Method:

• Made lesions in specific neural pathways in rats to determine the functions of the damaged pathways and disrupt the conditioning response. 
  
• The lesions were first made in the auditory context where the brain processes sound. 
  
• And the auditory thalamus – which provides most auditory inputs to the cortex. 
  

Findings: 

• Found that the brain structures of the thalamus and the amygdala play different roles in the generation of emotion. 
  
• Lesion in the auditory cortex rats still learned to fear tone.
• Lesion in the auditory thalamus eliminated the rats’ susceptibility (vulnerability) to fear conditioning.
• Most of the cells in the thalamus transmit to the cortex 
  
• BUT some also transmit to the amygdala, a region of the brain already implicated in various emotional behaviours. 
• Thus indicating that the pathways with lesions led to the thalamus or amygdala, affected emotional responses. 
  

Conclusion: 

• It can be concluded that the biological factor of brain damage to either of these areas would result in issues in generating emotions. 
  

• This supports that biological factors DO interact in emotion to a great extent. 
  
  

• Another study supporting Le Doux’s Biological Model/Theory of Emotion is by Gazzaniga et al. (2000) 
  

• To investigate the effect on emotional responses as a result of brain damage (in the pre-frontal lobe and amygdala) in autistic children. 
  

• Found that autistic children had trouble naming emotions from a set of facial expressions. 
  

• It demonstrates that brain damage impaired the children’s ability to recognise the emotions expressed on faces. 
  
• ... and furthermore that certain areas in the brain, such as the pre-frontal lobe and the amygdala are related to emotional processing. 
  

Connection of study to question 

• Indicates that biological factors DO interact in emotion, supporting Le Doux’s Biological Model. 
  

Further Studies that support this theory include

• Branchard and Branchard (1972)
  
• Rats lost their fears of cats as the amygdale was lesion
• Philips (1964)
  
• Birds lost fear of humans after there was a lesion in amygdala
  
  

EVALUATION OF BIOLOGICAL RESEARCH on EMOTION; and Le Doux’s Theory (optional):

• However, one should be cautious in drawing too far reaching conclusions, as the research conductedn these biological processes suffers from methodological weaknesses. This includes the fact that...:
  

• Explain how Le Doux’s theory supports interaction between biological and cognitive factors in emotion
  
• This suggests that the amygdala plays a central part/role in determining and controlling emotional responses in the brain.
• Thus the connections between these structures allow the amygdala to transform sensory information into emotional signals and therefore control emotional responses.
• Le Doux’s theory (of emotional circuits in the brain) supports biological factors in emotion as it identifies that the amygdala and surrounding brain processes play a central role in determining and controlling emotional responses in the brain.
• The theory also supports cognitive factors in emotion because the situation is appraised though the long route.
• Thus it cannot be said that biological factors alone interact with emotion, but cognition also plays a role in creating and controlling these emotional responses.
  
  

• Explain theory:
  
• Two factors interact to determine specific emotions
• Physiological arousal
• Emotion interpretation and labelling of the physiological arousal
• Strength of the physiological arousal determines the intensity of emotion
  
• Interpretation of physiological arousal determines which particular emotion is experienced
  
  
• Explain how the two-factor theory supports interaction between biological and cognitive factors in emotion
  
• Perception of stimulus may lead to bodily physiological arousal
• Physiological arousal is necessary for emotional experience, but needs to be labelled or interpreted by cognitive appraisal of the situation
• If a state of unexplained bodily arousal is induced, people will look around and try to explain the arousal in terms of their environment
• This cognitive appraisal results in labelling of the arousal as an emotional experience.
  
  

• To test the two factor theory of emotion (that emotion arises from a combination of cognition and arousal), using the hormone, adrenaline
  

• 184 college males 
• Divided into 4 groups
  
• All groups were told that they were going to be given an injection of Suproxin in order to test its effects on vision
• Even though men were really receiving adrenaline and:
• Informed of the correct effects of adrenaline (under the impression that it was suproxin) 
• Given no information on effects 
• Given false effects 
• Last group was given a placebo 
• 4 Groups divided into 2 subgroups  
  
• Condition 1 euphoria
• Confederate encouraged participant to play with games inside the waiting room (withffice equipment) 
• Condition 2 anger
  
• Confederate completed a questionnaire at the same pace as the participant but became more and more angry as the questions became more personal
• Participants were observed for changes in emotion
  
• Participants were then asked to fill out a questionnaire detailing their state of emotion
  

• Showed that participants that were given information on the effects of adrenaline showed minimal changes in emotion because they had an accurate explanation of their emotion
  
• But those who had been told no effect showed much higher changes in emotion because they had no explanation for their state of arousal, so they used cues of the confederate's behaviour and labelled their emotions
  
• These participants changed their behaviour according to cognitive appraisal of their emotions, rather than specific physiological arousal, indicating that only general arousal is required.

• Researchers concluded that emotion occurs by a process of cognitive labelling: the interpretation of physiological cues is combined with contextual cues to construct a person's subjective experience of emotion
  

• This study supports that a combination of physiological change (adrenaline) and cognitive labelling (appraisal of the situation) can contribute to changes in emotion
  
  
• Introduce importance of first theory – Lazarus’ Theory of Appraisal:
  
• Cognitive researchers on emotion usually emphasize the importance of cognitive appraisal.
  
  

• Explain theory: 
  
• The appraisal theory of emotion is based on the evaluation of situations according to the significance they have for us, therefore it has more of a cognitive basis 
• Suggests that cognition is essential.
• This theory states that emotion is experienced when, in our interaction with the environment, we assess our surroundings as to whether it is beneficial or harmful for our well-being. 
• Appraisals are interpretations of situations and how they will affect one’s well-being.
• Appraisals are both conscious and unconscious; contribute to the quality and intensity of an emotion.
• The appraisal theory is based on two concepts: 
• Primary appraisal – where the organism assesses the significance or meaning of the event. Three components: 
• Motivational relevance – relevance to goals? (If positive, then there is emotion) 
• Motivational congruence – favourable to goals? (Positive emotion when yes, negative emotion when no) 
• Accountability – who is responsible for what is happening? 
• Secondary appraisal – when the organism appraises the consequence of the event and decides on how to act. It also has three components: 
• Problem-focused coping – cope with a situation by changing it to make it less threatening for an individual to cope 
• Emotion-focused coping – change the situation by how I feel about it (e.g. reinterpreting). 
• Future expectancy – To what extent can I expect the situation will change? 
  
  

• A supporting experiment which demonstrates how cognitive appraisals are affected by bodily responses (emotions) to stressful situations, which is illustrated by Speisman et al. (1964). 
  

• To demonstrate the influence of appraisal on emotional experiences. 
  

• Participants were shown a ‘stressful’ film about ‘unpleasant’ genital surgery depicting Aboriginal boys have circumcision in the context of puberty. 
  
• Accompanied by soundtrack, in which investigators manipulated the ‘appraisal’ of the surgery by showing the film with 3 conditions + 1 control: 
  
•  Trauma condition – pain experienced by boys and use of knife were emphasized 
•  Denial – boys anticipation of entering manhood pointed out thus de-emphasizing the pain  (presented the p’s as happy and deliberate) 
•  Intellectualization – soundtrack ignored emotional aspects of situation and emphasized traditions of aboriginal culture 
•  Silent – nothing 
• Arousal state measured by galvanic skin response (GSR) measure of electrical conductivity of skin and indicator of autonomic arousal and heart rate.
  

• Observations and self-reports showed that participants reacted more ‘emotionally’ to the soundtrack that was more traumatic. 
  
• Lowest in intellectualization and silent conditions. 
  
• The way participants appraised (act of assessing someone or something) what they were seeing in the film affected their physiological experience in terms of emotion. 
  
  

• Methodological problems – It is possible that the participants’ reactions were primarily affected by the music, not that the music affected the appraisal of the situation. 

• Thus, according to appraisal theory, it can be concluded that the music affected the appraisal of the situation, which in turn affected the emotional reaction to it. 
  
• ...the cognitive factor of how we appraise certain situations influences our emotional responses

• This supports that cognitive factors DO interact in emotion to a great extent. 
  
  
• State connection to cognitive interactions within emotion: 
  
• Thus, Lazarus’ theory of appraisal states that ‘we experience emotions when interacting with our environment and appraise good and bad to our well-being.
• Lazarus suggests that the specific emotions experienced are determined by the pattern of answers the individual gives throughout the components of the primary and second appraisal. 
  
  

Conclusion 

• The theories discussed above suggest that cognitive and biological factors contribute and interact in emotion. 
  
• According to the information processing view of the brain (supported by Le Doux), emotion is produced as cognitive and perceptual processing occurs in brain regions such as the thalamus, hippocampus, amygdala and the pre-frontal lobe (biological factors) 
  
• According to the TFT, emotion results from physiological arousal and cognitive labelling 
  
• According tLazarus’ theory of appraisal, evaluation of situations (cognition) determines emotion 
  
• These theories have been supported through much research, and although there were a few limitations within the studies, there have been no other theories or research that opposes the idea that biological and cognitive factors influence emotion. 
  
• Therefore, all of these theories suggest that both cognitive and biological factors interact in emotion to a LARGE extent