Emotion notes 13-2 (Objectives 2-7)

A.) Emotions and Autonomic Nervous System 1.) During an emotional experience, our autonomic nervous system mobilizes energy in the body that arouses us. OBJECTIVE 2| Describe the role of the autonomic nervous system during emotional arousal.

2. ) Arousal in short spurts is adaptive 2.) Arousal in short spurts is adaptive. We perform better under moderate arousal, but optimal performance varies with task difficulty. OBJECTIVE 3| Discuss the relationship between arousal and performance.

B.) Physiological responses related to the emotions of fear, anger, love, and boredom are very similar. OBJECTIVE 4| Name three emotions that involve similar physiological arousal. Excitement and fear involve a similar physiological arousal.

C.) Physical responses, like finger temperature and movement of facial muscles, change during fear, rage, and joy. OBJECTIVE 5| Describe some physiological and brain pattern indicators of specific emotions. The amygdala shows differences in activation during the emotions of anger and rage. Activity of the left hemisphere (happy) is different from the right (depressed) for emotions.

D.) An arousal response to one event spills over into our response to the next event. OBJECTIVE 6| Explain how spillover effect influences our experience of emotion. ****Arousal from a soccer match can fuel anger, which may lead to rioting.

E.) A subliminally presented happy face can encourage subjects to drink more than when presented with an angry face (Berridge & Winkeilman, 2003). OBJECTIVE 7| Distinguish the two alternate pathways that sensory stimuli may travel when triggering an emotional response. Emotions are felt directly through the amygdala (a) or through the cortex (b) for analysis.

****When fearful eyes were subliminally presented to subjects, fMRI scans revealed higher levels of activity in the amygdala (Whalen et al. 2004).

****Expressed Emotion Emotions are expressed on the face, by the body, and by the intonation of voice. Is this non-verbal language of emotion universal?