2017 Personality 16: Biology/Traits: Incentive Reward/Neuroticism

0:00[Music]

0:12so okay so we talked a little bit about

0:15motivation last time or quite a bit

0:17about motivation and what I I told you

0:20that I was basically teach you teaching

0:23you a personality Neuroscience approach

0:25to personality and um part of the reason

0:28that I have to go into the bi ology to

0:31give you is to give you the kind of

0:32foundation that you need in order to

0:34understand I would say what's

0:36essentially The Cutting Edge in

0:37personality research you know I mean I I

0:41know that what we're going what we

0:43covered last lecture and what we're

0:45going to cover today are relatively

0:47complicated but if you get them right

0:48then you're right at the Forefront of of

0:52of our ideas about brain function and

0:54emotion and about personality so you get

0:57all that at the same time and today

0:58you'll get a little bit of learning

1:00Theory thrown in as well so learn

1:02learning theory is basically what used

1:04to be what's what's alternatively

1:06described as behaviorism and I don't I

1:09used to teach behaviorism in this class

1:11but I've subsumed it underneath the

1:13biology because the old a lot of the old

1:15behavioral presuppositions although they

1:17were extremely useful were not right is

1:21which is exactly what you'd expect they

1:23were formulated in the

1:241950s um and it's actually the sign of

1:27the progress of a science that theories

1:29that are 60 years old are no longer

1:31right

1:33so um we'll also cover a little bit of

1:36Behavioral Theory today too so okay so

1:39the hypothesis we've been working on so

1:41far or we'll call it the working theory

1:43is that motivations set goals or more

1:46accurately that they Define a conceptual

1:49space within which you perceive the

1:51world and within which you act towards

1:54some goal and or to some end point and

1:57the end point in some sense is specif by

2:00the motivational system it's a

2:02hypothalamic system often but not always

2:05but not only is the goal specified but

2:08the the underlying motivational systems

2:11also tune your perception so you're only

2:13looking at the things that you know to

2:15be relevant to the pursuit of that goal

2:17and they also either disinhibit or

2:20activate the behavioral schemes that you

2:22would normally use to pursue the goal

2:24and sometimes those or let's say the

2:27motor schemes because that would be more

2:29accurate when you think about Behavior

2:30you tend to think about voluntary

2:32Behavior but a motivational state will

2:36disinhibit or activate depending on the

2:38situation autonomic responses so for

2:40example when you when you're food

2:43deprived and you start to think about

2:45food and start to organize your behavior

2:47towards food as an end and to perceive

2:50the world that way your body also

2:51prepares for food and so the

2:54motivational state is an

2:55all-encompassing psychophysiological

2:58phenomena it's not something as simple

2:59as chain Behavior which was an early be

3:01behavioral Theory or as simple as

3:05something that's merely setting a goal

3:06it's much more complicated than that

3:08it's it's useful to think about as we've

3:11already talked about with regards to

3:13psychodynamic Theory it's useful to

3:15think about a motivated State as a micro

3:17personality I mean it's it's got one aim

3:20in mind fundamentally so it's it's not

3:22particularly sophisticated but it has

3:24all the other elements of a personality

3:26so now so motivation establishes the

3:30framework within which goals are pursued

3:32and the goal itself and then roughly

3:35speaking emotions or at least many of

3:38the emotions track progress towards

3:40goals and so they kind of tell you

3:42whether you're on the right track or not

3:45so that's a reasonable way of of

3:47distinguishing them even though there is

3:49no single motivation system or single

3:51emotion

3:53system here's some basic

3:56motivations um these are the sorts of

3:58things that Freud would have ass

3:59assciated fundamentally with the ID so

4:02and he thought of those as primordial

4:04and that's exactly right because pretty

4:06much all of these motivational systems

4:08we share certainly with other people

4:11also with other mammals and then of

4:14course with animals that are farther

4:16down the evolutionary chain than mammals

4:18so some of these systems are

4:19extraordinarily old in fact all of them

4:21are extraordinarily old Hunger

4:23consequence of food deprivation

4:25obviously thirst obviously people are

4:28very dependent on water

4:30um pain Pain's complicated there's

4:34there's physical pain and then there's

4:38it's mental equivalents and the mental

4:40equivalents of pain are

4:43grief

4:45disappointment frustration roughly

4:47speaking and so you can the way you can

4:49think about that is you you know you saw

4:51the picture of the nervous system that I

4:52showed you last time with the branches

4:54going up into the brain obviously but

4:56with all the branches or the roots say

4:58going down into the body so we discussed

5:00the central nervous system as a sort of

5:03all-encompassing system distributed

5:05throughout the

5:06body imagine that part of that Network

5:09throughout your body is associated with

5:11pain reception and that would be roughly

5:13equivalent to systems registering levels

5:17of input that are high enough to

5:19potentially damage them that's that's

5:21where pain seems Seems to come in and

5:23that different pieces of that can be

5:25activated at different times so if it's

5:28psychological pain as I said grief

5:30frustration disappointment seems to fall

5:32into that category uh loneliness is

5:35another one um then maybe it's primarily

5:39the cortical circuitry for pain that's

5:41activated and although people who are

5:43depressed for example or who are

5:44grieving often have somatic pain as well

5:47and depression really looks like it's a

5:49pain State um we know loneliness is

5:52because if you take like little chicks

5:54or little kittens and you make them

5:56Lonesome and they'll cry you know which

5:58is a or or or peep if they're chicks and

6:01you can stop them from doing that by

6:04using

6:05opiates and uh it's not because it stops

6:08them from vocalizing because that would

6:09be a possibility just get them so stoned

6:11on you know morphine that they can't

6:13Peep and you think well they're now

6:15they're they're not Lonesome anymore so

6:17it's the experiments have been done

6:18carefully enough to factor out the

6:21effect of the opiates on the

6:22vocalization so and that's also led to

6:25some suspicion that people who

6:28have have had a a history of

6:31extraordinarily painful personal

6:32relationships might be those who are

6:34more prone to opiate use and so opiates

6:38analgesics are they basically dampen out

6:41pain and frustration and disappointment

6:43and grief and loneliness so there's an

6:46anger and aggression system it's

6:48complicated there's probably two of them

6:50one is defensive aggression that's

6:52probably more associated with

6:54neuroticism technically the other is

6:56probably predatory aggression and you

6:59know human beings are definitely

7:01Predators we're meat eaters and you know

7:03uh our closest relatives chimpanzees for

7:06example they're they're pretty good

7:07Hunters um they they'll they all pack

7:11gather together in packs and bring down

7:1230 PB cbus monkeys and and the meat is

7:15very popular Among The Chimps and so

7:17predatory aggression seems to be a

7:19separate circuit and as we'll discuss

7:21further along I think the predatory

7:23aggression circuit and the maternal

7:25solicitude circuit because there's also

7:27a Care Circuit have evolve to be at

7:30opposite ends of the same distribution I

7:33think that's the agreeableness

7:34distribution in the big five so on one

7:36end there's maternal solicitude and the

7:38other end there's predatory aggression

7:40and you can imagine how those things

7:42have to inhibit one another

7:45um because well with with many mammals

7:48bears for example the the males are so

7:51predatory that you have to keep them

7:52away from the Cubs because they'll kill

7:54them the human beings I mean there's

7:56some aggression towards children

7:59especially if the children aren't

8:00biological relatives but men are pretty

8:03caring for male mammals and and women

8:05are actually quite predatory for male

8:08mammals so thermal regulation your

8:10hypothalamus takes care of whether

8:12you're hot or cold panic and Escape th

8:16those are circuits that also seem to be

8:18associated with with pain fundamentally

8:20although threat can maybe trigger them

8:22as well and the Panic Escape system

8:24doesn't exactly seem to be the same

8:26system as the anxiety and fear system

8:29even though they sound they sound

8:31roughly equivalent right you might think

8:33of panic as just the extreme level of

8:36fear and I think fear can trigger panic

8:38but Panic seems to be a more primordial

8:40circuit and if you're panicking there's

8:42an immense impetus to to escape so

8:46that's a different circuit affiliation

8:48and care we covered sexual desire

8:51exploration and play both of those seem

8:53to be separate circuits so Jack PP Yak

8:55pep actually who wrote a great book

8:57called affective neuroscience by the way

8:59if any of you are interested in like the

9:02psychobiology of behavior and motivation

9:05Yak Pep's book is one of the best we I

9:07don't have a paper by him in in our

9:09collection but he's a very smart guy he

9:12wrote this book called affective

9:13neuroscience and it's actually given its

9:16title and the relative complexity of its

9:18of its thoughts it's actually quite

9:20readable even though it's a text it's a

9:22little more personal than your typical

9:24text might be and PP is also very

9:26interested in uh psychodynamic

9:29personality idea so he's a very broad

9:31thinker and so if you're interested in

9:34you know an approach to psychology that

9:36sort of crosses the threshold from

9:38personality into emotion and biology

9:41panp as well as gray there's a gray

9:43paper that you're reading are Pep's a

9:45very very good source he's a

9:48very he discovered the play circuit for

9:51example um and he also discovered that

9:55rats

9:56laugh so if you tickle rat it laughs you

10:00can't hear it though because it it

10:02laughs ultrasonically like a bat but if

10:04you record the rat giggling and then

10:08slow down the tape then you can tell

10:10that the rat laughs and rats need to

10:12play and most mammals need to play in

10:14order to uh socialize them so so one of

10:18the things you can think about this when

10:19you're parents too and this is probably

10:20especially relevant for the men because

10:22one of the things you might ask is what

10:24role do men play in the socialization of

10:26children and one thing that men really

10:28do seem to do with kids is to engage in

10:30rough and tumble play especially once

10:32they're a little older than two say 2 to

10:345 or something and kids love that they

10:36absolutely love rough and tumble play

10:39gets them so excited that you know they

10:40get out of control fundamentally but

10:43Rough and Tumble play is an excellent

10:45mode of socialization because it teaches

10:47the child the the distinction between

10:50aggression and too much aggression right

10:53because if you're wrestling with a kid

10:55the kid has to keep their behavioral

10:58output under a fair degree of control to

11:01keep the game going to make it rough

11:02enough to be exciting but not so rough

11:04that they get hurt or you know that they

11:06stick their thumb in their dad's eye or

11:07something like that and you you can

11:10think of that from a pedian sense too

11:12because it's a game but imagine that if

11:14you're trying to figure out how to

11:15configure yourself around other people

11:18if you haven't had that Rough and Tumble

11:20play you don't really know where the

11:22boundaries of your body are you know and

11:24and you don't know how much you can take

11:26and how much you can be stretched and

11:28how much you can be thrown around and

11:30when something actually hurts rather

11:33than is frightening and so all that

11:35intense sort of play that that um that

11:38boys in particular are likely to engage

11:40it although girls also like it um seems

11:43to be very useful for teaching children

11:46about how to engage with the world but

11:49and with other people in a physical way

11:51and that's one of the physiological

11:52foundations for higher order

11:54socialization so it's very useful I mean

11:57I've I've often noted that children who

11:59haven't had the opportunity to engage in

12:02physical play they're kind of awkward

12:04you know they they're not they're not

12:05seated well in their body and it's like

12:07they're kind of vague physically whereas

12:10the ones who've been twisted around and

12:12bent and thrown up in the air and you

12:14know wrestled in general they're a lot

12:16more conscious of their limits and their

12:19abilities in their body and they're also

12:21much more able to invite other kids to

12:24play you can think about this with

12:26regards to dogs you know if you have a

12:28dog you know the dog you can tell when

12:29the dog wants to play right what does

12:31the dog

12:34dos around yeah it jumps around and it

12:37puts its rear end in the air often and

12:39its head down and it looks up which is a

12:41little bit submissive and a little bit

12:44friendly and it wags its tail and it

12:45might bark and it moves back and forth

12:47and like little kids that want to play

12:49do well they don't put their tails in

12:50the air obviously but they they they

12:53they engage in like play invitation

12:55behaviors like that you know little bit

12:57of teasing sometimes and they're trying

12:59to get some play initiated um it's also

13:02practice for later dominance um when

13:04chimps play the males in particular as

13:08they approach adolescence the play

13:09Behavior because they'll all they'll

13:11throw sticks at the old chimps who are

13:13laying down and sleeping or come up and

13:15poke them or you know tease them and

13:17then as they become more and more

13:19powerful and more and more adolescent

13:21say into adulthood then that play will

13:23become full-blown dominance challenges

13:26as you don't no doubt noticed if you

13:28were in junior high high school because

13:30that's exactly what happens to teachers

13:32right the little elementary school kids

13:33they're kind of cute when they misbehave

13:35they're sort of playful but by the time

13:37grade eight or grade nine comes around

13:39the pushing on the teacher is a lot

13:41harder and so you can see how play

13:43Shades into dominance dispute but it is

13:46a separate circuit exploration that's a

13:48separate circuit and one of the things

13:50that we'll talk about today is Swanson's

13:54elaboration of the fact that half of the

13:56hypothalamus is fundamentally devoted

13:58towards exploration which is quite cool

14:00it means exploration is a really really

14:02really old system and it's sort of like

14:06if you haven't got anything else to do

14:08so you don't want to play you're not

14:09hungry you're not thirsty you're not

14:12angry you're not too warm or too cold

14:14etc etc your default isn't sort of

14:18quiescent sleep right you don't

14:21just run out of batteries and lie on the

14:24floor unless you're of course obviously

14:26unless you're very tired what'll

14:28generally happen is the other

14:29fundamental motivational states have

14:31been satiated then you'll engage in

14:34Exploration and some different people at

14:37different rates if you're extroverted

14:39you'll engage in exploration in the

14:42social environment and if you're open

14:44then you'll engage in Exploration at a

14:46more cognitive level so that would be

14:48with regards to artistic creativity or

14:50to fiction or or the expression of some

14:52sort of intellectual or philosophical

14:54Pursuit and the reason that you're wired

14:56up that way is because if you have a

14:59little extra energy you might as well

15:01use that to map out more of the

15:03environment so that when push comes to

15:06shove somewhere down the road you'll be

15:09in possession of more information and

15:12more flexible and more knowledgeable in

15:14your in your in your conceptual and

15:17perceptual structures and also in your

15:19actions so people have a pretty strong

15:21tendency to default to exploration but

15:24there's variability in that um you can

15:27also sort of divide up these motiv ation

15:29as ingestive or defensive that's not a

15:31bad way of looking at it and then

15:33there's reproductive motivations as well

15:35that's unlikely to be a full map it kind

15:41of depends on where you put the emotions

15:43because we know for example that there's

15:45a separate disgust circuit and that

15:47doesn't seem to load with anxiety or

15:49with pain it's it's it's its own

15:52biological um system and and it seems to

15:55be associated with trait

15:57conscientiousness Maybe and also with

16:00political conservatism and orderliness

16:02so those things are all quite

16:03interesting they all kind of Clump

16:05together and but whether that's an

16:07emotion or motivations not exactly clear

16:10but um we'll talk about a little bit

16:13more so there's the

16:14hypothalamus and as you can see um it's

16:18not one thing of course nothing at the

16:22macro level in the brain is one thing

16:24obviously it's this layered thing just

16:26like everything else in the world except

16:28even more so because the brain is so

16:30incredibly complicated and you can see

16:31by looking at that there's all those

16:33little all the things that are colored

16:35there

16:36basically hypothalamic um modules I

16:40guess would be a reasonable way of

16:42putting it and you can tell they're even

16:44an anatomically distinct so obviously

16:46they're not doing exactly the same thing

16:49so you might think of brain anatomy as

16:52sort of a

16:53fixed what would you call something that

16:55we've already managed quite well and we

16:57have all the category systems down and

16:59the structure of the brain is quite well

17:00known and that's really not true at all

17:03like the brain is truly Terra incognita

17:05and it isn't even like our naming uh

17:08rituals let's say or

17:09conventions are not necessarily

17:12appropriate for onetoone mapping of say

17:14structure onto function so um they're

17:18they're they're sort of anatomical

17:20they're markers for anatomical

17:21convenience in some

17:23ways okay so so here's a way of thinking

17:26about it so you have your frame

17:29which specifies your lack say I'm hungry

17:32and then a goal pops up which is well I

17:34should have something to eat and the

17:36hypothalamus is modulating perceptual

17:39and cognitive circuits so that you think

17:41that and so that you start to parse up

17:42the world into a place where a hungry

17:45person like you could become satisfied

17:49and then the behaviors kick in that are

17:52relevant to that um Pursuit and so you

17:56can think of yourself as popping through

17:59these sorts of frames on a fairly cyclic

18:02basis throughout the day you know

18:04obviously you get hungry you get thirsty

18:06you get tired and so your Consciousness

18:08is being modulated by subcortical

18:12circuitry that is basically charged with

18:16your

18:16self-preservation and in some ways you

18:18come along for the ride I mean your

18:20Consciousness is mostly there in some

18:22sense to detect deviations from not so

18:26much expectation but from desire right

18:29cuz you lay out one of these little maps

18:30on the world and then you want something

18:32to happen and what your Consciousness

18:34does more or less is Mo Monitor and if

18:39something that you don't want to happen

18:42happens then Consciousness will take a

18:45look in some sense remember that

18:47hierarchy of goals that I showed you

18:49from you know motor output up to high

18:52order goals your Consciousness kind of

18:53moves up and down that thing if if

18:56you've made an error trying to figure

18:57out at which level of abstraction that

19:00error should be rectified which is sort

19:02of what you do when you think and so

19:05that process is going to kick in

19:07whenever you're moving towards your

19:09desired end and something that you don't

19:11want to have happen happens right you

19:13usually stop that sort of an an anxiety

19:15response the stopping and then if

19:19nothing else happens that's too bad well

19:21then you'll you'll start to explore

19:23animals often do that by moving around

19:25but people will do that just as with

19:28with equal facility just by running

19:31simulations in their mind and trying to

19:33calculate what went wrong right trying

19:35to think about it that's a form of

19:36exploratory Behavior as well that would

19:38be more associated with trait openness

19:40and with

19:41intelligence

19:45so so there's how um Swanson divides up

19:49the hypothalamus see the uh little pink

19:53things there on the left are part of the

19:56defensive circuits and then the red

19:58things on the left are part of the

20:00reproductive circuits and you know

20:03obviously those the fact that those

20:05circuits exist lays onto darwinian

20:08Theory quite nicely the defensive

20:09circuits obviously protect you from

20:11dying and the reproductive circuits you

20:13know facilitate your reproduction it's

20:17not much of a what fairly obvious

20:22conclusion and so those are all you

20:24located in this in this you know

20:26essential part of the brain the the

20:28hypoth

20:29hypothalamus

20:31now this is something a little that's a

20:33little more complex so I'll go through

20:35it a little bit more carefully so if you

20:36look on the right this is where Swanson

20:40Maps perfectly

20:42onto p and I I put this Swanson paper in

20:46as a optional reading but if you're

20:49interested in the sorts of things that

20:50we're covering this class that's a great

20:52paper to hack your way through even

20:54though it's very hard because you you

20:57learn a lot about

20:59the underlying biology of some of these

21:01more complex clinical and developmental

21:04theories that we've covered so basically

21:06what Swanson is pointing out is that at

21:09the lowest level at the highest

21:11resolution level of your central nervous

21:14system you're you're you have motor

21:18output circuits that are enabling you to

21:21move and those are communicating in

21:23large part with your spine but also with

21:26lower parts of your brain stem so those

21:27are fundamental movements of the sorts

21:29that P would call reflexive and then the

21:33locomoter pattern generator I think the

21:36best way to think about this from an

21:37analogical perspective and actually

21:39Alexander Lura used this

21:42analogy he called behavioral patterns

21:45kinetic Melodies it's a lovely phrase

21:48because you know how obviously a song is

21:50made out of notes and then the notes

21:51combined into phrases and the phrases

21:53combined sayanti passages and then well

21:56even more interestingly then if it's an

21:58chestal piece of music multiple

22:00instruments are playing at the same time

22:02so it sort of extends right into the

22:03social domain but your your actions are

22:06sort of like that they're made out of

22:07micro routines and then those are

22:09chained together and those are chained

22:11together in higher order abstractions

22:13and so on all the way up to the cortex

22:16and

22:18so Swanson points out that the the motor

22:23system has three sets of inputs so the

22:27cognitive system

22:29that sort of way up that's sort level of

22:31abstraction that's way up in the brain

22:33so the cognitive system is where you

22:35know you might do a voluntary action so

22:37you look at something you say well I'm

22:38going to pick up this piece of paper and

22:40so that's top down cortical control and

22:44then the state system input to the motor

22:46system the state system is your body

22:48monitoring what's going on inside of

22:51itself and the autonomic nervous system

22:54is part of the motor output system and

22:56so the state monitoring system takes a

22:59careful look and the hypothalamus does a

23:01fair bit of this takes a careful look at

23:02what's going on inside you and then

23:04activates different parts of your

23:06digestive and you know the the gut

23:08system fundamentally that that you have

23:10no conscious control over and then

23:13obviously there's sensory system inputs

23:15too so so those are the three main

23:18inputs into the into the motor system

23:20and that acts on the environment and

23:22then the motor system has this

23:24hierarchical nature that's built from

23:27the spine upwards so you can think of

23:30like the brain as a collection of ever

23:33expanding control systems that that

23:36allow you

23:38to what learn and undertake ever more

23:41complex motor schemes of action you know

23:43and one of the things that people think

23:45about human beings is that we're very

23:47good at thinking right but we're not

23:49just good at thinking like we're we're

23:51crazy crazily adaptable in terms of our

23:55motor output I mean if you watch the

23:57watch the Olympics

23:59you know and you you see human beings

24:01can do things that no other animal could

24:03even think of doing I mean we're

24:05completely crazy when it comes to the

24:06sorts of things we can do with our body

24:08like we're good on ice we're good in the

24:10water we can ski people are really good

24:13at jumping they can climb across

24:14buildings like people who train

24:16themselves can climb like mad I mean

24:19human beings are unbelievably variable

24:21in terms of their motor output so that's

24:22another part of our intelligence that's

24:24not just abstract and so in part that's

24:27because we have this

24:28very well-developed cortical area that

24:31enables us to chain ever more complex

24:34patterns of behavior together and also

24:36to develop patterns of behavior that are

24:38sort of outside instinctual

24:40specification so imagine with an animal

24:43that has a less complex brain a lot of

24:47its behavior is going to be limited to

24:49those quas instinctual patterns of

24:51behavior that are devoted directly

24:53towards the solution of basic biological

24:57problems but you know we can kind of

24:59solve those without too much effort and

25:00then we have all this spare motor

25:02capacity left over and people do the

25:03weirdest things with it you know and and

25:06really remarkable absolutely remarkable

25:10things so that's that's pretty cool

25:12we're pretty cool that way we don't get

25:15enough credit for it I don't think

25:16because human beings if think about

25:18human being as an animal which you know

25:20people are kind of loathed to do we are

25:21definitely the most interesting animal I

25:24mean if you saw like a what a pygmy

25:27hippopotamus skateboarding you'd think

25:29that was pretty remarkable you know but

25:31people they do those sorts of things all

25:33the time and you know we just take it as

25:35a matter of

25:37course the lowest somat motor neuron

25:39pools the lowest level of the locomoter

25:41system it's Locomotion and an action is

25:45formed by a subset of moto neuron

25:49tools that's wrong Moto neurons in the

25:52spinal cord ventral horn that innervates

25:54the limb muscles responsible for

25:56locomotor Behavior

25:59I dictated this with dragon dictate and

26:01now and then it does weird things say so

26:02tools God only knows where that came

26:04from

26:06so a set of motor neurons in the spinal

26:09cord ventral horn so it's way down in

26:11the spine that inate the Lum mus limb

26:13muscles responsible for locomoter

26:15behavior when you start to think about

26:16the brain as something that moves your

26:18body it's a lot easier to conceptualize

26:20the brain as something that's

26:21distributed through the body you know

26:23and your spine is actually quite smart

26:26so even though in some sense you don't

26:27think with it it's capable of very

26:30complex sensory detection and also motor

26:32mapping and so um

26:36mostly relatively automated and

26:38relatively reflexive one level up the

26:41existence of a spinal locomoter pattern

26:44generator so this shows that the spine

26:46isn't responsible just for the most

26:48basic of motor outputs or sensory inputs

26:50it can actually generate patterns is

26:52demonstrated by the fact that whereas a

26:54spinal animal displays no spontaneous

26:57locomotive activity so if you sever an

27:02animal its nervous system so it only has

27:05a spine it'll just lay there you know

27:07you'd think it's paralyzed that's what

27:09you would think

27:11but coordinated limb movements

27:13characteristic of locomotion may be

27:15elicited when the limbs of such an

27:17animal are placed on a moving treadmill

27:19thus providing sematic sensory input to

27:21the pattern generator and so they've

27:23done this with people who are paraplegic

27:25if you take someone who's paraplegic and

27:27so they can't obviously walk and you

27:29hoist them up and you put them on a um

27:32treadmill and you lean them forward

27:34their legs will walk and that's spinal

27:37controlled so that's what you're doing

27:39with your spine you know because you're

27:41not thinking when you walk or you're not

27:43thinking about walking unless you know

27:46unless you're one of those people who

27:47can't chew gum and walk at the same time

27:50so anyway so it just shows you how

27:52complex you are even at the you know the

27:55sort of the base levels of your of your

27:58intelligence hierarchy level up

28:01locomoter pattern controller so it's

28:03controlling

28:05the locomoter pattern

28:09generator in contrast undisturbed

28:11chronic hypothalamic animals okay so now

28:14one of the ways people figured out how

28:16the brain works was by sectioning

28:18animals nervous systems when they're

28:19alive at different levels of complexity

28:22so a spinal animal is one that's

28:23basically paralyzed its brain is

28:25separated from its spinal cord but then

28:27you can separate the

28:28hypothalamus with the intact spinal cord

28:31so it's one unit from the cortex and

28:34even from the memory systems and even

28:35from most of the emotion systems and so

28:38the animal in some sense hardly has a

28:39brain at all you know I mean the

28:41hypothalamus as you saw it's a little

28:43tiny thing and everything that's on top

28:45of that can be separated from it and the

28:47animal can um

28:50still act spontaneously so so here's an

28:54example if if this has been done with

28:56cats and if you have a female cat and

28:59it's in a cage and it's only a

29:01hypothalamic animal it can basically

29:04manage like it can't learn new things

29:07very well and it can't remember anything

29:10like it doesn't have episodic memory and

29:13so but it can it can maintain its

29:15temperature it can eat it can engage in

29:18sexual activity it's got defensive

29:20aggression like most of the animal in

29:22some sense is still there from an from

29:24an input output perspective um it's also

29:28hyper

29:29exploratory which is quite interesting

29:31he because you wouldn't think well

29:32animal with no brain is the most

29:34exploratory kind of animal well it

29:37happens to be the case as long as it has

29:38a hypothalamus so that shows you a how

29:41old exploration is but it also kind of

29:43gives you some clue about what the rest

29:45of the brain is doing I

29:47mean you you explore new things we'll

29:50say so what that means is you have to be

29:53able to tell the difference between

29:54what's new and what isn't and so what

29:56you need to tell the difference between

29:58what's new and what isn't is memory and

30:01so a lot of what the higher order parts

30:03of the brain are doing is basically

30:05keeping track of where you've been and

30:07so if you've been somewhere before then

30:10the exploratory circuit is basically

30:11shut off as long as everything that

30:13you're doing there is working and you

30:16need the whole brain basically to shut

30:18off the hypothalamus in some sense

30:20that's how the thing works it's like

30:22you're kind of a default on system you

30:25know your your motor systems are ready

30:27to go and you're kind of you're alive

30:29and you're ready to go like a wild

30:30animal but the cortex dampens that down

30:33and it does that by only allowing the

30:36activities that are relevant to that

30:37area that might be none of them to

30:40function at any one time so you take off

30:42the cortex while the animal can still do

30:44a lot of things but you know its ability

30:46to match Its Behavior to novel

30:48situations and to learn new behaviors is

30:50very very limited so it it becomes hyper

30:54exploratory but it can't remember

30:55anything and it becomes very limited in

30:58the flexibility of its behavior and so

31:00as you move farther up the hierarchy of

31:04complexity then you're able to do more

31:07and more novel and more and more complex

31:09and more and more situation specific

31:12things so in the sense of providing a

31:16certain level of endogenous activity

31:18which means self-generated activity so

31:20the hypothalamic animal will move by

31:23itself without being stimulated the

31:26hypothalamic Lo locomoter region can be

31:28thought of as a locomoter pattern

31:30controller which generates spontaneous

31:32inputs ultimately to the spinal

31:34locomoter pattern generator so there's

31:36there's

31:37hierarchy um I already talked about

31:39behavioral State inputs there's another

31:41picture of the nervous system just to

31:43remind you of how it looks um how it's

31:46distributed through the

31:48body oh this is very interesting too I I

31:52didn't learn this till I read this paper

31:53by Swanson I thought that's so dumb how

31:56could I've not learned that like 30

31:58years ago Swanson said that um let's go

32:02back one did I yeah rayon K was like the

32:05world's greatest neuroanatomist he was

32:07the guy who really established the field

32:09so did a tremendous amount of

32:11Investigation into the fine structure of

32:12the brain like 110 years ago a long time

32:16ago and he pointed out that sensory

32:19systems have a dual projection within

32:21the central nervous system I told you

32:23guys about Blindside already you know

32:24and the fact that your eyes map on to

32:27different LS of the hierarchy say of

32:29sensory input and motor control Kyle

32:31basically outlined the circuitry for

32:33that one branch goes directly to the

32:35motor system so it's that's for I to

32:38Output mapping So that's fast because

32:40there's not a lot of thinking in between

32:43and you might think that's bad because

32:45you want to think but it's good because

32:47sometimes you know what to do and you

32:48don't want to think you just want to

32:49execute it as fast as you possibly can

32:52so these lower order simpler inputs are

32:54good for that sort of thing one goes

32:56directly to the motor system and the the

32:57other goes more or less directly to the

32:59cerebral cortex where Sensations and

33:01perceptions are elaborated and voluntary

33:03motor impulses are generated so this

33:05sort of explains for a long time

33:09experimental Psychology was dominated by

33:11behaviorists who thought of the animal

33:12as a stimulus response machine and and

33:15never paid much attention to the

33:17function of things like thought or

33:19emotion or complex internal States and

33:22you know the behaviorists got an awful

33:24long way with their idea of the animal

33:26as a sort of simple stimulus response

33:28machine and that's partly because of

33:30this hierarchy that we're describing you

33:32know cuz you you can treat an animal as

33:35if it's a pretty simple machine because

33:37it has all that simple Machinery in it

33:40it's just that on top of that simple

33:42Machinery there's a lot more complex

33:44machinery and so but the simple

33:46Machinery does a lot more than people

33:47generally think and can do more than

33:49people think and so the fact that there

33:52are these at least two projections they

33:55Branch more than that gives you right

33:57away a sense of why the behaviors could

34:00have been right and the cognitive

34:01psychologist could have been right and

34:02even the psycho dnamic thinkers can be

34:05right because they're analyzing the

34:07system at different levels of

34:08hierarchical complexity and extracting

34:10out slightly different um what would you

34:14call uh observations and and some of

34:18these things are even the like the

34:20simpler systems can have quite complex

34:22outputs so so one of the things that the

34:24simpler sensory motor system does is

34:26detect snakes because primates don't

34:28like snakes in fact there's a a woman

34:31named

34:32uh Lynn Isbell wrote a nice book on

34:35primate Vision in snakes and she was

34:37very curious about why human beings

34:39could see so well and uh she also

34:41noticed that we're very good at

34:43detecting um the sort of camouflage

34:47patterns that snakes use especially in

34:48the lower half of our visual field and

34:50she did this cross-cultural survey

34:53around the world and found out that

34:56where there's more predatory snakes the

34:57primates have better Vision so we sort

34:59of co-evolved with snakes and snakes

35:02gave us Vision just like it says in

35:03Genesis which is pretty damn funny as

35:05far as I'm concerned and it was snakes

35:07and trees even so and fruit of course

35:10gave us color vision so the whole

35:12Genesis story nailed it pretty well but

35:15you know snakes have been around long

35:16enough and have been our enemy or say

35:18predatory reptiles you know if if you

35:20don't really want to go with the whole

35:21snake thing that are we've we've evolved

35:24we've coevolved with them it's like 60

35:26million years it's a very very long

35:27period of time so Darwin used to amuse

35:31himself in a darwinian way he'd go to

35:34the there was a a zoo or a a rep place

35:38that shows reptiles I don't remember

35:39what they're called but they had one

35:41glass cage where there was some kind of

35:43poisonous snake I think it was a cobra

35:44and Darwin would put his face right up

35:46against the glass and the Cobra would go

35:48whack and he'd jump back and he he did

35:52that many times because he was curious

35:54about whether or not he could actually

35:55bring the snake avoidance reflex under

35:58conscious control and he couldn't every

36:00time the snake jumped he'd jump

36:01backwards he couldn't control it and so

36:04that's because all the primates that

36:06could control it when there were snakes

36:08biting them are dead so it was Darwin

36:12was the beneficiary of the darwinian

36:14process in that in that sense so so the

36:17point is your body's conserved all these

36:19low-level fast operating circuits and so

36:22you're a simple machine and a sort of

36:24complex machine and an extremely complex

36:26machine and then some that's so complex

36:28that you can't even think about it as a

36:29machine and you're all those things at

36:31the same

36:33time and there's Swanson's take on how

36:36the motor system and the hypothalamus

36:38are integrated so it's quite nice he

36:40shows that the hypothalamic controller

36:43so that's one of the circuits that we've

36:45been talking about that are responsible

36:46for a basic motivated State get sensory

36:49input behavioral State input that's

36:51about the body and input from the

36:53cerebral hemispheres hypothetically

36:55that's thought or or voluntary action

36:59plan something like that and then it has

37:02output to the motor pattern initiator

37:04the generators and the motor neuron

37:06pools and then you act lovely it's very

37:09beautiful beautiful model and so you can

37:12see that it Maps very nicely onto that

37:14with the sort of higher order levels of

37:17the of the hierarchy of sensory motor

37:20framing associated with cognitive

37:23abstractions and the lowest levels

37:25associated with the sorts of things that

37:26you do with your

37:28spine and this I flip this upside down

37:32here because

37:34it's I I've been very interested in how

37:37people get traumatized and it's easier

37:39to think of trauma when you flip the

37:41thing because once you develop the

37:43higher order abstractions cortically you

37:45know you say well I'm a good person

37:47let's say then that sort of the the fact

37:50that you're a good person or what

37:52constitutes good starts to become a box

37:55the box within which all the things that

37:57are associated with it are put it's one

37:59of the dangers of abstraction right and

38:02categorization because if you couldn't

38:04think of yourself as a good or bad

38:07person let's say you didn't have that

38:08capacity for that level of abstraction

38:10which is like a binary abstraction right

38:13good is you

38:16know one and and bad is zero so it's a

38:21really it's a

38:22really simple abstraction and so if

38:26someone if you do something that a good

38:28person wouldn't do well clearly you

38:30don't fit into the one category because

38:32a good person wouldn't do that so maybe

38:34you fit into the zero category and

38:36that's that capacity for abstraction is

38:38also precisely the sort of thing that

38:39allows human beings to undermine

38:41themselves with thought because once you

38:44have that capacity for abstraction you

38:45can make these ridiculous

38:47overgeneralizations in fact they're

38:49really simple I'm not a good person I'm

38:50a horrible person it's like that's what

38:52how someone who's really depressed

38:54thingss whenever whenever anything goes

38:56wrong and so it's the danger the

38:58powerful danger of abstraction is that

39:00you can make a terrible mistake in

39:03overgeneralization this is partly

39:05because well let's say uh I don't know

39:09you're out with your girlfriend and you

39:12flirt with someone

39:14else

39:17um so what does that say about your

39:20character well she might think that puts

39:22you in the zero category like now right

39:24you're not a good person it's like well

39:27it's complicated is that is that true do

39:29you do you belong in that zero category

39:31she might treat you like that for a week

39:33or two I mean should you be taking

39:35yourself apart completely because you've

39:37made that error or should you seek

39:39farther down the the chain of

39:41abstractions for a more specific mistake

39:44and or should she help you do that it's

39:45like well you're not a complete zero

39:47you're more like a you know 0.1 she

39:50could help you figure out exactly where

39:51in your personality hierarchy you have

39:53this fault assuming that it's a fault

39:56you know maybe it's an indic that the

39:57relationship is over who who knows

40:00so anyways I wanted to show you that

40:03because then you can develop a sense of

40:05how this hierarchical system can also

40:07lead to cataclysmic overgeneralization

40:10and that's associated with lots of

40:11different mental illnesses especially

40:13depression because depressed people

40:16generally go from a small mistake well a

40:18mistake hard to parameterize right to

40:22the highest level of abstraction say

40:24well I've made error a therefore I'm

40:25useless you know or therefore I'm bad

40:28it's not good it's uh too

40:32undifferentiated I put that in there to

40:34remind you that all these little

40:36things

40:38are um

40:41informed by the underlying hypothalamic

40:44circuits so you know that whole

40:47hierarchy has to be imagine how it's

40:49conditioned that whole hierarchy of

40:51motor output part of it is conditioned

40:53by and this is sort of like an output or

40:55an input system that swan didn't talk

40:57about sort of

40:59sensory that whole motor sensory sensory

41:02motor hierarchy sensory motor perception

41:05action hierarchy will'll say has to be

41:08constructed so that your basic

41:09motivational States stay satiated right

41:13because otherwise you get thirsty enough

41:15and you die or you get hungry enough and

41:16you die it's like you have to organize

41:19your behavior so that those basic

41:21motivations stay

41:23fulfilled so each of the little

41:28ovals that make up that hierarchy have

41:30to be organized and laid out with that

41:33set of limitations in mind but then of

41:35course there's a higher order limitation

41:38which is more the one that PJ talked

41:40about which is that not only do you have

41:42to organize your internal hierarchies to

41:45take care of all of your basic

41:46motivations but you have to do that well

41:48everyone else is doing the same thing

41:51and so in some sense the hypothalamic

41:53system that's generating the impetus for

41:56these layers layers and layers of motor

41:58output also has to do so in a social

42:01context because otherwise you know you

42:03fight to the death over a stick of bread

42:06which seems like a very

42:06counterproductive thing to do

42:11so I'm trying to point out to you how

42:14many parameters those that hierarchical

42:16organization has to meet

42:19simultaneously also that one of the

42:22implications of that is that it's not an

42:24arbitrary system like this is one of the

42:27problems I have with the radical moral

42:29relativist stance it's like wait a

42:31minute wait a minute for you to set up

42:35your perceptual and behavioral system it

42:38has to solve a whole bunch of problems

42:40like and they're really complex problems

42:42and they're and they're kind of

42:42arbitrary in some sense like you get

42:45hungry and you need to eat it's

42:47arbitrary so what that means is you

42:49can't fill that hierarchy with just any

42:50old thing you know not only does it have

42:53to work to keep all the complex parts of

42:56you functioning

42:58here and now but it has to keep them

43:00functioning here and now in a way that

43:01doesn't disturb them functioning

43:03tomorrow or the next day or the next

43:05week or the next month so that's

43:07integration across time spans that's a

43:09killer right because you can't just go

43:11out tonight and drink 40 ounces of vodka

43:13and then you know write the test on

43:14Thursday so there's a probably not so

43:18some of you might try so but then you

43:21also have

43:22to organize your behavior in the Here

43:25and Now with your behavior spread across

43:27time frames in the presence of other

43:29people who are also organizing their

43:31behavior across time frames it's like

43:33once you put that many parameters on the

43:35organization of a personality you can

43:37see right away that it can hardly be

43:39arbitrary you know it's tightly

43:42constrained okay so here's some basic

43:44emotions we talked about basic

43:46motivations and so the what we're going

43:48to do in a simple way is we're going to

43:50divide them into two positive emotions

43:52and negative emotions okay and that

43:54basically gives you extroversion and

43:56neuroticism

43:57so positive emotions they kind of fall

44:00into two classes the one class is the

44:05positive emotion you feel when you when

44:08you run a motivational frame to its

44:10limit so you're hungry you go have a

44:12peanut butter sandwich and then you're

44:14no longer hungry okay so what's the

44:17state how do you define the state after

44:20you've eaten your peanut butter sandwich

44:22and you're no longer hungry well you

44:25know you're not jumping up and down and

44:27cheering like someone who just made a

44:28touchdown right so it's it's not that

44:30kind of enthusiastic positive emotion

44:32that you see when people are celebrating

44:34you know it's more

44:36like satisfaction and and that's

44:38actually technically what it's known as

44:40satiation and so when a motivational

44:44routine runs successfully what happens

44:47is it eliminates it's it eliminates the

44:50necessity for it to exist temporarily so

44:53basically what happens is you run a a

44:54framework to its logical conclusion poof

44:57it disappears because it's done and you

44:59know you might be satisfied about that

45:01but that's the next thing that happens

45:03is another motivational framework pops

45:05up and you're you know you're in the

45:07same game it's Copus fundamentally so

45:11anyways it's satiation

45:14that is TE the term satiation is

45:17technically used to describe the state

45:20of being that's characteristic of the

45:21successful execution of a motivated

45:24frame it's also known as consumatory re

45:28word consummation consume and that's

45:31associated

45:33with

45:36unconditioned that's an unconditioned

45:39response it which means you don't have

45:41to learn it so it's a it's an

45:43unconditioned positive

45:45response so and that means that

45:49satiating stimuli when delivered to a

45:53creature in the proper motivational

45:54frame have the properties of

45:56unconditioned reward

45:57so you get three things there you know

45:59the satiation brings the mo frame

46:01motivated frame to an end the satiation

46:03is also known as consumatory reward

46:05consumatory reward is very similar to

46:07what the behaviors described as

46:10unconditioned reward unlearned so you

46:14can you can stack each of those things

46:15to know on top of each other and then

46:17you've got them the other kind of

46:19positive emotion is the positive emotion

46:22that you feel when it looks like you

46:23might get a consumatory reward

46:27right right hope curiosity anticipation

46:31excitement enthusiasm all of the

46:33positive emotions that we think of as

46:35really like happy happy usually has to

46:38do with evidence that your pursuit of a

46:41valued consumatory reward is going

46:44well okay now that that's incentive

46:47reward and the reason it's called

46:48incentive reward is because you're

46:50incentivized to move forward to the

46:52reward and the moving forward the

46:54impulse to move forward towards a desire

46:57goal that's what your positive emotion

47:00systems the dopaminergic systems that

47:02are nestled have the roots in the

47:05hypothalamus that's what they motivate

47:07you to do that's what positive emotion

47:10is fundamentally positive emotion is

47:12there's something good I'm going to go

47:13get it it's the I'm going to go get it

47:15part that's associated with excitement

47:17and positive emotion it's what you feel

47:19maybe you're an extrovert you want to go

47:20to a party and so you're probably more

47:22excited about going to the party than

47:24you will be when you get there you know

47:26because it's the it's the apprehension

47:28of the reward that's with human beings

47:30because we're such weird creatures so

47:32often the apprehension of the

47:33consumatory reward is a more powerful

47:36emotion than the emotion that's actually

47:38felt as a consequence of gaining the

47:40reward itself and that's partly and this

47:43is where it gets a little more

47:44complicated that's partly because we're

47:45so bloody exploratory you know

47:48so there's things that you can learn

47:51about that are associated with a

47:52consumatory

47:53reward those are conditioned Rewards so

47:57an incentive reward and a conditioned

47:58reward are in the same category

48:01although not all incentive rewards are

48:04learned this is where the behaviors went

48:05wrong because the behaviors thought

48:07there are consumatory rewards those are

48:09unconditioned rewards to get a

48:12conditioned to if you condition a

48:15stimulus to an unconditioned reward you

48:17get a conditioned stimulus with a

48:19conditioned reward as a response but the

48:22problem with that line of thinking is

48:23that there's actually incentive reward

48:25circuitry it's not just secondary

48:28learning it's like incentive rewards

48:30have been around so long so those are

48:31things that indicate that a consumatory

48:33reward is coming they've been around so

48:35long that your brain has developed its

48:37own circuit for that and that's the one

48:38that produces positive emotion and so

48:41that's also produced by the way if you

48:44when you're taking a drug of some sort

48:46that you really

48:47like that's because it's activating this

48:49dopaminergic incentive reward system if

48:52you take a drug that activates

48:54consumatory reward you just like lay in

48:55front of the fire like a sleeping dog

48:57you know it's it's not exciting it's

49:00cocaine amphetamines alcohol for lots of

49:02people nail the incentive reward system

49:04and that's the dopaminergic exploratory

49:06system that emerges out of the

49:08hypothalamus and it's also the thing

49:10that learns what to associate with

49:12consumatory rewards so I know that's a

49:15lot to take in but well it doesn't

49:18matter that's how it is

49:20so so the approach systems respond to

49:24cues of consumatory reward and they they

49:27also they also respond to a large set of

49:30um biologically prepared stimuli smells

49:34for example

49:36so now you should approach good things

49:39but if a bad thing happens what should

49:41you do well one thing you should do is

49:44stop another thing you should do is get

49:46the hell out of there so there's a

49:49constellation of negative emotions that

49:50are associated with defense and

49:52avoidance and we kind of ran through

49:54those already pain grief frustration

49:56disappointment and then fear which is

50:00sort of what you

50:01learn you learn that things to be feared

50:05signal primary pain stimulus you know so

50:09a child's going to be afraid of a needle

50:11especially if a child's got a needle

50:12before most children are smart enough to

50:14figure out they should be afraid of the

50:16needle even when they haven't had it but

50:18the the thing is is that if you come

50:20into contact with something that's

50:21already caused you pain and now there's

50:24something that only signals that that's

50:26likely to happen that's when you

50:28experience

50:29fear okay and fear is its own circuit

50:31again which is where the behaviorist in

50:34some sense went a little bit wrong too

50:36because they thought of unconditioned

50:37punishment which produces pain as the

50:40primary motivational system so it would

50:42be unconditioned punishment

50:44unconditioned reward then there were

50:46things you learned about those that

50:47produced conditioned punishment

50:49conditioned reward okay but all of those

50:51have circuits independent circuits so

50:54the defense and avoidance negative

50:56emotion seem to be roughly pain anxiety

50:59and fear but then there's disgust and

51:01people have been looking at disgust a

51:03lot lately and it doesn't load on

51:04neuroticism it doesn't seem to load on

51:06neuroticism so it's its own circuit so

51:10okay so here's another one other

51:12complexity that you need to Grapple with

51:14which is there are things that hurt that

51:17cause you pain there are things that are

51:20satiating and that are consumatory

51:22reward then there are things that signal

51:25each of those but there's one class of

51:28stimuli so to speak or things that

51:29you're going to encounter that are

51:31paradoxical and that's the class of

51:33things that you don't understand that's

51:36novelty and Novelty it's it's it's

51:39novelty itself that's sort of associated

51:41with what the phenomenologists are

51:43primarily concerned about the idea of

51:45the revelation of meaning because the

51:47revelation of meaning is mostly

51:48associated with you encountering

51:51something that you haven't already

51:52understood right you explore that new

51:55information comes out of it A New U

51:57comes out of it okay so you're going

51:59from point A to point B what might

52:02happen

52:04well things might happen that that

52:07appear to demonstrate that you're on the

52:08right track so that makes you happy

52:11that's the yellow box positive emotion

52:13you know your your pathway is being

52:16facilitated so that's why tools are sort

52:18sort of in that category or you can be

52:20moving towards point B and you get

52:22something gets in your way and that

52:24might be something that hurts you that'

52:27be and that hurt would be pain or

52:29disappointment or frustration or grief

52:31or something that signals that you might

52:33get hurt which is threat and that

52:35produces fear and so the positive

52:38emotion is moving you towards the

52:41desired goal and the negative emotion is

52:43protecting you and so if a negative

52:47things happens you'll stop and then

52:48you'll reconfigure the behavior that

52:51you're using or the framework in order

52:52to get around the obstacle and to

52:53continue or if it's a bad enough

52:55obstacle you'll

52:57you might say well I'm

52:59not I'm too tired to eat and I'm too

53:02hungry to sleep that happens to people

53:04right it's a conflict of motivations and

53:07so if you get up and you go into the

53:09cupboard and you find out there's

53:10nothing to eat you might say oh to hell

53:12with it then I'll just go to sleep you

53:14know so sometimes the way you solve a

53:16problem is by flipping the problem it's

53:18like we're not going to solve that

53:19problem right now we'll turn to another

53:20problem some and that's an exp that's an

53:22exploratory move sometimes you operate

53:25within the frame you know you go to the

53:27cupboard the cupboard is

53:29bare but you're hungry so you walk down

53:31to the corner store and you get

53:32something to eat and so that way you've

53:34sort of stayed within the frame and

53:37altered you know you've altered your

53:39behavior to

53:41to you've thought up another path and

53:43altered your behavior so that that

53:46motivated State can run to

53:51completion there's another way of

53:52looking at it you can be moving from

53:54point A to B and what you predict or

53:57want is happening that's a good thing

54:00that keeps your mood straight and you

54:02happy and that makes you hope that's a

54:04promise with the promise is you're going

54:05to get what you want and that fills you

54:08with hope that's positive emotion or you

54:10can have an unpredicted outcome when

54:11you're you know you uh I don't know

54:14you're supposed to be going out with

54:15your friend you go to the door you knock

54:19and there's nobody there so it's like

54:21what's up with that and so it's in a

54:23sense when that happens there's like a

54:24hole in your framework you know because

54:26your framework was predicated on the

54:28presence of your friend right it was a

54:31presupposition and so now and then

54:33you'll run out of Behavioral routine and

54:34one of your presuppositions is wrong

54:36it's sort of like there's a hole in your

54:38theory and the hole you sort of drop

54:41into it and when you drop into that hole

54:43you get anxious because you don't know

54:45exactly what this unexpected thing means

54:49and behind that you get exploratory so

54:52with most

54:54people they're going to get afraid first

54:56going to have negative emotion first

54:57when their little plan is blown and then

55:00if nothing additionally awful happens

55:01and if they don't drive themselves crazy

55:04with some hypothesis about he doesn't

55:06like me anymore and so no one likes me

55:07anymore so I'm a terrible person you

55:10know then the what's they calm down a

55:13little bit the exploration circuit will

55:14come up and maybe they'll walk somewhere

55:17else go to a bar or maybe they'll stand

55:19there and think well you know this

55:20didn't work out so what else could I do

55:22an emotionally stable person say a

55:24non-neurotic person they'll flip to that

55:26really fast especially if they're

55:27extroverted and open whereas someone

55:29who's heavy a negative emotion you know

55:31the fact that their friend wasn't there

55:33when they told him they would be that

55:35might just produce a hole that they fall

55:36into and it's you know so deep and

55:38painful they just go home and cry so so

55:41the

55:42neuroticism and the extroversion are in

55:44some sense they vary with the degree to

55:47which the negative emotion system is

55:50strong or the positive emotion system is

55:52strong and they're two different systems

55:54and so you can think of them in some

55:55sense you think of them

55:59as units of positive emotion per unit of

56:03promise I mean it's a weird thing to try

56:06to quantify or units of negative emotion

56:09per unit of threat so you know if

56:12someone maybe someone there's a rumor

56:14going around that you're going to lose

56:16your job well how much should you worry

56:18about that well God you don't know so

56:21how do you decide well you don't you're

56:23your wiring decides so if you're high

56:25negative emotion you're going to get all

56:26anxious and freak out about it which

56:28might be the right thing to do maybe you

56:29will lose your job and if you're

56:31emotionally stable you're going to think

56:33ah I probably won't lose my job but even

56:36if I can even if I do I'm I'm not going

56:38to worry about it it's innate or a lot

56:40of it's innate

56:44so okay so to recapitulate learning

56:48theory behaviorism there are

56:50unconditioned

56:52rewards those are rewards you don't have

56:54to learn those are the things that bring

56:56a motivated state to its closure roughly

57:00speaking and that makes you satisfied

57:02satiation that by the way is associated

57:04with serotonin serotonin is a satiating

57:08neurochemical so if your levels of

57:10Serotonin are high you're kind of

57:12satisfied which means you don't

57:13experience a lot of positive emotion or

57:15a lot of negative emotion you're just

57:17kind of satisfied it's a high dominance

57:19thing it's like all the consumatory

57:21rewards are there when you need them you

57:23don't have to worry and you don't have

57:25to get too excited

57:27conditioned Rewards or incentive rewards

57:30indicate progress towards a consum

57:32consumatory reward they can be learned

57:34or conditioned but they can also be

57:36innate and they're associated with

57:37dopaminergic activation and that's the

57:39exploration circuit that comes out of

57:41the hypothalamus half the hyp

57:43hypothalamus does goal

57:46specification and the other half does

57:48exploration and so again if you're

57:51pursuing something that's an

57:52identifiable goal and you fail

57:56well then you're going to back off

57:58that's negative emotion then you're

57:59going to start to explore and that's

58:01that dopam energic

58:03circuit what's associated with

58:05dopaminergic

58:08activation exploration extroversion

58:11happiness play enthusiasm assertiveness

58:14and the positive element of novelty okay

58:16soes that make sense anybody have any

58:19questions I know that's a lot of

58:20information but I I kind of designed

58:22this part of the course so that at this

58:24point the levels of analysis would stack

58:26up so that you could understand them

58:29simultaneously so the

58:32hypothalamus sets up your frames of

58:37motivation running one of those to the

58:39to its positive conclusion that's

58:42satisfying that's innate it's cons it's

58:45consumatory reward you'll work for that

58:47anything that indicates that that might

58:49happen that's incentive reward you can

58:52learn that but some of it's also

58:54innate which is where the the behavior

58:56didn't know that cuz they thought of all

58:57all the the secondary stuff the

58:59condition stuff has learned it's not all

59:01learned some of it's already prepared

59:02you see a snake that's a threat you

59:04don't have to learn that so fire is sort

59:08of like that as well um blood is like

59:10that teeth are like that staring eyes

59:13are like that predatory postures are

59:15like that

59:17um loud loud vocalizations especially if

59:21they're like low low in uh frequency

59:25they indicate a large animal all those

59:27things are things you don't have to

59:28learn to be afraid of because they've

59:30been so consistently dangerous in the

59:32past that you've built up a circuit that

59:34responds automatically to them question

59:37um the extroversion and neuroticism like

59:41it seems like they're well at least in

59:43the example that you gave that um

59:45they're kind of mutually exclusive or

59:47that as or do you know what I mean yeah

59:49it's complicated you know because they

59:51do play a bit of an inhibitory role but

59:53they're separate circuits you know so

59:56you can be very extroverted and very

59:58high in negative emotion

1:00:00so and you can be very emotionally

1:00:04stable and very low in extroversion too

1:00:06so but they are definitely separate

1:00:08things now it's hard you know you can

1:00:10flip from laughing to crying very

1:00:12rapidly you know so people are very much

1:00:14capable of experiencing mixed states of

1:00:17positive and negative emotion plus there

1:00:19are forms of manic depressive disorder

1:00:21where people are Manic and depressed at

1:00:22the same time which I wouldn't recommend

1:00:25the people know that have had that they

1:00:27they seem to think that is certainly not

1:00:28fun

1:00:32so agitation okay tremendous agitation

1:00:36So you you're probably sort of like that

1:00:38when you're deeply confused and you're

1:00:39really bothered by it because then the

1:00:41threat circuits are going but you're

1:00:43also sort of wandering around going oh

1:00:45what am I going to do that's all that's

1:00:47all like approach Behavior approach

1:00:50motivation isn't always positive E I

1:00:52mean most of the time it is but

1:00:54intensity matters and control ability

1:00:56matters too so okay unconditioned

1:01:02punishments fundamentally they produce

1:01:04pain they also tend

1:01:07to if you run a behavioral routine or a

1:01:11motivated framework that results in

1:01:14punishment you're less likely to run it

1:01:15again in the future that's learning if

1:01:19you run a motivated frame and it works

1:01:21you're more likely to run it in the

1:01:22future that's learning

1:01:24too so

1:01:27unconditioned punishments decrease the

1:01:28probability that you're going to run a

1:01:30given motivational frame because it it

1:01:32it failed right you you ran it and you

1:01:33you got hurt it's like don't do that

1:01:35again that's part of the purpose of

1:01:37memory and the pain-like emotions just

1:01:40to say it again are pain frustration

1:01:43disappointment grief sadness is in there

1:01:46as well so those are pain-like states of

1:01:49emotion condition

1:01:51punishments those are things that

1:01:53indicate that a punishment is likely

1:01:56some of them you can learn some of them

1:01:57you don't have to because they're

1:01:59already built into you the negative

1:02:02emotions are dampened by

1:02:04serotonin that's the fundamental brain

1:02:06system fundamentally the serotonergic

1:02:08system is like a conductor of the

1:02:09orchestra it keeps everything in in

1:02:12balance and Gaba Gaba is a anxiolytic it

1:02:17makes people less anxious it's

1:02:18endogenous your brain produces it if you

1:02:21take valium or barbituates they act on

1:02:24the Gaba system and does alcohol that's

1:02:27part of the reason why people like

1:02:28alcohol because it dampens anxiety now

1:02:30for some people alcohol also produces

1:02:33dopaminergic Activation so they really

1:02:35like alcohol because it calms them down

1:02:38like they're not anxious anymore and it

1:02:41it also feels it produces incentive

1:02:43reward activation Like Cocaine so for

1:02:45some people alcohol is an absolutely

1:02:47deadly drug you can probably find out if

1:02:50you're susceptible to alcoholism quite

1:02:53straightforwardly if you want to find

1:02:55out

1:02:56sit in a bar take your

1:02:59pulse down five

1:03:02shots four shots if you're little you

1:03:05got to get your you got to get your

1:03:06blood alcohol level above legal

1:03:08intoxication or you won't be able to

1:03:10tell and then take your pulse again 10

1:03:12minutes later if your pulse has gone up

1:03:14eight beats or more watch it because

1:03:17you're probably producing an opiate

1:03:19response to alcohol secondary

1:03:21consequence of the opiate response is a

1:03:23dopaminergic response reasonable

1:03:25probability that you'll like alcohol

1:03:26enough to find it difficult to stop

1:03:29drinking once you start some of you are

1:03:31probably like that right you have a few

1:03:32drinks it's

1:03:34likew that's how we do it in Alberta

1:03:36anyways

1:03:37so so part of that's queuing the

1:03:40incentive reward system and because it's

1:03:42an approach system and it's being queed

1:03:44by the alcohol you just continue to hit

1:03:47it and the dopamine kicks only occur as

1:03:51your blood alcohol level is rising so

1:03:54you have to keep nailing it nailing

1:03:56yourself with alcohol because otherwise

1:03:57your blood alcohol level won't keep

1:03:59rising and you won't get that nice

1:04:01enthusiasm and assertiveness that goes

1:04:03along with the Positive element of

1:04:07alcohol neuroticism so this is the

1:04:09neuroticism dimension um there's a

1:04:13gender difference in neuroticism women

1:04:15are about half a standard deviation

1:04:18higher negative emotion than men It's

1:04:21seems like a crosscultural universal the

1:04:23difference is more enhanced and egal

1:04:26States like Scandinavia which is exactly

1:04:28the opposite of what you'd presume right

1:04:30if you were say u a

1:04:34radical I can't remember the name if

1:04:37you're someone who believes that

1:04:38everything occurs as a consequence of

1:04:40socialization as you equalize a society

1:04:43the gender differences in personality

1:04:45become larger rather than smaller so

1:04:47which is you know not what anybody

1:04:49expected but that's what happened so

1:04:51boys and girls seem to have about the

1:04:53same level of negative emotion but it's

1:04:55as puberty hits women become higher

1:04:57negative emotion than men on average

1:04:59there's still a lot of overlap between

1:05:01the genders and it never goes away again

1:05:04Across the Life Course once it kicks it

1:05:06in puberty and the reasons for that

1:05:08women are smaller their their upper

1:05:10bodies are weaker so they're more

1:05:12physical they're they're at a physical

1:05:14disadvantage if they're in a dominance

1:05:16dispute they're sexually vulnerable plus

1:05:18they have to take care of infants so I

1:05:20think those four things are probably

1:05:22enough to tilt the nervous system of

1:05:24women more towards negative negative

1:05:27emotion I've often thought maybe that

1:05:29women's NE emotional systems the

1:05:31negative ones in particular are actually

1:05:33not tuned to the woman I think they're

1:05:36tuned to the woman infant

1:05:38combination so you know be if you think

1:05:41about it from an if you think about it

1:05:43for a bit it almost has to be that way

1:05:45because an infant has to be carried

1:05:46around for like a year and a half and so

1:05:49at that point when you have an infant

1:05:51and maybe you're going to have 10 you

1:05:53know you guys won't but in the

1:05:54evolutionary past that would have been

1:05:56the case you'd have an infant for a much

1:05:58of your life and then you'd be a

1:05:59grandmother and have an infant it's like

1:06:02why wouldn't your nervous system be

1:06:04tuned at puberty for the two of you

1:06:06instead of one of you so how how could

1:06:09it be any other way

1:06:11anyways so you've got your hypothalamus

1:06:14and then on top of that you've got some

1:06:16circuits that deal with memory and

1:06:17emotion so I'm going to run you through

1:06:19the hippocampus of the amigdala

1:06:20relatively quickly so this is a theory

1:06:22that was basically put together by soov

1:06:25who Russian neuros psychologist back in

1:06:261962 but it's a variant of a theory that

1:06:29Norbert Winer developed back in the' 40s

1:06:31so here's the

1:06:32idea you wander through the world and

1:06:35you if you're in a place that you

1:06:39know your memory

1:06:42systems the hippocampus looks inside

1:06:45your memory systems to see what it is

1:06:48that you want to have happen based on

1:06:51your understanding of the world Okay so

1:06:55you're in a motivated state but you have

1:06:57certain expectations that make sense

1:06:59within that state so the hippocampus is

1:07:01watching what you think is going to

1:07:03happen but remember that's motivated

1:07:05it's not just expectation and then the

1:07:07hippocampus is also looking at the

1:07:11world now it it's looking at an

1:07:14interpretation of the world because you

1:07:16can't help but interpret the world but

1:07:18fundamentally the hippocampus is looking

1:07:20inside you and outside you and then it's

1:07:23seeing if what's happening inside and

1:07:26what's happening outside are the same

1:07:28which means you know what you're doing

1:07:31and you know where you are and if

1:07:32they're the same so if it detects a

1:07:34match then the hippocampus inhibits the

1:07:37amydala

1:07:38and the hypothalamus roughly speaking

1:07:41now what it actually seems to do there's

1:07:43a little circuit in your brain stem

1:07:45called the reticular activating circuit

1:07:47and it's the thing that turns your brain

1:07:48on at night if you're sleeping and you

1:07:50hear a noise that you shouldn't hear

1:07:51it's like bang you're awake it's the

1:07:53reticular activating system way down in

1:07:55your brain stem puts your cortex into a

1:07:59high arousal State and poof you're

1:08:00conscious now the hippocampus tells the

1:08:04reticular activating system to basically

1:08:06remain calm as well as as long as what

1:08:10it what you're expecting and Desiring

1:08:13and what's happening are the same thing

1:08:14so it's sort of like it's saying I know

1:08:17you could jump up and freak out and run

1:08:18about but you don't have to right now

1:08:20because everything's going according to

1:08:21plan but as soon as there's a deviation

1:08:24that's anomaly say okay then the

1:08:26hippocampus says Whoa something's wrong

1:08:29here and the IT disinhibits the

1:08:31reticular activating system that turns

1:08:33on your emotions especially your

1:08:35negative emotion but it primes your

1:08:36positive emotion and it primes some of

1:08:38the hypothalamic circuits too or

1:08:40disinhibits them because one way of

1:08:42solving the fact that something isn't

1:08:44going well is to switch to something

1:08:46else so it's sort of like there's a

1:08:49bunch of circuits on underneath you but

1:08:51they're being held back like horses in a

1:08:54racehorse and and then something that

1:08:56you don't expect happens and the gates

1:08:58come up a little bit because then you're

1:09:00prepared now a lot of that's negative

1:09:01emotion oh oh you don't know where you

1:09:03are but a lot a lot of the rest of it is

1:09:05be prepared to do whatever the hell you

1:09:07might need to do next and so anomaly the

1:09:11hippocampus detects anomaly that's

1:09:13something unexpected and then it

1:09:15disinhibits your lower circuitry and it

1:09:17gets you ready to go now the problem

1:09:21is how worried should you be when

1:09:23something that you don't expect happens

1:09:26and the answer to that is you don't know

1:09:29that's a big problem with life because

1:09:30now something went wrong here's the

1:09:33possibilities you're not looking at the

1:09:35world right so it's actually a

1:09:36perceptual problem right like gray for

1:09:40example believes that you just see the

1:09:41world just like it is because he's sort

1:09:43of a behaviorist it's full of stimuli

1:09:45you don't have to interpret them that's

1:09:46wrong you have to interpret them so if

1:09:48something goes wrong it might be that

1:09:50you're looking at things wrong your

1:09:52perceptual systems are out it's unlikely

1:09:54but sometimes it's the case

1:09:56but forget that let's say that you're

1:09:58looking at the world correctly and you

1:10:00know your inferences about what went

1:10:02wrong what went wrong isn't a

1:10:04consequence of you misperceiving it's a

1:10:07consequence of some stupid problem with

1:10:10your stupid plan the problem is you

1:10:12don't know where the error is located

1:10:15and that's why I think there's

1:10:19temperament sometimes if something

1:10:21unexpected happens you should really

1:10:23freak out other times times you should

1:10:25ignore it but you can't tell which of

1:10:27those is true right away so what happens

1:10:29is there's a distribution when a little

1:10:32thing happens some people really get

1:10:33upset about it and other people hardly

1:10:35care at all and sometimes the people who

1:10:37get really upset about it are right and

1:10:39sometimes the people who don't care at

1:10:41all are right and that's why there's

1:10:43variability in

1:10:45neuroticism okay now what you do when

1:10:47you're exploring is you start to

1:10:49decompose your plan right if you're if

1:10:51you if you can manage it if you're not

1:10:52so like gripped by anxiety that you're

1:10:55paralyzed then you go into your plan and

1:10:57you think well am I a complete like

1:10:59loser or is it some micro thing that's

1:11:01gone wrong and then you can start to

1:11:02decompose it and reconstruct your plant

1:11:05okay

1:11:06so yeah the other the other thing that

1:11:10this little diagram helps you understand

1:11:12it's like look what happens is when

1:11:14you're laying out a plan a motivated

1:11:16plan and a hole appears in it you have

1:11:19to figure out why you fell in the hole

1:11:20and then what you have to do is you have

1:11:22to take that motivated plan that's kind

1:11:24of running on automatic

1:11:25and you have to remember what it's made

1:11:27out of and so what opens up underneath

1:11:29you when when you've made a mistake is

1:11:31the complexity of the plan and then also

1:11:34potentially the complexity of the world

1:11:36on the off chance that you misperceived

1:11:38it right you're just someone might say

1:11:40you're not understanding me properly you

1:11:42know maybe there's something wrong with

1:11:43you that's interfering with the

1:11:44perception and then you have to do this

1:11:46massive search to try to figure out

1:11:48where the error lies now part of the

1:11:51reason I believe that people stick to

1:11:53their beliefs so hard is because people

1:11:55don't like it when a hole appears in one

1:11:57of their big abstractions right so

1:12:00they've got these high order

1:12:01representations of the world that are

1:12:03shorthand ways of representing something

1:12:05they're sort of like axioms of faith and

1:12:08if they if a hole appears in one of

1:12:10their axioms of Faith then all this

1:12:12complexity comes rushing up and it's

1:12:14overwhelming and so people hate it when

1:12:16you undermine one of their high order

1:12:20abstractions and so I think I told you

1:12:22this before don't do that in

1:12:23relationships right it's best not to do

1:12:25it to yourself as well I'll stop with

1:12:28this these are

1:12:30medusas and what what happens when you

1:12:32see the

1:12:34Medusa okay so what what what might that

1:12:38mean you bet it's the it's a prey

1:12:41response and so that's a sort of that's

1:12:44the sort of thing that occurs

1:12:46when you're moving towards your goal in

1:12:49your frame and the bottom drops out it's

1:12:52like uhoh what's

1:12:54there you don't know so what's the

1:12:56logical First Response well if you're

1:12:58high neuroticism it's going to be this

1:13:00you're going to freeze and then and only

1:13:03then if nothing else terrible happens to

1:13:05you you'll start to relax a bit and then

1:13:08maybe you'll start to investigate the

1:13:09structure of your plan and maybe you'll

1:13:11start to investigate the structure of

1:13:12the world and then from a constructivist

1:13:15perspective say once you start to do

1:13:16that you gather information from the

1:13:19world and then you remake your plan and

1:13:21You remake your conception of the world

1:13:22and then you could move on so you do

1:13:25that under the guidance of the positive

1:13:27and the negative emotions okay that's

1:13:29good we'll see you Tuesday