doctor’s table, and perform actions that were socially odd – e.g., came in doctor’s office where there was a hammer, nail, and picture and began to hang the picture
Or socially inappropriate – left hypodermic needle in desk, doctor dropped his trousers, and turned his back on patient– patient pick up needle and jabbed it into doctor’s butt! (Don’t try to get this through ethics)
Lhermitte dubbed this utilization behavior -- patient’s rely too much on perceptual input to guide behavior

38. Emotion and Cognition Imitative and utilization behaviors
Imitation. Patient mimics physician making threatening gesture

39. Emotion and cognition
Utilization behavior patient – when objects are placed in front of patient, he or she uses them – Patient tries to put on 3 pairs of glasses

40. Emotion and cognition Emotional decision making
Damasio (1994) argued that rational decision making depends critically on an emotional evaluation of the consequences of an action
When weighing the consequences of an action we need to have an common measuring stick to assess the benefits and costs of an action
This metric was called by Damasio, a somatic marker
Somatic markers are bodily sensations (gut feelings) that help us evaluate our feelings about a potential action
Quick process that allows us to assess which options we feel most positively about, and they allow us to discard options that elicit negative feelings

41. Emotion and cognition Emotional decision making
Test of somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1994)
Provides an account of behavior of px with orbitofrontal (and perhaps amygdala) damage
Such patients understand events and objects that are emotionally affective, but they are stripped of emotional content (valence) associated with them
Skin conductance response (SCR) experiment
Purpose: to determine whether orbitofrontal px have normal SCR to pictures with emotional content
Note: these pictures have content by virtue of our memories; they are not intrinsically arousing like a loud noise or electrical shock

42. Emotion and cognition Emotional decision making
Test of somatic marker hypothesis (Damasio, 1994)
Px with orbitofrontal damage and controls were shown a series of emotional and neutral photos; SCR was measured
Results showed that px with orbitofrontal damage did not show autonomic emotional response to emotional stimuli, unlike controls
However, both groups showed an autonomic response to an intrinsically negative stimulus like a loud noise

43. 13.8 Top panel shows examples of neutral (N) and Emotional (E) stimuli used in experiment
Bottom panel shows SCR responses of patients and controls

44. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Consolidation refers to a process by which memories become more stable over time, and in some cases performance on tasks requiring memory improves
In the case of declarative memories for emotional events this process appears to take time and occurs through the modulation of hippocampal processing during storage not encoding

45. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Experimental approach to investigate effects of amygdala activation on declarative memory
Investigators disrupted or enhanced amygdala processing after memory encoding
E.g., Study – maze learning task with rats (maze learning requires hippocampus); after learning rats were given drug that induced excitation response in amygdala or saline (baseline) injection
Group with elevated amygdala response showed better memory for the maze than baseline group (Packard & Teather, 1998)

46. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Effects of amygdala activation have also been reported for nondeclarative (habit memory) memory mediated by the striatal regions (Packard & Cahill, 2001)

47. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Experimental approach to investigate effects of amygdala activation on declarative memory
Amygdala enhances hippocampal consolidation through activation of the beta-adrenergic system in the amygdala (a system that is hormonal activated); it has been shown that beta blockers that block beta-adrenergic receptors also eliminate the effects of arousal on memory
Note: the hormonal changes that affect hippocampal consolidation are released during emotional arousal in situations of danger.
it has been proposed that functional purpose of this process is to increase chances that stimuli that result in an emotional reaction are more likely to be not forgotten

48. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Declarative memory is better for emotional arousing stimuli
Amygdala has a secondary role in declarative memory (although a primary role in nondeclarative emotional memory)
Px with amygdala damage did not show an arousal-enhanced memory (e.g., La Bar & Phelps, 1998)
Also there was a correlation between strength of an amygdala response to an emotional stimulus at encoding and subsequent memory performance as measured in a neuroimaging study (e.g., Cahill et al., 1996)
Thus amygdala influences declarative memory but medial temporal lobe is critically involved in acquisition of declarative memories

49. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Experimental approach to investigate effects of amygdala activation on declarative memory
Effects of delay on emotional memory
If arousal affects storage of declarative memories via the amygdala, then there should be slower forgetting of emotional than neutral stimuli
Kleinsmith & Kaplan (1963) presented word-digit pairs at study; half the words were emotional and arousing; half were neutral
At test, words were presented and participants recalled the digits; participants were tested immediately or after 24 hours

50. Emotion and cognition Emotion and declarative memory
Kleinsmith & Kaplan (1963)
Results
On immediate test there was no difference between neutral and emotional words
At 24 hour delay digits paired with emotional words were better recalled

51. Emotion and Cognition
Kleinsmith & Kaplan (1963)
Recall of digits paired with emotional or neutral words on immediate test or after 24 hour delay

52. Case Description of AM Successful businessman prior to TBI
Average to very superior general intellectual functioning
Normal academic, attention, and executive function abilities
Generally intact memory abilities
Poor social judgment; everything is positive
Park et al. (2001) Neuropsychologia

53. Neuropsychology of semantic memory
How are other types of information represented in semantic memory?
Some evidence suggests that evaluative information is processed and stored in a different location than denotative information

55. R. Temporal
Temporal
L. Amygdala b a
Amygdala
Frontal c d

56. Attitude Priming Study of AM
Purpose: to investigate AM’s evaluative rating of words
Hypothesis: impaired automatic evaluation of negative but not positive evaluative stimuli
Park et al. (2001) Neuropsychologia

57. Attitude Priming (continued)
Method: attitude priming paradigm
Participants: AM and 8 age - and education -matched controls
Procedure:
Phase 1: rate single words as “good” or “bad”
hypothesized positivity bias
Park et al. (2001) Neuropsychologia

58. Rating of Words in Phase 1

59. Response Latency to Phase 1 Words

60. Phase 2 Task: rate target as good or bad as quickly as possible prime
(pos or neg)
250 ms
blank
screen
50 ms
target
(pos or neg)
Task: rate target as good or bad as quickly as possible

61. Control Priming Results Phase 2

62. AM Priming Results Phase 2

63. Summary of Attitude Priming
Positivity bias in rating single words
Slowed responses only to words rated as bad
Priming in positive valence condition only
Conclusion: AM can automatically access positive but not negative evaluative information
Park et al. (2001) Neuropsychologia

64. Connotation Generation Study of AM
Purpose: to determine whether AM could access negative evaluative information when directed
Task: describe two positive and two negative features of single words (e.g., coffee)
Same 92 words used as primes in Experiment 1
Park et al. (2001) Neuropsychologia

65. Acceptable Good and Bad Connotations

66. Semantic priming and AM
Purpose of experiment
to determine whether AM would show normal semantic priming
prior research has shown that the latency to respond to a target is facilitated when the prime preceding the target is semantically related compared to when it is unrelated
Method
similar to Phase 2 of the first study

67. Semantic priming and AM
Method
similar to Phase 2 of the first study
task: show prime-then target; make a lexical decision about target item (word/nonword)

68. Semantic priming and AM

69. Conclusions Conclusions
AM impaired in his automatic processing of negative evaluative information
positivity bias
no priming for negative evaluative words
AM not impaired in his denotative or semantic processing of words
suggests a dissociation between these two aspects of semantic memory