G. Dennis Rains,
Kutztown University of Pennsylvania
affect | A term often used to mean short-term emotion. The term mood is used to designate a long-lasting emotional state, such as depression.
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affective aggression | Aggressive behavior that, in contrast to predatory aggression, is characterized by display behavior, such as intense vocalizations and threatening postures.
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affective prosody | Intonation in spoken language that communicates emotion.
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catastrophic reaction | Goldstein's term for the extreme depression he observed after left-hemisphere lesions.
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chimeric face | A photograph of a face composed by splitting a photograph of a face down the middle and then splicing together each side with its mirror image.
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classical conditioning | A form of learning in which a previously neutral stimulus, the conditioned stimulus (CS), is paired with a stimulus that naturally causes a response, the unconditioned stimulus (US), until the CS also evokes a response (usually similar to that evoked by the US).
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cognitive arousal theory of emotion | The theory that the quality of subjective emotional experience is the result of a subject's cognitive appraisal or interpretation of the arousal rather than the arousal per se.
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conditioned response | The response evoked by the conditioned stimulus.
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conditioned stimulus | When a neutral stimulus (one that does not produce a particular response) precedes an unconditioned stimulus on a number of occasions, it may come to evoke a response identical to (or similar to) the response evoked by the unconditioned stimulus. When this learning has occurred, the neutral stimulus has become a conditioned stimulus.
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dissociative disorders | Disorders in which individuals may remember facts about past traumatic events without experiencing any associated emotion, or even the sense that the events happened to them.
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electrical self-stimulation | A situation in which an animal receives electrical stimulation to a part of the brain as a consequence of some behavior, such as pressing a bar. Electrical self-stimulation in a number of subcortical areas, particularly the septum, has been shown to be highly rewarding.
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emotional memory | The experience of emotional arousal related to a past event without conscious memory for the past event.
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emotional semantics | Cognitive knowledge about the relationship between an event and emotion (e.g., knowing that sadness is a response to loss).
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facial feedback hypothesis | The hypothesis that the configuration of facial muscles determines or influences subjective emotional experience.
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fear conditioning | Classical conditioning in which the conditioned response is fear.
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hypergraphia | A tendency to write about one's life in great detail. Some investigators consider this to be a characteristic of patients with temporal-lobe seizures.
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indifference reaction | A descriptive term for the apparent lack of negative emotional response observed in some patients with right-hemisphere lesions.
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Kluver-Bucy syndrome | Behavioral changes in monkeys that have undergone bilateral temporal lobectomy. These changes include decreased fear, visual agnosia, oral tendencies, a drive to run about and explore, and changes in sexual behavior.
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limbic system | A term that is widely used to denote a number of structures that have been hypothesized to be centrally involved in the neural mediation of emotion.
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memory for emotion | Remembering that in the past one had experienced an emotion, without autonomic arousal at the time of remembering.
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mood | The long-term quality of emotional experience.
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mood congruity of memory | The tendency of a person to remember information better when in the same or a similar emotional state as when the information was initially encountered.
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neomammalian brain | According to MacLean's triune brain hypothesis, the neocortex. MacLean proposed that this highest level of brain mediates specific emotion based on the perceptions and the interpretations of the immediate world, adding specificity to the expression of general emotion mediated by the paleomammalian brain.
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neutral stimulus | A stimulus that does not produce a particular response.
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nonverbal affect lexicon | A hypothetical store of information concerning the emotional significance of nonverbal stimuli, such as a facial expression or a gesture.
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nucleus basalis | A brain stem system, closely linked to the amygdala, that appears to be important in the mediation of danger-induced cortical arousal.
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paleomammalian brain | According to MacLean's triune brain hypothesis, the limbic system. MacLean postulated that the paleomammalian brain adds current and recent experience to the basic drives mediated by the reptilian brain.
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perseveration | Maintenance of a behavior despite continuing feedback that it is not adaptive.
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predatory aggression | Aggression that occurs when an animal is killing an animal of another species for food. In contrast to affective aggression, it is unaccompanied by vocalizations or by elaborate display behavior and is aimed at vulnerable parts of the prey's body.
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propositional prosody | Intonation of spoken language that communicates meaning.
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reptilian brain | According to MacLean's triune brain hypothesis, the brain stem. MacLean postulated that the reptilian brain mediates the most basic elements of survival, such as homeostasis.
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stereotaxic technique | A method that maps neuroanatomical structures onto a three-dimensional coordinate system, thereby allowing the precise identification of locations within the brain.
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stream of feeling | According to Papez's theory, one of the two streams by means of which conscious feelings may arise. In this stream, input from the thalamus goes first to the hypothalamus and then projects to the cingulate gyrus via the hypothalamus. See also stream of thought.
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stream of thought | According to Papez's theory, one of the two streams by means of which conscious feelings may arise. In this stream, sensory input reaches the cingulate gyrus via the thalamus and other regions of cortex. See also stream of feeling.
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temporal-lobe personality | A pattern of behavior that some investigators believe is characteristic of individuals with temporal-lobe seizures. Features include deepening of emotions, hyperreligiosity (or intense atheism), excessive concern with details, and a tendency to write about one's life in great detail (hypergraphia).
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triune brain hypothesis | A hypothesis put forward by MacLean according to which the brain has undergone three major stages of evolution so that in higher animals there exists a hierarchy of three brains in one: the reptilian brain, comprising the brain stem; the paleomammalian brain, comprising the limbic system; and the neomammalian brain, consisting of the neocortex. See also neomammalian brain, paleomammalian brain, and reptilian brain.
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unconditioned response | A natural (unlearned) response to an unconditioned stimulus.
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unconditioned stimulus | A stimulus that naturally causes a particular response.
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valence hypothesis | The hypothesis that the left hemisphere is dominant for positive emotion and the right hemisphere is dominant for negative emotion.
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