PSYC18H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Social Emotions, Analgesic, Nucleus Accumbens
Document Summary
Hind brain it controls physiological processes like sleeping, breathing, cardiovascular activity etc. Forebrain regulates more complex actions of the body. These parts of the brain are important not only for feeling states, but also for behavior and behavior tendencies associated with emotional responses. Emotion is not just a feeling, it serves a purpose e. g. when we feel fear, our body is motivated to run from the elicitor. These are also known as sub-cortical regions of the brain under the cortex. This is one of the oldest parts of the brain, and is present in animals. These include the amygdala, which is responsible for instinctual processing e. g. approach vs. avoid. Reward is on the approach section of the approach vs. avoid motivation. The cortex is evolutionarily newer, and is only present in humans. There is a lot of evidence that the amygdala responds to emotional stimuli, but there is debate on whether intensity or valence matters.
