It's a tough read with technical jargon but one can glean important insights:
- Amygdala cells respond only to significant stimuli.
- Norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, & acetylcholine are all released in the amygdala & influence how excitatory & inhibitory neurons interact.
- The amygdala can influence cognitive functions directly, but higher cognitive functions are less directly capable of influencing the amygdala.
- Cognitive reappraisal (reinterpretation of situations that cause reactivity) can alter functional activity in the amygdala during the processing of emotional stimuli. This is like altering the perception of a situation. Find the good of what happened instead of dwelling on the bad.
- The memory system responds better to emotional (aversive or appetitive) stimuli. It enhances and prioritizes survival relevant information.
- Both emotional & non-emotional memories benefit from enhanced attention, cognitive elaboration, & repeitition.
- Emotional arousal is more important than valence (attractiveness or aversiveness).
- Cortisol can enhance memory but in the absence of adrenaline can do the opposite.
- Deep sleep consolidates emotional memories best.
- Extinction reduces reactivity to the conditioned stimulus. Although fear to the conditioned stimulus can return with new experiences that reinforce the old phobia (Extinction - When operant behavior that has been previously reinforced no longer produces reinforcing consequences the behavior gradually stops occurring).
- Reinterpretation of events affects how the amygdala responds.
- Imagining something positive with the conditioned stimulus reduces the conditioned response.
- We are affected by facial expressions and body language of other people.
- Attention moves towards emotional stimuli as a priority and phobias speed up that priority.
- The emotional value of an object regulates your perception.
- Although human amygdala activity is best evoked by negative emotional stimuli such as facial expressions of fear and disgust, amygdala activity is also strongly evoked by highly arousing positive emotions such as humour (as opposed to happiness, which is less likely to be associated with amygdala activity).
- The amygdala takes note of the order of events solely to determine their predictive value. This suggests that an amygdala response to an unconditioned stimulus is also about determining whether any other contingent events occurred. With this calculation, the organism will be in a better position to predict the unconditioned stimulus on the next trial.
- Ambiguity or relevance is what the amygdala responds to in social situations.
