Prep Guide 5- Carley Thomas

3. In front of the frontal cortex, or The PFC : (a) What specific function does the prefrontal cortex (PFC) perform? Judgment appears to be an interaction of cognition (dlPFC) and emotion (vmPFC). (b) Would we make better decisions in the absence of the vmPFC? (c) We learned that the amygdala is central to learning fear. Which part of the frontal cortex is central to "unlearning" the same fear? (d) Can the reactions of the vmPFC (emotions) be mediated by conscious thought? (3 points) a. Decision making b. We would have worse judgment and bad decision-making c. dlPFC d. Conscious thought moderates vmPFC 4. “I’m the decider” – the PFC gets presidential: "Doing the right thing" means different things under different conditions. (a) Describe an instance for which the PFC is the area that will contribute most to effectively doing the right thing. (b) Describe an instance where the amygdala will contribute the most effectively to "doing the right thing". (c) In your view , how is each area important to decisions in contexts where judgment has extreme consequences (e.g., criminal justice, policing, diplomacy, economics)? (3 points) a. Thinking of killing someone activates your dlPFC to think the opposite b. Your amygdala gets triggered when emotional stimuli occur c. The dlPFC controls the emotional side and the vmPFC controls logic. 5. Dopamine: (a) Name at least three of the five brain areas that comprise the dopamine system. (b) What is the basic function of the dopamine system? While punishing someone else releases dopamine, the release is higher during social cooperation than during social punishment. (c) What does this tell us about their relative importance? Sapolsky describes an experiment where dopamine levels are tracked in a monkey who pushes a lever to earn raisins. (d) What do you think the implications of this experiment are to human consumption, sexual behavior, eating, drug use, and gambling? (e) What about Capitalism vs. Socialism? (4 points) a. Initiating movement, ventral tegmental, and nucleus accumbens. b. Pleasure response c. d. The experiment displays that things like human consumption/ drug use will only build a tolerance, sexual behavior isn't satisfied, eating you will never be full, and gambling you will never win enough