da Fisiologia Medica - F.Conti et al.

1. Andrea Finazzi
2nd year Medical Student at
Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele
Milano (Italia)
a.finazzi@studenti.unisr.it
Università Vita-Salute
San Raffaele

2. Physiology of Emotion

3. Physiology of Emotions
- Overview and Definition
- Emotional Response
- Bodily Changes
- James-Lange and Cannon-Bard Dispute
- Somatic Marker Hypothesis
- Facial Expressions
- Emotional Processing
- Subcortical Areas
- Cortical Areas
- Summary

4. Overview and Definition
3
- Affective Revolution
- ↑ research on emotions
- ↑ affective disorders
- ↑ drug addiction
- doctor-patient relationship
- Emotion ≠ Feeling
- affective quality
- personal experience
- Ex movere (from latin: to move)
- emotional arousal
- approach to something convenient
- move away from a problem Troy Stith, Columbus (OH) - Constructed Chaos

5. Physiology of Emotions
- Overview and Definition
- Emotional Response
- Bodily Changes
- JL-CB Dispute
- Somatic Marker Hypothesis
- Facial Expressions
- Emotional Processing
- Subcortical Areas
- Cortical Areas
- Summary

6. Emotional Response
5
- Automatic component
- physiological reaction
- related to somatic, autonomic, endocrine responses
- prepare action
- report the internal state
- show the intensity of emotion
- Cognitive component
- conscious experience
- related to memory, attention and language
- control impulsiveness
Subcortical Structures
Cortical Structures
in an emotional state

7. Physiology of Emotions
- Overview and Definition
- Emotional Response
- Bodily Changes
- JL-CB Dispute
- Somatic Marker Hypothesis
- Facial Expressions
- Emotional Processing
- Subcortical Areas
- Cortical Areas
- Summary

8. JL-CB Dispute
7
- James-Lange theory
1. emotion perception
2. physiological reaction
3. conscious experience
- congruent facial expression facilitates emotion perception
- most of body changes are the same in all emotions
- visceral responses are slow
the conscious experience of
somatic and visceral alterations
generates corresponding
emotions
✓
✗
✗
1. 2. 3.

9. JL-CB Dispute
8
- Cannon-Bard theory
1. emotion perception
2. conscious experience + physiological reaction
- complexity of emotions
- block ANS: normal perception of emotions
- activation of cortical structures
subcortical and cortical
processes generate
emotions
✓
✓
✓
1.
2.

10. Somatic Marker Hypothesis
9
- Antonio Damasio's theory
- in continuity with JL theory
- Body feedback
- incentivize/discourage an action
- Choice recorded in memory
- VentroMedial PreFrontal Cortex
- available in future
- choose between different actions
- avoid disadvantageous choices
VMPFC - medial and ventral views

11. Physiology of Emotions
- Overview and Definition
- Emotional Response
- Bodily Changes
- JL-CB Dispute
- Somatic Marker Hypothesis
- Facial Expressions
- Emotional Processing
- Subcortical Areas
- Cortical Areas
- Summary

12. Facial Expressions
11
- Human face is a crossroads
- physiology
- psychology
- Facial muscle
- ↓ constraints
- ↑ expressions
- universal language
- Facial expressions of emotions
- individual variability
- inherited in part
Charles Darwin, London
Fear (from The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)

13. Physiology of Emotions
- Overview and Definition
- Emotional Response
- Bodily Changes
- JL-CB Dispute
- Somatic Marker Hypothesis
- Facial Expressions
- Emotional Processing
- Subcortical Areas
- Cortical Areas
- Summary

14. Emotional Processing
13
- Emotional brain is difficult to identify
- use same cortical areas
- cognitive component
- integration of theory of mind processes
ability to attribute mental states
(beliefs, intents, desires…) to
oneself and others and to
understand that others have
different beliefs, intentions,
desires from one’s own
Nina Paley, Urbana (IL) - Mimi & Eunice

15. Emotional Processing
14
Hypothalamus
Brain areas involved in emotions - Pessoa, 2008
Amygdala
Hippocampus
Brainstem
PeriAqueductal Grey
matter
Nucleus Accumbens
OrbitoFrontal* and
VentroMedial
PreFrontal Cortex
Anterior Cingulate Cortex
Septum Ventral Tegmental Area
Posterior Cingulate Cortex
red: most frequently used
green: others
OrbitoFrontal* Cortex
Anterior Temporal Lobe
Somatosensory
Cortex
Superior Temporal
Sulcus
Anterior Insular CortexPreFrontal Cortex
Basal Ganglia

16. Subcortical Areas
15
- Hypothalamus
- key role in emotional states expression
- voluntary/involuntary emotional responses
- mutual projections
- OFC
- VMPFC
- Amygdala
Amygdala
Hypothalamus
OFC and
VMPFC

17. Subcortical Areas
16
- Amygdala
- cognitive component
- appetitive/aversive connotation
- mutual projections
- Thalamus
- Hypothalamus
- Primary cortices
- Associative cortices
Amygdala
Thalamus
Primary and Associative Cortices
Hypothalamus

18. - OFC and VMPFC
- pleasant/unpleasant connotation
- emotional rational processing
- affective value
- regulation of subcortical areas
- Phineas Gage’s case
- localized lesion VMPFC
- no cognitive/motor deficit
- personality changes
- fitful, moody and irreverent
- capricious and vacillating
- persistent
Cortical Areas
17

19. Cortical Areas
18
observe an emotion
activates the visceromotor
representation of that
emotion (empathy)
- AIC
- aversive stimuli (pain, nausea..)
- adverse events (economic loss)
- craving (addiction)
- faces expressing disgust
Berk Ozturk, Turkey - Empathy

20. Anders M. Leines - This is Parkinsons
Elvind, 50 - diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2013
Cortical Areas
19
- Basal Ganglia
- automatic facial expression of emotions
- emotional facial hemiparesis
- emotional component of prosody
- poker face (Parkinson’s disease)

21. Physiology of Emotions
- Overview and Definition
- Emotional Response
- Bodily Changes
- JL-CB Dispute
- Somatic Marker Hypothesis
- Facial Expressions
- Emotional Processing
- Subcortical Areas
- Cortical Areas
- Summary

22. Summary
- Final definition
- adaptive sensorimotor transformations in
response to certain stimuli that have
motivational value to the body
- OFC and Amygdala
- affective valence
- immediate trigger adaptive responses
- no cortical processing
- Basal Ganglia
- body language
- facial expression
21
Troy Stith, Columbus - Wilhelm Reshoot

23. Valeria Marta Fonisto - Rita Levi-Montalcini’s Tribute
Rita Levi-Montalcini, Torino
(1909-2012)
"Everyone says that the brain is the
most complex organ of the body. As a
doctor I might agree! But as a woman,
I assure you that there is nothing
more complex than the heart; its
mechanisms are still unknown. In the
brain there is logical reasoning; in the
reasoning of the heart there are
emotions.”