Emotion
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- impediment to rational thought – or its basis?
•Cognitive neuroscience is of most interest to education
•This explores the brain-mind-behaviour relationship
* When psychology (mind) and neuroscience (brain)
correspond well, we can more confident of both
* Psychological concepts are required to understand the
behavioural significance of brain activities
PROBLEM: theoretical frameworks in cognitive psychology (mind)
do not always resemble those in neuroscience.
“Given the lack of overlap between these traditions in the
case of emotions, it might be said that the available
neuroscientific work on emotion is largely irrelevant to the
field of education.” P112 (Byrnes, 2001)
What is emotion?
Expression can be automatic &
unconscious
* we even show
emotions on the
phone
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* Partly a crosscultural
phenomenon?
Paul Ekman (e.g. 1971) found
apparently universal facial
expressions across cultures, e.g.
happiness anger
disgust
fear
surprise
sadness
Happiness
POSITIVE
Smiling
baby
Sadness
Fear
Valence
Beautiful
sunset
Anger
Disgust
Chair
Snake
Moral
violation
Rotten
food
Funeral
NEGATIVE
LOW
Arousal
HIGH
DIMENSIONAL EMOTION APPROACH: Activations also
discriminate emotions as characterised by dimensions
What is emotion? (3 theories)
James-Lange: Emotion is feeling the body responding to perception
Perception +
interpretation
Specific
Body
response
Particular
Emotion
Canon Baird: Body response (slow?) and subjective feeling are separate/independent
General Body
response
Perception +
interpretation
Particular
Emotion
Schachter–Singer 2-factor theory: Bodily response and
perception of context influence emotion (which can be
misattributed – see Dutton and Aron (1974)
(Inc. somatic
markers?)
Perception +
interpretation
Context
Bear: User:Simm (Own work) [Public
domain], via Wikimedia Commons
General Body
response
Particular
Emotion
Can we measure emotion objectively?
epidermis
sweat pore
subdermis
dermis
eccrine
sweat duct
By Henry Gray (Gray's Anatomy) [Public
domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Part of
eccrine
gland that
secretes
Skin conductance Response (SCR) or….
galvanic skin response (GSR), electrodermal response/activity (EDR/EDA),
psychogalvanic reflex (PGR), or skin conductance level (SCL)
latency
stimulus
rise time
half recovery time
Bodily response means objective measures?
Changes in eccrine sweat gland activity
(from skin conductivity – 1-5s after stimulus)
But at least 3 pathways influencing eccrine gland behaviour:
1. Contralateral cortical and basal ganglia influences (inc.
excitatory control by premotor cortex, also excitatory/inhibitory
control by frontal cortex)
2. Ipsilateral hypothalamus and limbic system (amygdala,
hippocampus)
3. Reticular formation in brain stem
– so what sort of emotion does EDA (electrodermal activity)
indicate?
SCR covaries with emotional arousal, indexing its intensity –
but not valence (positive/negative) or which emotion
Dawson et al. (2011)
Unconscious emotion
Emotions can be informed by unconscious body
responses which may (unconsciously) inform decisions…
“Somatic Marker Hypothesis”: Unconscious processing
can influence behaviour – conscious decisions as posthoc justification (Bechara, Damasio et al.1994)
http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/the-learningbrain.html from 8.43
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msqvdbj_DyM
Where is emotion?
An emotion (like memory) is distributed.
Extent and place of activity produced by
emotions depends on the emotion e.g.
Amygdala associated with fear
– patients with damaged amygdala esp
poor at recognising this emotion in
others.
Disgust associated with putamen regions
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Trilobite right damage – because right hemisphere less sensitive
to fearful imagery ?? - or predator hemispheric bias….??
Apparent hemispherical differences arise not in terms of
+/- emotions, maybe in terms of the tendency to approach
(rewards, anger: left) and withdraw (fear, disgust: right)
Disgust Warning!
Amygdala – lobotomy target
Shelka04 at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL
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Commons
Long associated with emotion, target of the ice-pick surgery
(lobotomy) that was invented by Edgar Moniz
Edgar Moniz was awarded Nobel prize in 1949, after he’d
become paraplegic as a result of one of his lobotomised
patients shooting him.
Where is emotion?
Happiness Sadness
Anger
Fear
Disgust
PHJ artistic impression!
Activations distinguishing fear vs. sadness
BASIC EMOTION APPROACH:
fMRI activations can discriminate emotions by basic category
Vytal et al. (2010)
Where is emotion?
But ….
* One region contributes to many categories of emotions
* Activities contribute to dimensions in a manner dependent
on each other (e.g. amygdala tracks valence, medial frontal
cortex and putamen track interaction of valence and arousal)
Distribution (whether by basic category and/or dimension) suggests
functional network approach:
•Regional networks (not regions) as the basic unit of analysis
•Networks can share regions
•Components assume different functional roles and computations
according to particular configuration of currently active network
•(PHJ: This configuration may be mediated by other networks –
including conscious higher-level processes)
Regional networks
Fear-associated
processes
Disgust-associated
processes
Hamann (2012)
Higher and lower pathways:
Implicit & explicit emotional memory
Context can produce a conditioned response
Two Case Studies – double dissociation (HC/amygdala):
Patient 1: bilateral damage to HC – cannot recall past events –
including emotional ones. Skin conductance changes in response
to a tone, when it had been previously presented with a small
shock (fear conditioning), but could not explicitly remember that
the tone was linked with a shock.
Patient 2: amygdala damage - could remember explicitly that a
tone was accompanied by an electrical shock, but their skin
conductance showed no unconscious conditioned response to it.
Higher and lower pathways:
Implicit & explicit emotional memory
Amygdala
Implicit
emotional
memory
Hippocampal
System
Explicit
emotional
memory
Emotional situation
- Some responses (e.g. phobias) are clearly sub-cortical and
reflect species-specific preparedness.
- Conditioning can emotionalise neutral stimuli: stress & memory
How do explicit/implicit emotional
systems combine in consciousness?
(adapted from LeDoux, 2000)
Amygdala
Implicit
emotional
memory
Emotional
situation
Bodily
sensation
Consciousness
(working memory)
Hippocampal
System
Explicit
emotional
memory
Possible Feedback Cycles
Top down
influence
Emotional
input
Cognitive
processing e.g. appraisal
Sensory
processing
(thalamus)
Fear
(amygdala)
Emotional
Responses:
feelings,
physiological
responses,
behaviour
Morton and Frith (1995)
Examples of
environmental factors
Examples of
Intra-individual factors
Oxygen
Nutrition
Toxins
Synaptogenesis
Synaptic pruning
Neuronal connections
BRAIN
Teaching
Cultural institutions
Social factors
Learning
Memory
Emotion
MIND
Temporary restrictions
e.g. teaching tools
Performance
Errors
Improvement
BEHAVIOUR
Factor affected
Mind interrelates brain-behaviour; environment at all levels
ENVIRONMENT
ENVIRONMENT
(see HJ(2010) Introducing Neuroeducational Research
And …. not forgetting experiential/insider perspectives!!
Autism
Critchley et al. (2000)
Implicit emotional judgement
“What is the gender?”
Explicit emotional judgement:
“What is the emotion?”
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A: Left cerebellar region normally active for
implicit or explicit emotional judgements
about faces is only activated in autistics
when they know they should be processing
emotional content
– i.e. reflects compensatory strategy?
B: Left amygdala region normally
suppressed when making an explicit
emotional judgement is always suppressed
in autistics
– reflects “system” deficit?
C: Left Middle temporal gyrus (involved with
automatic face recognition) normally
activated in explicit emotional judgement is
never active in autistics whatever instructed
– reflects “cortical” deficit?
Amygdala problem may disrupt cortical system development for faces
(so B deficit gives rise to C deficit)?
Critchley et al. (2000)
Limitations upon interpretation
•But……fMRI studies lack good temporal resolution –
difficulty observing short-term changes (so what is the
“driving” component of the differences?)
•Often only provide a “snap-shot” (– how do differences
develop over time?)
•Never(?) any complete exclusion of comorbidity (=
presence of other disorders).
How do results link up with more nuanced behavioural
studies and cognitive theories that derive from them?
•Theory of Mind Deficit: failure to “impute mental
states to self and others”
•Executive Dysfunction: problems switching
attention, a lack of impulse control…
•Weak Central Coherence: processing things in a
detail-focused or piecemeal way—focusing on the
constituent parts, rather than the global whole
Motivation
(often filed under “emotion” in neuroscience)
Reward (that which reinforces behaviour) =
1. Motivation (wanting, incentive salience) I want it
2. Affect (pleasure, liking, hedonic factor) I like it
3. Cognition (cause-and-effect knowledge) I know how to
get it
(Berridge and Robinson, 2003)
NB Pleasure/pain = hedonic affective factor in motivation
(e.g. pleasure from sex or when
homeostatic deficits are reduced)
Two Phases of Motivation
Motivation of reward can proceed in at least two phases
of behaviour:
Appetitive phase: actions that lead to the gaining
of something (Dopamine = DA) - wanting
Consummatory phase: what happens when the
something is gained (Opioids) - liking
- Helps understand desire for food, sex, cocaine, etc…
– but learning?!!!
Mesolimbic Dopaminergic Pathway
= Incentive motivation pathway
Wanting/liking: different neurotransmitters?
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Dopamine molecule
Dopamine (DA) seems to play a role in the appetitive
phase of feeding motivation. DA deficient rats become
less interested in searching out food, but disruption of
their MDP doesn’t stop them liking to eat.
Opioids appear involved at Nucleus Accumbens in the
hedonic pleasures/consummatory of eating – disruption
doesn’t influence effort to get food but reduces meal size
Coffee, tea, soft drinks…..
By Julius Schorzman (Own
work) [CC-BY-SA-2.0
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g/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via
Wikimedia Commons
Caffeine - the world’s most widely taken psychoactive drug
– in soft drinks, tea and coffee.
Caffeine is similar to the natural NT adenosine. It binds to
receptors for this NT on dopaminergic neurons, diminishing
the natural processes of removal of DA, causing a rise in
dopamine in the N.acc.
Smoking
Nicotine - attaches to
“nicotinic receptors”
(nAChR’s) across the
CNS reducing their DA
absorption here and thus
increasing DA at Nucleus
accumbens. DA activity
can be increase by cues –
e.g. threat of withdrawal
NB but also triggers
opioidergic transmission > pleasure
Biology of addiction
1. Incentive sensitization
- via increased post-synaptic density of DA receptors in
Nucleus accumbens
- may increase motivational pull towards reward-related
associations (e.g. “Conditioned place preference” – drug
craving increases in places associated with using drugs). DA
increases synaptoplasticity in range of cortical regions –
including those associated with memory.
2. -> Increased dissociation between wanting (appetitive/DA)
and liking (consummatory/opiodes)
3. -> Increased sensitisation also for other drugs: alcohol, etc
Dopamine and learning
The midbrain response to reward supports reinforcement
learning:
1. Unexpectedly high reward (Positive prediction error –
“happy surprise”) increases midbrain dopamine uptake –
reinforcing the connections between the reward and the
action that preceded it.
2. The increase association of reward with the action
increases the likelihood that the action will be repeated.
This is important for automatic learning of “valuable” actions
Reward response mediated by magnitude, novelty, individual
differences and…….uncertainty(Fiorillo et al., 2003)
Reward totally predictable
Reward totally unexpected
Reward 50% likely
Dopaminergic response observed in the primate midbrain in response to
a visual stimulus associated with different probabilities of a reward
arriving (P= 0, 50 and 100% likely).
Dopamine in NAcc= approach motivation, helps orientate attention,
improve declarative memory formation?
Do humans prefer 50:50
chances?
• Yes, but not in school, where children prefer risks of
~87%
• Intellectual failure ->self and social esteem
• Problem for emotional engagement: reduced signals
(linked to motivation) in the animal reward system
and emotional response to unexpected success.
Suggests:
• a “learning games approach” in which gaming
elements increase uncertainty but with less penalties
for esteem
Do children prefer increased chance-based
uncertainty of reward in a learning task?
Task: Ask your maths question from
* Mr Certain (Correct -> 1 point)
* Mr Uncertain (Correct -> coin toss, 2 or 0 pts
Percentage of questions requested
from Mr Uncertain
80
70
60
50
40
30
1
6
11
16
21
Question number
26
Other bridging studies
Other bridging studies
What happens to the learning discourse?
Issues of fairness?
Chance-based uncertainty encourages
motivational “sport-talk” around learning, i.e.
failure is bad luck, success is pure
achievement. Chance not seen as unfair.
SCR
Is it just a superficial “sugar-coating”?
No - Chance-based uncertainty enhances
the emotional response to learning
Different types of learning..
• Reinforcement learning = links reward & action
• Educational learning = declarative memory
• In reinforcement learning, dopamine is thought
to strengthen the associations between reward
and actions, making rewarded actions more
likely – a very visceral, automatic type of
learning we share with animals
• However, dopamine in the reward system is
associated with approach motivation and
improved declarative memory formation (a more
educational type of learning) Callan and
Schweighofer (2008), Adcock (2006)
Estimated dopamine predicts learning
•
•
•
•
Choose box, answer question to win its points
Points in boxes varying noisily around drifting means
For incorrect quiz answers, correct answer revealed .
Incorrectly answered questions occur again
• Value of the PE signal (i.e.
estimated DA response) was
calculated for successful and
unsuccessful recall for a
question previously answered
incorrect.
Estimated brain response
Estimated dopamine predicts learning
Not recalled
Recalled
Howard-Jones et al. (2011)
BUT – these models are not for competitive games – what
happens to the dopamine “ready to learn” signal when we
watch our competitors?
..a type of
foraging…
Howard-Jones et al. (2010)
By Amanda Lea (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],
via Wikimedia Commons
Players battled against an artifical
competitor
Analysis combines a computational
model of behaviour (based on
dopamine) with image data
Before the competitor makes a
decision……
This region of the mirror
neuron system in the
player’s motor cortex
increased its activity when
the player made moves
and also when they
observed their computer
opponent making the
same “virtual” moves –
even though they knew it
was a computer.
“DA activity” for negative prediction error
i.e. the “sad surprise” of the competitor
OFCl
OFCm
MFGr
FPC
FPC
P/GPr
Other activities for negative PE are related to reward-based action
inhibition and the appraisal of alternatives
Mirror neuron, inhibition and reward systems cooperate
to support efficient reward exploitation + loss avoidance
No activites re:competitor’s unexpected success
More practice-based research with
teachers…..
Teaching with gaming
required development of
pedagogy and technology
Howard-Jones et al. (2014)
-> More practice-based research with
technology developers www.zondle.com
Plan
Intervene
Reflect
Evaluate
-> Zondle “Team Play”
Web-based application – free!
• Compatible with 12,000 topics already created
by teachers (but please also make your own!)
• Optional: Students use own device to respond.
Register at www.zondle.com, - useful “Guide to using
'Zondle Team Play' at bottom of homepage!
disponible en español
Summary
• No consensus definition of “emotion”
• Frequently defined as: a temporary change in affect or
feeling state, involving coordinated, multiple systems,
including physiology, brain activity, behaviour, and (in
humans) conscious experience.
• These changes typically facilitate adaptive behavioral
responses, e.g. approach (motivation) or avoidance (fear)
• No simple 1:1 mapping of emotions and brain regions,
• Understanding the neuroscience of emotion requires more
complex, network-based representations of emotion
• The emotional brain is no longer “largely irrelevant to the
field of education” – at least re: reward and motivation