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Psych 260

Kim Sweeney ksweeney@cogsci.ucsd.edu

www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~ksweeney/Psych260

Introduction to Physiological Psychology

Language Areas

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Broca’s vs. Wernicke’s aphasia

n  Broca’s aphasia n  Wernicke’s aphasia

Conduction Aphasia

n Conduction aphasia patients –  speak fluently –  have pretty good comprehension –  Often perform well on repetition tasks, as

long as the sounds have meaning –  Often fail at longer repetition tasks,

repeating the gist of a sentence but with different words

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Conduction aphasia

The arcuate fasciculus

n  The fact that damage to the arcuate fasciculus results in conduction aphasia suggests that it is important in STM of words and recently heard speech sounds

n  When we mentally rehearse a sound (e.g. a phone number) we employ both Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas, and the connection between them

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Disorders of Reading and Writing

n  The reading and writing skills of patients with aphasia almost always resemble their speaking and comprehending abilities –  Wernicke’s patients have difficulty reading and

writing (just as they have difficulty understanding speech and speaking)

–  Broca’s patients often can comprehend what they can read, but it is slow… and reading aloud is very poor

–  Conduction aphasics have some difficulty reading… and will often make semantic paraphasias

Disorders of Reading and Writing

n  Pure Alexia –  Loss of the ability to read,

while writing is preserved –  Can recognize words that are

spelled aloud –  Appears to be a perceptual

disorder, cause by lesions that interfere with visual information reaching the extrastriate cortex of the LH

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Disorders of Reading and Writing

n  On left: damage in L primary visual cortex (red arrow shows destroyed pathways) - R visual field would be ‘blind’, but could still read

n  On right: damage to posterior corpus callosum prevents info from R extrastriate cortex from reaching L hemisphere thus preventing subject from reading

What is reading, anyway?

n Reading involves at least 2 different processes –  Direct recognition of the word as a whole

§ “sight reading”

–  Sounding out a word letter by letter § “sound reading”

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What is reading, anyway?

n When we see a familiar word, we normally recognize it by its shape –  Whole word reading –  “happy”

n Unfamiliar words require the recognition of individual letters and knowledge of the sounds they make –  Phonetic reading –  “felicitous”

Dyslexias

n Dylexia is faulty reading –  Acquired type caused by brain damage –  Developmental type apparent when children

learn to read

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Dyslexias

n Surface dyslexia –  Deficit in whole-word reading, generally

caused by lesion to L lateral temporal lobe § Must sound all words out (easier with regularly

spelled words such as hand or table, or pseudo words such as glab or trisk, harder with irregular words like yacht or pint)

§ Must listen to own pronunciation to understand what they are reading

Dyslexias

n Phonological dyslexia –  Can read whole-words but cannot sound

words out (thus, difficulty with new words) –  Caused by damage to L frontal lobe

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Visual Word Form Area

n A region of the fusiform gyrus on the base of the temporal lobe that plays a critical role in whole-word recognition.

In summary…

n Specific areas are critical for language comprehension and production…

n But language uses a lot more of the brain that just those areas!

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Psych 260

Kim Sweeney ksweeney@cogsci.ucsd.edu

www.cogsci.ucsd.edu/~ksweeney/psy260.html

Introduction to Physiological Psychology

What is an emotion?

appraisal experience physiological response

behavior

Autonomic & Hormonal

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4 ingredients of an emotion

n Appraisal or interpretation –  of some stimulus – event, object, or thought-

in terms of well-being

n Subjective experience or feeling –  e.g. Fear

n Physiological responses –  e.g. change in heart rate

n Overt or observable behaviors –  e.g. facial expressions, running away

Emotions as response patterns

n Three components of the emotional response: –  Behavioral component (e.g. muscle movements)

–  Autonomic component (e.g. heart rate)

–  Hormonal component (e.g. epinephrine)

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Communication of Emotions

n Many animal species communicate emotions via postural changes, facial expressions, and nonverbal sounds

n These expressions inform others about how we feel and especially about what we are likely to do next.

Darwin’s Theory

n Expressions of emotion evolve from indicative behaviors

n  If such signals are beneficial, communicative function will be enhanced –  (original function may be lost)

n Principle of antithesis

“Opposite messages are often signaled by opposite movements”

behavior

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n Threat displays –  Originally initial stages of combat –  Over time, intimidation of display alone

could be sufficient (and less dangerous!) –  So… displays became more elaborate, actual

combat decreases –  Principle of antithesis!

Darwin’s Theory behavior

Are facial expressions innate?

n Research by Ekman provides support to the ideas proposed by Darwin

Your child has died

You see a dead pig that has been lying there for some time

You are angry and about to fight

Your friend has come and you are happy

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Emotions and Facial Expression

n  The meanings of facial expressions appear to be universal

n  Originally, six primary emotions, but now ten are recognized (including contempt, embarrassment, guilt, interest) –  Naturally occurring expressions are

usually variations or combinations of the basic ones

–  Not all pleasant facial expressions are the same (e.g., pride vs. happiness)

The flip side of Ekman’s findings

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Facial Expressions

n Facial feedback hypothesis – smiling really makes you happier! –  facial muscles influence emotional experience

Rutledge & Hupka, 1985

Facial Expressions

n Microexpressions – brief facial expressions reveal true feelings; may break through false ones

n Different muscles involved in fake and real (“Duchenne”) smiles

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Intuition tells us…

appraisal experience physiological response

n Stimulus triggers autonomic/skeletal response which then triggers emotion

§  Implication: Autonomic/skeletal response is necessary for emotion

James-Lange Theory

appraisal experience physiological response

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n Stimulus triggers autonomic/skeletal response and emotion

§  Implication: Autonomic/skeletal response is independent of emotion

Cannon-Bard Theory

appraisal

experience physiological response

Bard and sham rage (1929)

n Removal of the cortex results in indiscriminate rage response.

n Hypothalamus must remain intact for ‘sham rage’ to occur

n His conclusion: –  Subjective experience relies on

cortex, but coordinated emotional responses don’t rely on cortex

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n James-Lange Theory: –  Stimulus triggers autonomic/skeletal

response which then triggers emotion §  Implication: Autonomic/skeletal response is

necessary for emotion

n Cannon-Bard Theory:

–  Stimulus triggers autonomic/skeletal response and emotion §  Implication: Autonomic/skeletal response is

independent of emotion

Evidence against…

n Patients whose autonomic and somatic feedback has been greatly reduced can be capable of full range of emotions. –  Although in some cases they do report a

dampening of emotion

n The autonomic and somatic feedback can influence the emotional response

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Two-factor Theory

n Schacter and Singer (1962)

appraisal experience

physiological response

cognitive label

n Dutton & Aron (1974)

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What is an emotion?

appraisal

experience physiological response

Bottom-up AND Top-down influences!!

The Limbic System

n Broca (remember him?)

first named it “le grand lobe limbique”

n Papez described the “Papez circuit” in his model of emotion

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The Limbic System

n Circuit implicated in crucial emotions/instincts: –  Feeding –  Fighting –  Fleeing –  Sexual behavior

n The “four F’s”

HM “Tan”