The CEU Department of Cognitive Science and the Social Mind Center cordially invites you
to its talk by
Karin Roelofs<https://www.epanlab.nl/> (Experimental Psychopathology and Affective
Neuroscience, Donders Institute and Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University,
Nijmegen)
Date: Wednesday, February 20, 2019 - 17:00-18:30
Location: CEU, Oktober 6. Street 7, room 101
Neural control of human defensive reactions to social threat
The ability to control automatic emotional actions constitutes a critical component of
emotion regulation during socially threatening situations. For instance, under acute
social threat, goal directed decision-making depends largely on the capacity to override
automatic defensive actions such as freezing reactions or fight-or-flight actions.
Distinct parts of the frontal cortex are implicated in regulating these defensive
reactions.
I will present a number of experimental paradigms by which we assessed neural control over
these defensive reactions in humans by combining decision tasks with neural and autonomic
measures. The first series of studies indicates that down-regulation of amygdala activity
by the anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) is involved when people need to override their
automatic social approach-avoidance action tendencies. I will show that the functioning of
this neural circuitry is sensitive to individual differences in social anxiety and
aggression, and I will discuss manipulations of this neural circuitry by steroid hormone
administration (i.e. testosterone) and brain stimulation (TMS). The second series of
studies investigates the shift from parasympathetically-dominated freezing to
sympathetically-driven fight-or-flight reactions in humans. Like freezing in many animals,
human freezing is accompanied by bradycardia and associated amygdala projections to the
midbrain (periaqueductal gray). The shift from freezing to action involves tachycardia and
associated recruitment of the perigenual part of the anterior cingulate cortex (pgACC) as
well as pgACC-amygdala connections. I will end with evidence from longitudinal research
suggesting that alterations in these primary defensive reactions in infancy are predictive
of the development of affective symptoms in adolescence. Together, these series of studies
show that distinct frontal regions are implicated in controlling distinct defensive
reactions, and that the ability to flexibly shift between different defensive response
modes is essential for adequate threat coping. It is this ability that may fail in social
emotional disorders such as social anxiety and aggression-related disorders.
We are looking forward to see you at the talk!
Cognitive Science Events at CEU:
http://cognitivescience.ceu.hu/events
Social Mind Center Events at CEU:
http://socialmind.ceu.edu/events
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