Emotion - impediment to rational thought – or its basis? By NBC Television (eBay front back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Emotion

- impediment to rational thought – or its basis?

By NBC Television (eBay front back) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

•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)

Expression can be automatic & unconscious

* we even show emotions on the phone

* Partly a cross-cultural phenomenon?

What is emotion?

By Steve Evans from India and USA

[CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecom

mons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

User:Maurajbo [GFDL

(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or

CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Paul Ekman (e.g. 1971) found apparently universal facial

expressions across cultures, e.g.

happiness anger disgust fear surprise sadness

DIMENSIONAL EMOTION APPROACH: Activations also discriminate emotions as characterised by dimensions

Funeral

Moral violation

Snake

Rotten food

Beautiful sunset

Smiling baby

NEGATIVE

POSITIVE

Val

ence

LOW HIGHArousal

Happiness

Sadness

Fear

Anger

DisgustChair

What is emotion? (3 theories)

Perception + interpretation

Specific Body

response

Particular Emotion

General Body response

Perception + interpretation

Particular Emotion

Perception + interpretation

Context

General Body response

Particular Emotion

James-Lange: Emotion is feeling the body responding to perception

Canon Baird: Body response (slow?) and subjective feeling are separate/independent

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?)

Bear: User:Simm (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Can we measure emotion objectively?

eccrine sweat duct Part of

eccrine gland that secretes

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sweat pore

By Henry Gray (Gray's Anatomy) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

stimulus

latency rise time half recovery time

Bodily response means objective measures? Changes in eccrine sweat gland activity

(from skin conductivity – 1-5s after stimulus)

Skin conductance Response (SCR) or…. galvanic skin response (GSR), electrodermal response/activity (EDR/EDA), psychogalvanic reflex (PGR), or skin conductance level (SCL)

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)

Emotions can be informed by unconscious body responses which may (unconsciously) inform decisions…

“Somatic Marker Hypothesis”: Unconscious processing can influence behaviour – conscious decisions as post-hoc justification (Bechara, Damasio et al.1994)

http://archive.teachfind.com/ttv/www.teachers.tv/videos/the-learning-brain.html

from 8.43

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msqvdbj_DyM

Unconscious emotion

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

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)

Trilobite right damage – because right hemisphere less sensitive to fearful imagery ?? - or predator hemispheric bias….??

Mike Peel [CC-BY-SA-2.0-uk (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/uk/deed.en)],

via Wikimedia Commons

User:Anatomography maintained by Life Science Databases(LSDB).

CC-BY-SA-2.1-jp

Disgust Warning!

Amygdala – lobotomy target

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.

Shelka04 at the English language Wikipedia [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], from Wikimedia Commons

Where is emotion?

BASIC EMOTION APPROACH:fMRI activations can discriminate emotions by basic category

Vytal et al. (2010)

PHJ artistic impression!

Happiness Sadness Anger Fear Disgust

Activations distinguishing fear vs. sadness

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)

Where is emotion?

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)

Hamann (2012)

Fear-associated processes

Disgust-associated processes

Regional networks

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.

- Some responses (e.g. phobias) are clearly sub-cortical and reflect species-specific preparedness.

- Conditioning can emotionalise neutral stimuli: stress & memory

Emotional situation

Amygdala

Hippocampal System

Explicit emotional memory

Implicit emotional memory

Higher and lower pathways:Implicit & explicit emotional memory

How do explicit/implicit emotional systems combine in consciousness?

(adapted from LeDoux, 2000)

Emotional situation

Amygdala

Hippocampal System

Implicit emotional memory

Explicit emotional memory

Consciousness

(working memory)

Bodily sensation

Possible Feedback Cycles

Emotional input

Sensory processing (thalamus)

Cognitive processing - e.g. appraisal

Fear (amygdala)

Emotional Responses:

feelings, physiological responses, behaviour

Top down influence

Morton and Frith (1995)Examples of

environmental factorsExamples of

Intra-individual factors Factor affected

OxygenNutritionToxins

SynaptogenesisSynaptic pruning

Neuronal connectionsBRAIN

TeachingCultural institutions

Social factors

LearningMemoryEmotion

MIND

Temporary restrictionse.g. teaching tools

PerformanceErrors

ImprovementBEHAVIOUR

Mind interrelates brain-behaviour; environment at all levels

And …. not forgetting experiential/insider perspectives!!

(see HJ(2010) Introducing Neuroeducational Research

EN

VIR

ON

ME

NT

EN

VIR

ON

ME

NT

AutismCritchley et al. (2000)

Implicit emotional judgement “What is the gender?”

Explicit emotional judgement: “What is the emotion?”

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)?

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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 it2. Affect (pleasure, liking, hedonic factor) I like it3. 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?!!!

= Incentive motivation pathway

Mesolimbic Dopaminergic Pathway

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

Wanting/liking: different neurotransmitters?

Dopamine molecule

By Sbrools (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) or CC-BY-SA-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

sa/2.5-2.0-1.0)], 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.

Coffee, tea, soft drinks…..

By Julius Schorzman (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.0

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via

Wikimedia Commons

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

Smoking

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 learningThe 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)

Dopamine in NAcc= approach motivation, helps orientate attention, improve declarative memory formation?

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).

Reward totally predictable

Reward totally unexpected

Reward 50% likely

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

30

40

50

60

70

80

1 6 11 16 21 26

Question number

Per

cen

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f q

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ns

req

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fr

om

Mr

Un

cert

ain

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.

Is it just a superficial “sugar-coating”?No - Chance-based uncertainty enhances the emotional response to learning

Other bridging studies

SC

R

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)

• 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

Estimated dopamine predicts learning

• Value of the PE signal (i.e. estimated DA response) was calculated for successful and unsuccessful recall for a question previously answered incorrect.

Estimated dopamine predicts learning

BUT – these models are not for competitive games – what happens to the dopamine “ready to learn” signal when we watch our competitors?

Not recalled Recalled

Estim

ated

bra

in re

spon

se

Howard-Jones et al. (2011)

..a type of foraging…

By Amanda Lea (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)],

via Wikimedia CommonsHoward-Jones et al. (2010)

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

FPC

OFCm

OFCl

P/GPr

FPC

MFGr

Other activities for negative PE are related to reward-based action inhibition and the appraisal of alternatives

No activites re:competitor’s unexpected success

Mirror neuron, inhibition and reward systems cooperate to support efficient reward exploitation + loss avoidance

More practice-based research with teachers…..

Teaching with gaming required development of pedagogy and technology

Howard-Jones et al. (2014)

Plan

Evaluate

Intervene

Reflect

-> More practice-based research with technology developers www.zondle.com

-> 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