1. The document summarizes research on the neural correlates of different emotions. Anger is associated with the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, amygdala, and hypothalamus. Sadness involves the limbic system near the face, amygdala, and left prefrontal cortex, which shows less activity in depression. Happiness decreases activity in the temporal-parietal and right prefrontal cortex, while the amygdala shows some changes.
2. Research on emotion recognition suggests both left and right hemispheres play a role, though some studies link the right hemisphere more to negative emotions and the left to positive emotions. Evidence from brain damaged patients and chimeric faces studies provides mixed support for the
5. Dorsal Anterior Cingulate Cortex
• Connected to areas of
the brain involved in
recognising an offense,
registering a feeling
and acting on it.
• Links to reasoning
centres in the frontal
lobe and the memory
centres in the limbic
system.
11. Process
• PET SCAN – Brain imaging
technique.
• Subjects are injected with
a mildly radioactive
chemical.
• Images are averaged
from multiple readings.
• Can be difficult to react
to anything other than
the machine itself!
• Solution – show scenes
from films to evoke
various emotions.
12. Findings
• Dr. George conducted his studies with the
same sex to avoid possible differences
between sexes.
• Findings:
• Sad woman increased activity in the
structures of the limbic system near the face,
• More activity in the left prefrontal cortex than
in the right.
• Activation of the amygdala
• Brain areas involved in ordinary sadness
almost completely shut down when a person
is clinically depressed.
• Sadness and depression seem to involve the
same brain region, the left prefrontal cortex, in
different ways.
• It gets more active during ordinary sadness,
but shuts down in people with clinical
depression.
• Suggests the left prefrontal cortex may burn
itself out when sadness persists for several
months.
13. In sum of sadness
• Limbic system closer to the face
• Amygdala
• Left prefrontal cortex (sadness)
• Less activity in prefrontal cortex (depression))
15. Dr. George’s findings…
• Decrease of activity in the regions
of the cerebral cortex that are
committed to forethought and
planning.
• These regions are in the temporal-
parietal area of the cortex, located
just over and a bit behind the
ears, and the right prefrontal
lobe, just behind the forehead.
• The areas become even less active
when volunteers received
injections of morphine or cocaine.
• Whilst the amygdala area activates
during sadness, the structures
change only slightly when a person
is happy. The left amygdala seems
to decrease activity, while the right
amygdala increases activity.
16. In sum of happiness
• Temporal-parietal
• Right prefrontal lobe
• Amygdala
19. V S H
a p y
l e p
e c o
n i t
c
e
f
i
h
e V RIGHT
HEMISPHERE
c s
– i
s S • Negative emotions
H
20. V S H
a p y
l e p
e c o
V
n i t
LEFT
c f h
HEMISPHERE e i e
c s
S
• Positive emotions
– i
s
H
21. Evidence?
• Support for both…
(Ley and Bryden, 1979; Reuter-Lorenz and Davidson, 1981; Natale et al., 1983; Reuter-Lorenz
et al., 1983; McLaren and Bryson, 1987; Rodway et al., 2003)
• Brain damaged patients:
- In some, lesions to the right hemisphere impair the perception of emotion,
regardless of the valence. (Adolphs et al., 1996; Borod et al., 1998; Adolphs et al.,
2000)
- In others, it was found that damage to the left hemisphere impairs the perception
of +ive emotions while damage to the right impair perception of -ive emotions.
(Borod et al., 1986; Mandal et al., 1991)
• Chimeric studies on healthy participants
22. CHIMERIC FACES
• Facial expression stimuli artificially
designed to project a different emotion to
each half of the brain simultaneously
(Levy et al., 1972)
•IDENTIFY THE
EMOTION!
