Hockenbury Discovering Psychology 5th txtbk

Emotion351FOCUS ON NEUROSCIENCEEmotions and the BrainDo Different Emotions Activate Different Brain Areas? Theidea that different combinations of brain regions are activatedby different emotions received considerable support in a brainimagingstudy by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and his colleagues(2000). In the study, participants were scanned usingpositron emission tomography (PET) while they recalled emotionallycharged memories to generate feelings of sadness, happiness,anger, and fear.Each of the four PET scans shown here is an averaged compositeof all 39 participants in the study. Significant areas ofbrain activation are indicated in red, while significant areas ofdeactivation are indicated in purple. Notice that sadness, happiness,anger, and fear each produced a distinct pattern of brainactivation and deactivation. These findings confirmed the ideathat each emotion involves distinct neural circuits in the brain.Other research has produced similar findings (Dalgleish, 2004;Najib & others, 2004; Phan & others, 2002).One interesting finding in the Damasio study was that theemotional memory triggered autonomic nervous system activityand physiological arousal before the volunteers signaled thatthey were subjectively “feeling” the target emotion. Areas of thesomatosensory cortex, which processes sensory informationfrom the skin, muscles, and internal organs, were also activated.These sensory signals from the body’s peripheral nervous systemcontributed to the overall subjective “feeling” of a particularemotion. Remember Damasio’s findings because we’ll refer tothis study again when we discuss theories of emotion.SadnessAngerHappinessFearThe Expression of EmotionMaking FacesKey Theme• The behavioral components of emotion include facial expressions and nonverbalbehavior.Key Questions• What evidence supports the idea that facial expressions for basic emotionsare universal?• How does culture affect the behavioral expression of emotion?• How can emotional expression be explained in terms of evolutionary theory?Every day, we witness the behavioral components of emotions in ourselves and others.We laugh with pleasure, slam a door in frustration, or frown at a clueless remark.But of all the ways that we express and communicate our emotional responses,facial expressions are the most important.In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Darwin (1872) argued thathuman emotional expressions are innate and culturally universal. He also noted thecontinuity of emotional expression between humans and many other species, citingit as evidence of the common evolutionary ancestry of humans and other animals.But do nonhuman animals actually experience emotions? We explore this question inthe Critical Thinking box, “Emotion in Nonhuman Animals: Laughing Rats, SillyElephants, and Smiling Dolphins?”