Lecture Blog #1: Elizabeth Tricomi on the Contextual Influences on Value Representation in the Human Brain

This is rather late in coming as I had attended the lecture and forgotten about my notes until now. But nevertheless, here it is, my first blog entry on a guest lecture.

In her talk, Dr. Elizabeth Tricomi discussed how different contextual factors such as goals, experience, value, probability of reward, and social preferences influenced individual behavior.

She talked in detail about her research on the influence these contextual factors had on the brain's reward circuitry. Using fMRI, she has shown that rewards earned from goal-directed actions lead to activation of the caudate nucleus, which is part of the brain's reward circuitry. However, with more experience (a contextual factor), activity in the caudate nucleus changes because the behavior, before a means of attaining a goal, now becomes a habitual cue-triggered habitual response. Thus in order for the reward circuitry to activate, the actions taken must be goal-relevant--hence, context matters.

From her research, Dr. Tricomi concluded that the brain's reward pathway must integrate contextual information so that the individual can make circumstantial decisions and perform complex behaviors as influenced by the context.

Dr. Tricomi's talk was very interesting as her approach to the reward system in the brain is much different from the typical textbook explanation. We are taught that reward and punishment are mediated by a portion of the brain depending on pleasure and want and like concepts. However, we don't often consider reward in different contexts, which would definitely influence one's perception depending on the circumstances.



-Alice Huang

Breaking a Social Norm

I had the most difficult time figuring out what social norm to break for this week's blog. Luckily, I didn't have to brainstorm for too long because opportunity knocked at my door.

My friends and I went to a Halloween-themed dessert-tasting event hosted by one of the dorms on campus. Since my roommate had been pulling an all-nighter for an exam, I was charged with bringing back some of the cupcakes, brownies, cookies, etc. that were being offered at the event.

After having our fill of sweets, we decided to head to Wilson gym to grab some smoothies at Quencher's and I was charged with holding a plate full of sweets. Bringing in dessert to the gym was definitely a first for me. There's an obvious discrepancy when someone brings dessert into the gym where the goal is to attain good physical health and perhaps run off the guilty calories from the raspberry cheesecake one had for dinner. Nevertheless, I walked in with an assortment of brownies, cookies, and cupcakes.

At first I didn't think much of it, but when both my friends refused to take on the task, I became somewhat self-conscious of doing so. When we walked up to the front desk, the person in charge of swiping our cards laughed and asked if the cupcake was for him.

After that, I didn't think much of it because if I didn't hurt anyone by breaking the social norm and if anything, bringing dessert into the gym helped brighten someone's day a little.



-Alice Huang

Hormones and a Sweet Tooth

Folk psychology has it that women are more likely to crave sweets while on their period. I myself tend to notice that around my time of month I have a high affinity for all things sugary. But this might be the result of my believing the idea that I'm supposed to be craving sweets more and as a result paying more attention to sweets consumption around that time as opposed to leaving it unnoticed when it isn't my time. So to see if the "fact" that monthly cycle of sugar cravings is true, I thought I'd do a little research.

It turns out that there might actually be some truth to this little bit of folk psych. Cravings for sugary foods are common before and during menstruation, and some women even crave high-carb foods like pasta and bread. And apparently, these cravings can be a sign of low blood sugar. Some women's bodies are more responsive to the hormone insulin during their monthly cycle, making them more prone to drops in blood sugar levels. Thus, a sugar craving results as a signal to the body from the brain for the need of more fuel.

While we are all aware that hormone fluctuations affect menstruation, we don't usually take the step further in acknowledging the side effects that might result from the fluctuation. And it's cool to see that something stemming from folk psychology about a commonly agreed upon behavior is in fact instigated by hormones.



-Alice Huang

Defining Emotion

This assignment has been the most challenging thus far for me for the reason that I have never considered how to define emotion. It's a word that we all know and understand intrinsically. but to use words to describe what it is is an entirely different story.

So to begin defining emotion, I'll describe what I think are the qualities that "emotion" encompasses:

• Emotions are reactions. Something (an action, an idea, an observation) or other elicits emotion. For example, the observation that it is a nice, sunny day might make you feel the emotion of happiness.
• Emotions are felt. You feel angry because someone wronged you. You feel love because your friends are there for you. You feel because you are watching a horror movie.
• Emotions are not physical. You can feel exhausted, but exhaustion is not an emotion because it has physical origins. You might be feeling exhausted because you haven't been sleeping enough or have been working for too long (both of which are physical origins of your exhaustion). However, you might feel sad because you are exhausted. Sadness is an emotion. 
• While emotions are not physical, they can be physically expressed. For instance, there are certain facial expressions associated with certain emotions. When we are happy, we smile. When we are sad, we frown or cry . However, in social situations, we might attempt to mask our emotions by suppressing these physical manifestations and controlling how we appear to others. So instead of frowning or crying when we are sad, we brace ourselves and put on a smile so as not to worry others. 
• There are a range of emotions. So while watching "Jaws" might make you scared, witnessing a real shark attack will make you more frightened. 

-Alice Huang

Most Amazing fMRI Study!

I came across an awesome fMRI study that was performed in 2005 by Helen Fisher, Arthur Aron, and Lucy Brown examining romantic love. The researchers examined 17 individuals who were "intensively" in love. Each participants was first screened for the level of romantic love through interview and the Passion Love Scale, which measures several characteristics commonly associated with romantic love. After screening, fMRI was used. The study employed photographs and consisted of four tasks: For 30 seconds, the subject viewed a photo of his/her significant other. Following this, he/she was performed a countback distraction task for 40 seconds. Then, he/she viewed for 30 seconds a photo of an emotionally neutral acquaintaince. The last 20 seconds consisted of a similar countback task. The researchers included the countback task "to decrease the carryover effect after the participant viewed the positive stimulus because it is difficult to quell intense feelings of romantic love." This four-step process was repeated six times for more accurate fMRI readings. The researchers found that upon viewing the photo of their significant other and not in any of the other three tasks, subjects had high activation in their right ventral tegmental area and right caudate nucleus, which are dopamine-rich areas associated with reward and motivation. They concluded that dopaminergic reward pathways contribute to the "general arousal" component of romantic love and that romantic love is primarily a motivation system rather than an emotion. I think this fMRI study is really fascinating as it examines something as nebulous as love. To be able to take the step towards understanding love scientifically is both slightly controversial and shows how far science has come.

Here is the link to the paper for those of you who are interested: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cne.20772/pdf