PSYC 2031 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Emotion Classification, Thalamus, Amygdala

• School: University of Denver
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2031
• Professor: Sweeny Timothy

Document Summary

Perception feeds through memory/culture: we learn to parse input and physiological states into categories. Basic emotions: they are based on evolution, not learned, when activated, they unfold in exactly the same way. Each should have a distinct, non-overlapping brain mechanism. People with no contact to the modern world produce and recognize same facial expressions as us. Emotions are adaptive to engage quick and stereotyped behavior. The amygdala discriminates expressions, even without a visual cortex. A person with no primary visual cortex, but can discriminate expressions using the right amygdala at approximately 60% (blind sight) The amygdala is not involved in the conscious visual pathway. Eye (superior colliculus) pulvinar (awareness, relevance & evaluation: thalamus the amygdala. You need the amygdala to recognize fearful face, but not to make a fearful face. People without the amygdala look at the center of faces instead of eyes.