emotion and cognition dr. elizabeth a. phelps · • 8 word-digit pairs ... naut re neuroscience...

Emotion and CognitionDr. Elizabeth A. Phelps

The screen versions of these slides have full details of copyright and acknowledgements 1

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Emotion and Cognition

Elizabeth A. Phelps, PhDSilver Professor of Psychology and Neural Science

New York University

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Why emotion?

• Emotion is a signal that tells one what is potentially relevant or important - motivates action• Our thoughts, attention, memory and decisions

should be influenced by emotion

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How do we study human emotion?



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Defining emotion

• Components of emotion– Subjective feelings

– Physiological response

– Expression

– Tendency to action

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The brain and emotion

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Emotion colors thought and actionEmotion colors thought and action



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• Emotion and attention

• Emotion and memory

• Emotion and decisions

• Thoughts and emotion

Outline

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• Emotion aids attention and perception for emotional events

• Emotion captures attention so it is harder to observe non-emotional events

Emotion and attention

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Emotion aids attention and perceptionEmotion aids attention and perception



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Target 1

Target 2

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2

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5

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Lag

Early

Late

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0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

Early(Lags 1-3)

Late(Lags 5-7)

Lag between target 1 and target 2

Control subjects, negative

Control subjects, neutral

Per

cent

of t

arge

t 2 re

porte

d

When attentional resources are limited it is more likely emotional events will reach awareness

12Lag between target 1 and target 2

Amygdala patient, negative

Amygdala patient, neutral

Per

cent

of t

arge

t 2 re

porte

d

Early(Lags 1-3)

Late(Lags 5-7)

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9



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Fixation point Peripheral Distributed

Precue75 ms

ISI50 ms

Time

Display40 ms

Methodology

Response

Cue type

FearNeutral

Phelps et al., 2006 Psych. Sci.



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Results

0.1

1.0

Con

tras

t thr

esho

ld (%

c)

Cue type

Fear

Observer MD

Peripheral

Fear

Neutral

*

Phelps et al., 2006 Psych. Sci.Distributed

Neutral Fear Neutral

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– The amygdala influences sensory brain regions to ease processing of emotional events

• Emotion captures attention impairing processing of non-emotional events




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Emotion captures attentionEmotion captures attention

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+

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Emotion captures attention (2)Emotion captures attention (2)

470

500

480

490

Emotion face

Neutral face

milli

seco

nds



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Emotion captures attention (3)Emotion captures attention (3)

AMY

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– The amygdala influences sensory brain regions to ease processing of emotional events

• Emotion captures attention impairing attention to non-emotional events

– Brain regions that help us move attention among events are less active when an emotional event is encountered


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Emotion and memory

Encoding Storage Retrieval

Emotion



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Encoding (attention)

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Emotion and memory


Emotion

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Kleinsmith & Kaplan (1963) replication*

• 60 Yale undergraduates

• 8 word-digit pairs

• SCR recorded

• Cued recall for digits, immediate & 24hr

* Collaborators: Mahzarin Banaji, Bob Crowder



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Immediate and delayed recallfor high and low arousal paired associates

0

10

20

30

40

50

Imm Delay

DELAY

Low arousal

High arousal

Perc

ent r

ecal

l

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Emotion enhances memory storageEmotion enhances memory storage

Neutral

Arousing

Time of test

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

Imm Delay

(b)

30

50

70

90

Imm Delay

(c)

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

Imm Delay

(a)

Per

cent

reca

lled

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Emotion enhances memory storage (2)

• Researchers have been able to influence the amygdala after the information had been encountered, and enhance memory storage by the hippocampus



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Emotion and memory


Emotion

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Flashbulb memories

• Emotion during retrieval enhances the subjective sense of remembering

• However, despite the high confidence and detailed nature of these flashbulb memories, the accuracy level is much lower than described

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September 12, 2001Describe the events in detail



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September 12, 2002Tell me your recollections?

• Memories for 9/11 were no more accurate in their details one year later than memories for other events;Both declined over time

• However, subjects were highly confident that the detailsof their 9/11 memories were correct;This was not the case for other memories

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• Subjective Sense of Remembering (SSR) assessed with “remember” vs. “know” judgment

• Emotion enhances “remember” judgments (Ochsner et al., 2000, Sharot et al., 2004)

Sharot, Delgado & Phelps (2004) Nature Neuroscience

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Amygdala, Parahippocampus, and SSR


% s

igna

l cha

nge

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

“Remember”

“Know”

Parahippocampus –Neutral

% s

igna

l cha

nge

-0.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1Parahippocampus –Emotion

“Remember”“Know”

TR

TR



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Amygdala, Parahippocampus, and SSR (2)

% s

igna

l cha

nge

Amygdala –Emotion

-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

% s

igna

l cha

nge

-0.2

-0.1

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4Amygdala –Neutral “Remember”

“Know”

“Remember”

“Know”

TR

TR


38Sharot, Delgado & Phelps; (2004) Nature Neuroscience

Region X Type of photo X response ANOVA, P <0.05

• Independent neural systems underlie the subjective sense of remembering for emotional and neutral scenes

Amygdala, Parahippocampus, and SSR (3)

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Emotion increases confidence in memory accuracy, more than accuracy



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• “The explosion caused everyone in the area to automatically duck for cover... I saw some scaffolding that I could go under to avoid the falling debris.”

• “I saw with my own eyes: The towers burning in red flames, noises and cries of people.”

Recalling memories of 9/11

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R L R L

Greater amygdala activation Less parahippocampus activation

Sharot et al., 2004, PNAS

Recalling 9/11 vs. other life events

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• Emotion increases confidence in memory accuracy, more than accuracy

Recalling 9/11 compared to other life events leads to increased amygdala activation

and decreased parahippocampus activation

Sharot et al., 2004, PNAS

• The amygdala is important in focusing attention on a few important details and enhancing perception of those details

• This leads to a very strong memory for a few details of the emotional event,which may lead to an increase in memory confidence



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• Emotion enhances the storage of events

– The amygdala influences the consolidation of arousing events

• Emotion increases confidence in memory accuracy, more than accuracy– We may not remember all the details of emotional events,

but think we do

• This increased confidence for emotional memories may help us act more quickly in the future

Emotion and memory

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Emotion impacts decisions

Panic Don’tpanic

45 LeDoux& Gorman, 2001

Emotion impacts decisions (2)



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How do you make choices?

• Decisions are made using values

• Valuation is a cognitive and emotional process

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+$10.0050%

-$12.0050%

+$10.0050%

-$2.5050%

+$10.0050%

-$7.5050%

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Loss aversion & arousal

• Losses > Gains

• ‘Overarousal” to loss predicts loss aversion

Sokol-Hessner et al., 2009, PNAS

-0.04

0

0.04

0.08

0 1 2 3 4

Behavioral loss aversion

Loss

–G

ain

(SC

R p

er $

)



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Loss aversion, arousal and the amygdala

• Losses > Gains

• ‘Overarousal” to loss predicts loss aversion

• Loss aversion correlates with amygdala activation to losses

A

B

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Emotion colors thoughts and actions

• Perception and attention– The amygdala’s interaction with sensory cortex

• Memory– The amygdala’s interaction with the hippocampal complex

• Decisions– The amygdala’s interaction with the striatum

What can we do about it?

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Thoughts and emotions



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• Our thoughts play an important role in generating emotion

– How we appraise (evaluate or interpret) a situation determines our emotional response

• Our thoughts can increase or decrease the brain’s response to emotional events

Thoughts and emotions (2)

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“Try to focus on your natural feelings” “Try to think of something calming in nature”

Attend Regulate



55Attend

SC

R (s

quar

e ro

ot)

CS+CS-

CS Type

SCR to the blue (shock) and yellow (no shock) squaresduring attend & regulate trials

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

Regulate

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Amygdala

Attend

Regulate

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Lateral PFC vmPFC

Delgado et al., Neuron, 2008

Emotion regulation and the prefrontal cortex



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Amygdala:Expression

Emotion regulation

Delgado et al., 2004, Neuron

dlPFC:Regulation vmPFC:

Inhibition

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• Our thoughts play an important role in generating emotion

– How we appraise/interpret a situationdetermines our emotional response

• Our thoughts can increase or decrease the brain’s responseto emotional events

– How we interpret the significance of an event can increaseor decrease the amygdala’s response

– Through its interactions with the amygdala,the prefrontal cortex may provide a pathwayfor thoughts to influence the amygdala

Thoughts and emotion

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Cognition and emotion

• Emotion colors thoughts and actions

– Emotion facilitates attention and perception for emotional events and impairs attention to non-emotional events

– Emotion enhances memory storage and the feeling of remembering, perhaps more than accuracy

– Emotion influences the valuation process in decision making

• Thoughts can influence emotions

– How we appraise an event can determine our emotional response



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Thanks to:Students and Collaborators• Adam Anderson • Mahzarin Banaji• Colin Camerer• Marisa Carrasco• Bob Crowder• Mike Davis• Mauricio Delgado• Christian Grillon• Kevin LaBar• Joe LeDoux• Sam Ling• Kate Nearing• Tali Sharot• Peter Sokol-Hessner

Funding• National Institute of Health• James S. McDonnell Foundation

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Thank you!

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emotion and cognition dr. elizabeth a. phelps · • 8 word-digit pairs ... naut re neuroscience...

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