PSYC1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Facial Feedback Hypothesis, Frontal Lobe, Electrodermal Activity
19 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Biological perspective on emotion
1. Facial feedback hypothesis
• Role of facial expressions
• Link between internal states and facial expressions
o Physiology and expressions change at the same time
o Ekman and co. - face had salient role in emotional expreience
• Showed intimate link between experienced emotion and facial expression
o String of emotion and expression, pulling of string
o Facial expressions = rapid, automatic, provide feedback
o Ekman, Levenson, Friesen 1983
• 2 conditions:
▪ Move facial muscles to mimic emotional expressions
▪ Mentally relive a strong emotional event (imagine it)
• Procedure
▪ Subjects randomly allocated to either condition
▪ Physiological measures taken
• Results
▪ Patterns of physiological arousal, similar for both conditions
▪ Different emotions, consistently associated with distinctive patterns of
physiological arousal
▪ Stimulating facial expression brings on to some extent, distinctive pattern of
bodily arousal associated with a given emotion
• Measures used
▪ HR
▪ Temp
▪ Skin conductance
▪ Muscle activity
• Concluded emotion can be induced by mimicking expressions -> seen by
physiological results
o Pencil between teeth (smiling) vs lips test
• Changing emotional state by changing positive/physical state
• Professor Amy JC Cuddy
2. Fear system
• Parts
o Amygdala - role in regulating/experiencing fear, part of lymbic system
o Frontal lobe
o Hippocampus
• e.g. lesions to temporal lobes in monkeys
o Results in psychic blindness
o See objects but failed to appraise psychological/emotional significance
o Registered, but no response
o Similar patterns observed in humans with damage to amygdala and surrounding area
• e.g. rats with lesions to specific areas of amygdala
o Terminate fearful responses to stimuli
o Suggests amygdala has some evaluative capacity
• Frontal lobes
o Strong neural connections between amygdala and frontal cortex
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Biological perspective on emotion: facial feedback hypothesis, role of facial expressions. Link between internal states and facial expressions: physiology and expressions change at the same time, ekman and co. - face had salient role in emotional expreience. Subjects randomly allocated to either condition: physiological measures taken, results, patterns of physiological arousal, similar for both conditions, different emotions, consistently associated with distinctive patterns of physiological arousal. Stimulating facial expression brings on to some extent, distinctive pattern of bodily arousal associated with a given emotion: measures used, hr, temp, muscle activity. Frontal lobes: strong neural connections between amygdala and frontal cortex, severing connections often results in crippling emotion experience, studies using electroencephalography reveal some bilateral asymmetries in brain activity correlating with different emotional stimuli. Screen clipping taken: 5/06/2017 10:41 pm: amygdala role in fear system, whalen et al. Subject presented with initial fleeting expression but have no conscious perception of seeing it.
