Somatic Marker Hypothesis

Volume 2

Silke Thousand. Müller , ... Matthias Brand , in Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, second edition, 2022

Somatic Marker Hypothesis

The somatic marker hypothesis ( Bechara and Damasio, 2005; Damasio et al., 1991) highlights the importance of emotions in decision making. The hypothesis postulates that reasoned decision making is influenced by biasing signals (somatic markers) arising from changes in the body periphery. First triggered every bit a reaction to experienced feedback (e.yard., increased heart charge per unit or visceral responses), the somatic reactions are assumed to be reactivated in like conclusion situations. It is argued that there are primary and secondary inductions of emotional responses. The primary consecration can exist understood as innate or learned affective responses arising from a confrontation with pleasurable or aversive stimuli. Secondary inducers incorporate melancholia responses induced by the retrieve of past events or anticipation of futurity states.

On a neural level, information technology is assumed that, after an initial affective response is triggered by the amygdala (primary induction), the VMPFC subsequently prompts deliberative considerations, which in turn trigger further affective responses (secondary induction). An additional aspect of the somatic marker hypothesis is the differentiation betwixt the "body loop" and the "as-if loop". The "trunk loop" represents deportment of the body itself, whereas the "every bit-if loop" is associated with the brain representation of the expected/anticipated trunk activeness (Bechara and Damasio, 2005).

Well-nigh evidence supporting the somatic marker hypothesis comes from empirical studies involving the Iowa Gambling Task (for a critical review come across Dunn et al., 2006). This task (Bechara et al., 1994) measures decision making in ambiguous situations (see description of the task beneath and Table i). The task is to repeatedly choose between four decks of cards where wins/losses are unknown in accelerate. The feedback on the outcome of each choice enables the identification of more advantageous and less advantageous decks over time. Studies showed that individuals with VMPFC lesions, in contrast to healthy controls, did not learn to avoid the disadvantageous decks resulting in dumb task performance. Using skin conductance responses (SCR) to mensurate somatic action, it was shown that feedback reactions were similar in the 2 groups, however, the command group adult anticipatory SCRs, which bespeak somatic activity prior to making decisions (especially for disadvantageous decks), while the patients did not. The presence of anticipatory signals was accompanied past increased performance, suggesting that somatic markers are valuable indicators that can lead to more advantageous decisions if being integrated into the determination-making process (Bechara et al., 1997).

Tabular array ane. Examples of conclusion-making tasks used in neurocognitive research

Job Reference Stability Choice options
Ambiguous adventure
Iowa Gambling Task Bechara et al. (1994) Stable High risk vs. depression take chances
Balloon Analogue Adventure Job Lejuez et al. (2002) Varying Saving vs. increase adventure
Objective risk
Game of Die Task Brand et al. (2005) Stable High hazard vs. low chance
Probability-Associated
Gambling Task		 Delazer et al. (2007) Varying Safe vs. risky
Columbia Card Job Figner et al. (2009) Varying Saving vs. increase take chances
Cups task Levin and Hart (2003) Varying Rubber vs. risky
Cards and Lottery Chore Mueller et al. (2017) Varying Short-term risk vs. long-term run a risk
Cambridge Gambling Task Rogers et al. (1999) Varying High risk vs. low gamble

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Historic period-Associated Executive Dysfunction, the Prefrontal Cortex, and Complex Decision Making

Natalie L. Denburg , William Thousand. Hedgcock , in Crumbling and Decision Making, 2015

The Somatic Marker Hypothesis

The SMH is a neural theory of how emotions play a key role in decision making, and how this process depends on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) of the brain (Damasio, 1994); this theory was inspired past case studies of encephalon lesion patients such as Phineas Cuff. The term somatic refers to body and encephalon-related signals, which we experience as emotions and feelings. According to the SMH, when faced with circuitous decisions, we brand choices that are in our best interest only afterward properly weighing potential short-term and long-term outcomes. A key idea of this hypothesis is that when these outcomes are ambiguous or uncertain, then emotions, feelings, and the brain's power to maintain an internal equilibrium are essential to making a decision. The VMPC is critical for triggering diverse bodily changes (somatic states) in response to stimuli such every bit cues for advantage or punishment. Every bit we make decisions under incertitude, our assessment of their immediate and future potential consequences may trigger numerous responses that conflict with each other—a highly favorable potential consequence may trigger excitement and bliss, while an aversive event may trigger hurting and dread. The terminate result, though, is the emergence of an overall positive or negative signal—basically a "go" or "cease" bespeak (Damasio, 1994).

Damasio (1994) has proposed that numerous and conflicting signals may exist triggered simultaneously, just sooner or later, stronger ones trump weaker ones. In this mode, emotional processes are disquisitional for decision making that is advantageous in the long run. Even so, people deprived of appropriate emotional signals—east.yard., because of damage to the VMPC—may neglect to perceive potential adverse long-term consequences (Bechara, Tranel, & Damasio, 2000). In this sense, too little emotion tin exist bad for advantageous decision making, just every bit besides much emotion can be. In adapting the SMH, therefore, Denburg, Tranel, and Bechara (2005), Denburg, Recknor, Bechara, and Tranel (2006), and Denburg, Cole, et al. (2007) proposed that some ostensibly normal older people, who are free of obvious neurological or psychiatric disease, experience changes in reasoning and decision making considering of dysfunction in a neural organization that includes the brain'due south ventromedial prefrontal system. That is, they are losing their ability to make complex choices that depend critically on the use of emotion-related data to help guide an optimal blend of short-term and long-term considerations. They may exist overly swayed by the promise of immediate reward or a simple solution to a complicated trouble (approaches that are commonly used in fraudulent and misleading marketing practices), and neglect to detect the longer-range adverse consequences of their actions. Moreover, they may fail to recognize the implausibility of any long-term benefit at all (as is the case for many telemarketing schemes). This was postulated every bit a direct consequence of neurological dysfunction in systems that are critical for bringing emotion-related signals to touch on decision making. Interestingly, these same encephalon regions have been implicated in functional neuroimaging studies investigating buy decisions (Knutson, Rick, Wimmer, Prelec, & Loewenstein, 2007), determination making nether uncertainty (Bechara et al., 2000), and determination making under adventure (Weller, Levin, Shiv, & Bechara, 2007), among salubrious younger adults.

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The Neural Basis of Decision Making in Addiction

Antoine Bechara , in Biological Research on Addiction, 2013

Outline of the Somatic Mark Neural Circuitry

The somatic marking hypothesis offers an explanation for the decision-making impairment characteristic of patients with vmPFC damage. The hypothesis posits that a defective activation of somatic states (which are biological ingredients of emotional signals that in lay terms may be chosen "gut feeling" or "intuition") is the reason for the dumb decision making. The functional role of these somatic states is that they attach value to given options and scenarios, and marking them as having potential positive or negative consequences in the future. These emotional signals (somatic markers) part as covert, or overt, biases for guiding decisions. Deprived of these emotional signals, patients may resort to deciding based on the immediate advantage of an selection. The failure to enact somatic states (or activate these emotional biases), and consequently to decide advantageously, results from dysfunction in a neural organisation in which the vmPFC is a critical component. However, the vmPFC is non the only region. Other neural regions, including the amygdala, insula and somatosensory cortices, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and hippocampus, are also components of this same neural system, although the different regions may provide different contributions to the overall procedure of decision making ( Fig. 35.1).

FIGURE 35.1. A schematic of all the brain regions involved in decision making co-ordinate to the somatic marker hypothesis.

More specifically, the amygdala as well as the medial OFC/vmPFC region are disquisitional structures for triggering somatic states, but the amygdala seems more important for triggering somatic states from emotional events that occur in the environment (i.e., principal inducers), whereas the medial OFC/vmPFC region seems more than important for triggering somatic states from memories, cognition, and cognition (i.e., secondary inducers). Decision making is a complex process that relies on the integrity of at least two sets of neural systems: (1) ane ready is important for memory (e.k. the hippocampus), and peculiarly working memory (east.1000. the DLPFC), in order to bring online knowledge and information used during the deliberation of a conclusion; and (2) another set is important for triggering emotional responses. This set includes effector structures such as the hypothalamus and autonomic brainstem nuclei that produce changes in internal milieu and visceral structures forth with other effector structures such every bit the ventral striatum, periacqueductal gray, and other brainstem nuclei, which produce changes in facial expression and specific approach or withdrawal behaviors. It also includes cortical structures that receive afferent input from the viscera and internal milieu, such every bit the insular cortex and the posterior cingulate gyrus, retrosplenial cortex, and cuneus region (i.eastward. medial area of the parietal cortex).

During the process of pondering decisions, the immediate prospects of an option may exist driven by more subcortical mechanisms (e.g. via the amygdala) that practise not crave a prefrontal cortex. Even so, weighing the hereafter consequences requires a prefrontal cortex for triggering somatic responses about possible future consequences. Specifically, when pondering the decision, the firsthand and future prospects of an pick may trigger numerous somatic responses that conflict with each other (i.e. positive and negative somatic responses). The terminate issue, though, is that an overall positive or negative betoken emerges (a "go" or "stop" signal, every bit information technology were).

In order for somatic signals to influence cognition and behavior, they must act on the advisable neural systems. I target for somatic state action is the striatum. A large number of channels convey body data (that is, somatic signals) to the central nervous organization (e.g. spinal cord, vagus nervus, and humoral signals). Prove suggests that the vagal road is especially critical for relaying these somatic signals (or emotional biases) from the gut to the encephalon. Somatic signals enter the brain via the brainstem, which contains nuclei that are rich in cell bodies of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, noreadrenaline, and acetylcholine. The cell bodies of these neurotransmitter systems project upward to a widespread expanse of the brain, which includes the cerebral cortex and striatum. Thus activation of higher-society brain structures such every bit these ensures that neurons that subserve knowledge and beliefs are engaged in somatic responding. This concatenation of neural mechanisms provides a manner for somatic states to exert a biasing upshot on decisions. At the cellular and more than recently the functional neuroimaging level, the pioneering work of Schultz et al. on the role of dopamine in advantage processing and error prediction provides a strong validity for the proposed neural framework. Thus, all the piece of work related to dopamine and the ventral striatum is consistent with the somatic marker framework. The primal departure is that the dopamine machinery addresses only one specific component of a larger neural network that is of import for implementing decisions. The somatic marker hypothesis is a neural framework that incorporates all the different neural steps involved in decision making, including the dopamine link, such as the one initially studied by Schultz and colleagues.

For many years, this particular class of patients (the patients who endure vmPFC lesions and lose their ability to activate somatic states brand advantageous decisions in real-life) presented a puzzling defect. Their defect was puzzling because it was hard to explain their disturbance in terms of defects in knowledge pertinent to the situation or deficient general intellectual ability. Although the decision-making impairment was obvious in the real-world behavior life of these patients, there was no effective laboratory probe to observe and measure this impairment. Bechara'due south development of what became known as the IGT has enabled researchers, for the kickoff fourth dimension, to observe the decision-making damage feature of patients with vmPFC lesions and investigate its possible causes. Such piece of work using the IGT has provided the key empirical support for the proposal that somatic markers significantly influence decision making. Why was the IGT successful in detecting the decision-making impairment in vmPFC patients, and why is it important for the study of the neurology of conclusion making? Perhaps this is because the IGT mimics existent-life decisions so closely. The task is carried out in real-time and it resembles real-globe contingencies. It factors reward and punishment (i.e. winning and losing coin) in such a way that it creates a disharmonize between an immediate, luring advantage and a delayed, probabilistic punishment. Therefore, the task engages the subject in a quest to brand advantageous choices. As in real-life choices, the task offers choices that may be risky, and at that place is no obvious explanation of how, when, or what to choose. Each pick is total of uncertainty because a precise calculation or prediction of the event of a given choice is not possible.

The IGT involves iv decks of cards named A, B, C, and D. The goal in the task is to maximize turn a profit on a loan of play money. Subjects are required to make a series of 100 card selections. However, they are not told ahead of fourth dimension how many card selections they are going to make. Subjects tin select one card at a time from any deck they cull, and they are gratuitous to switch from one deck to another at any time, and equally oftentimes as they wish. Notwithstanding, the subject'south decision to select from i deck versus another is largely influenced by various schedules of immediate reward and future punishment. These schedules are preprogrammed and known to the examiner, just not to the discipline, and they entail the following principles: every time the subject area selects a card from deck A or deck B, the field of study gets $100. Every time the subject area selects a card from deck C or deck D, the bailiwick gets $50. However, in each of the four decks, subjects encounter unpredictable punishments (money loss). The penalty is set to be college in the high paying decks A and B, and lower in the depression paying decks C and D. Hence, decks A and B are rendered disadvantageous considering they price more in the long run; i.e. one loses $250 every 10 cards. Decks C and D are advantageous considering they result in an overall gain in the long run; i.e. one wins $250 every 10 cards.

Thus adequate decision making reflects an integration of both cognitive and melancholia systems, and the ability to more optimally counterbalance short-term gains against long-term losses or probable outcomes of an activeness. For instance, drug employ known to take short-term "reinforcing effects" (but long-term negative consequences) should be less probable or problematic for individuals scoring higher on tasks that assess this power. The functional distinction of effective conclusion-making processes as assessed with the IGT comes from all-encompassing clinical research with patient populations with damage in frontal lobe regions. Structural imaging studies link IGT performance to neural regions of the vmPFC. Decision making has been shown to be important in behavioral regulation across numerous studies and various populations.

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Learning Theory and Behaviour

South.B. Ostlund , ... B.W. Balleine , in Learning and Memory: A Comprehensive Reference, 2008

1.36.2.5 Retrieving Reward Value

Given the office of incentive learning in the encoding of reward, information technology is interesting to consider how the value conferred past this process is retrieved to determine selection performance. Considering the option tests are often conducted many days afterwards incentive learning, in extinction the rat is forced to rely on their retention of specific action–event associations and the electric current relative value of the instrumental outcomes. And so how is value encoded for retrieval during this test?

A currently influential theory, the somatic marking hypothesis ( Damasio, 1994), proposes that value is retrieved through the operation of the same processes through which it was encoded. According to this view, decisions based on the value of specific goals are determined by reexperiencing the emotional effects associated with contact with that goal. With regard to effect devaluation furnishings, for instance, the theory could not be more explicit:

When a bad outcome connected with a given response option comes to mind, however fleetingly, you experience an unpleasant gut feeling   … that forces attention on the negative result to which the given action may pb, and functions as an automated alarm indicate which says: Beware of danger ahead if you choose the choice that leads to this outcome. The signal may atomic number 82 y'all to reject, immediately, the negative course of action and thus make y'all choose between other alternatives (Damasio, 1994: 173).

An culling theory proposes that reward values, one time determined through incentive learning, are encoded abstractly (due east.g., X is proficient or Y is bad and so on) and, as such, from this perspective they are not dependent on the original emotional effects induced by contact with the goal during the encoding of incentive value for their retrieval (come across Balleine and Dickinson, 1998a; Balleine, 2005, for further give-and-take).

We have conducted several singled-out series of experiments to test these two hypotheses and, in all of these, the data suggest that afterwards incentive learning, incentive values are encoded abstractly and exercise not involve the original emotional processes that established those values during their retrieval (Balleine and Dickinson, 1994; Balleine et al., 1994, 1995a,b). 1 test of these two accounts was derived from consideration of the part of associations between the upshot representation and the disgust system in outcome devaluation described in the previous section. If the impact of outcome devaluation on performance is carried by emotional feedback induced by activation of the disgust system by the event representation, and so, co-ordinate to the somatic mark hypothesis, reducing the ability of the upshot representation to activate the disgust arrangement during retrieval of incentive value on examination by administering ondansetron prior to the test should be predicted to attenuate the furnishings of outcome devaluation on operation. This experiment replicated the procedures used in the experiment described earlier (Balleine et al., 1995b) except that, prior to the pick extinction exam, half of the animals were injected with ondansetron, whereas the residual were injected with vehicle. Based on the previous study, it was predictable that the group given the injection of vehicle prior to the test would perform more of the action that, in training, had delivered the result reexposed under ondansetron. More than chiefly, if activation of the disgust system critically mediates the retrieval of incentive value during the test, as the somatic marker hypothesis suggests, then whatsoever difference found in the vehicle group should be attenuated in the grouping injected with ondansetron on test.

The results of this experiment were very clear; contrary to predictions of the somatic marker hypothesis, the injection of ondansetron on test had no bear upon whatsoever on performance in the choice extinction examination. Whether injected with vehicle or ondansetron prior to the examination, the action that, in grooming, delivered the result reexposed under ondansetron was performed more than the other action and to a similar caste. This finding suggests that, although activeness in the cloy system determines the effects of incentive learning, the cloy organization does non play a role once incentive learning has occurred, i.e., the retrieval of incentive value is non based on the same process through which it was encoded. In line with the proposal that reward value is encoded abstractly or symbolically and in contradiction to predictions from the somatic marker hypothesis position, in this and other like studies nosotros have found that the processes that determine the encoding of reward value are non required during the retrieval of that value during free choice tests in guild for animals to select a class of action.

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Decision Making (Individuals)☆

C.F. Chick , ... D.A. Goldman , in Reference Module in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Psychology, 2017

Physiological Cues of Emotional Country

One emotion-based model of determination making is the somatic marking hypothesis, according to which decision making in normal individuals is guided past emotional states produced past bioregulatory processes. For case, while playing a gambling carte du jour game, normal subjects develop a measurable physiological (skin conductance) response in anticipation of risky outcomes. Drug addicts and people with impairment to the frontal lobe of the encephalon fail to create an anticipatory skin conductance response earlier drawing a card from a risky deck, and some researchers take this to suggest that their dumb emotional role and suboptimal determination making are connected via an contradistinct physiological response to risk.

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Mental Models and the Mind

Michael Pauen , in Advances in Psychology, 2006

ii.1 SOMATIC MARKERS

The interaction betwixt emotion and cognition takes middle stage in the work of Damasio whose "Somatic Marker Hypothesis" has been among the most influential theories of emotion in recent years. According to Damasio (1994, 1999), somatic markers are emotional reactions with a strong somatic component that support determination making, including rational decision making. These reactions are based upon the individual's previous experiences with similar situations. Somatic markers permit a comparatively fast preselection of the relevant alternatives which are then subjected to a more detailed cerebral processing for the final decision. In doing then, somatic makers increase the efficiency and accuracy of homo decision making. Post-obit Damasio, conclusion making would be almost impossible if detailed cognitive processing of all the available alternatives were necessary.

Damasio refers to several example studies and experiments that seem to show that the inability to experience emotions results in a severe harm of rational controlling. In an experiment conducted by Bechara et al. (1997), healthy controls and patients with emotional deficits had to perform a gambling task which required a rational decision for the most advantageous strategy in order to gain every bit much money as possible. The controls started with an emotional reaction, then they adopted the advantageous strategy before they were finally able to tell what the advantageous strategy was, a few trials later. Patients, past contrast, showed no emotional reaction and connected to use the disadvantageous strategy throughout the experiment, although they too realized what the advantageous strategy was. The experiments support the basic idea underlying the somatic marker hypothesis, namely that rational conclusion making requires emotional reactions.

Note that these experiments seem to indicate too that, in dissimilarity to the hypothesis of Oatley & Johnson-Laird (1987), emotional reaction is an ongoing process that does not require unexpected events or specific junctions in the proceeding of our plans. 2d, in order to perform the function described, emotions have to exist very specific, and tertiary, they have to acquire this specificity independently from cognitive processes: In the to a higher place experiment, the cerebral assessment follows only a while afterwards the emotional reaction has prepare in.

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Heed–Body Interactions

Calvin Carter , Daniel Tranel , in Primer on the Autonomic Nervous Arrangement (Third Edition), 2012

The Somatic Marker Hypothesis

The findings reviewed here, and other related observations, have led to the development of a framework that is termed the somatic marking hypothesis . In a nutshell, the theory posits that feelings and emotions give rise to "somatic markers," which serve as guideposts that help steer behavior in an advantageous direction. Deprived of these somatic markers, VM patients lose the ability to experience appropriate emotional responses to diverse stimuli and events. We have proposed that the absence of these emotional responses – evidenced, for example, by the missing SCRs in the experiments described above – leads to lacking planning and determination-making; this, in turn, leads to socially inept and inappropriate behavior that is characteristic of VM patients [v].

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Autonomic Nervous Organization

Hugo D. Critchley , ... Sarah N. Garfinkel , in Handbook of Clinical Neurology, 2013

Autonomic interaction with decision making

Testify for interaction between the autonomic nervous arrangement and cognitive processes is perhaps most evident in the context of decision making. Damasio'due south "somatic marker hypothesis" provided an influential model for this: motivationally important (salient) events trigger automated changes in bodily land. These changes are mainly envisaged as existence autonomic and as reflecting prior experience of that outcome, unremarkably a negative outcome: Actual responses marker the occurrence of salient stimuli through feedback, i.e., a parallel somatic/visceral representation of that bodily response. Thus, using information provided by brainstem nuclei, somatosensory context, insula cortex, and amygdala, and mediated through medial frontal cortices (lesion data particularly implicate the ventromedial frontal cortex), visceral/autonomic information is integrated with perceptual data to raise the representation of of import stimuli while shaping both the cognitive and behavioral response. In early accounts of the somatic marker hypothesis, emphasis was given to the unconscious influence of the bodily response on beliefs. Experimentally, such furnishings were illustrated using functioning on a gambling task as the "behavioral probe."

Neuroimaging studies post-obit on from the work of Damasio'due south grouping take examined the encephalon activeness supporting interaction between autonomic responses and motivational determination making; i.east., gambling task operation. For example, one study, using a carte game, revealed activity within dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in apprehension of the outcome of risky decisions that reflected both the degree of adventure in the gamble and the state of sympathetic electrodermal arousal when anticipating the upshot of the gamble (Critchley et al., 2001a). A similar ascertainment using "wheels of fortune," indicated the importance of agency in the controlling process: heart charge per unit increased if a participant actively selected which gamble they wanted to play, despite outcomes having the same monetary value. This physiological shift occurred in anticipation of the outcome and in response to the feedback given at outcome. Notably the genual and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex was engaged at outcome, reflecting both the agency and the autonomic country accompanying that agency (Coricelli et al., 2005). These studies highlight the integrative contribution of autonomic response to encephalon action during decision making.

The attending drawn by the somatic marker hypothesis to conclusion making and the influence of autonomic/somatic actual state coincided with broadening of interest in option selection in motivational beliefs accompanying advances in economic theory. The issue is the growth of a bailiwick now known as neuroeconomics that attempts to understand the basis of rational and irrational choices. Economical theory used to emphasize the notion that optimal controlling is rational, maximizing gains, minimizing loss with some toll to risk (i.e., Bayesian maximization of expected utility). Such models assume that deciders possess infinite knowledge and information-processing power to inform their decisions (Naqvi et al., 2006). This view also implicitly argues that emotions should either be excluded from the study of rational decision making, or studied as a detrimental influence. Emotional neuroscience and psychophysiological research now challenges the view that rational choice and emotional processing are unrelated or opposed, with show for potential beneficial effects of emotion responses on decision making (Bechara and Damasio, 2005). The autonomic nervous system is an important mediator of these effects: autonomic responses reflect learning of the behavioral value of stimuli, and the primal feedback of autonomic actual changes can influence behavioral judgments. Experimentally this influence tin can exist shown to act implicitly or explicitly, to guide behaviors that maximize reward and avoid punishment (Damasio et al., 1991b; Bechara et al., 1997) (Fig. vi.2).

Changes in peripheral physiology prepare the body for beliefs modification; thus information technology follows that encephalon areas sensitive to peripheral physiological fluctuations may as well modify decision making. The ventromedial and orbitofrontal cortices are implicated in the computation of reward and punishment contingencies (Roberts, 2006). The anterior cingulate is activated during a diversity of decision-making processes such as conflict resolution (meet to a higher place and Pochon et al., 2008). Anterior cingulate with the inductive insula is implicated in the production of subjective feeling states arising out of visceral bodily sensations and the coordination of appropriate responses to internal and external events (Medford and Critchley, 2010). In the conception of the somatic marker hypothesis information technology was noted that individuals with vmPFC impairment are impaired in their ability to modulate behavioral pick in a gambling job following prior losses (Bechara et al., 1997), an effect coupled to adulterate autonomic reactivity. It is worth noting that the bodily response can be specific: during a stochastic learning task, fault-related feedback elicited a deceleration in heart rate (correlating with a specific electroencephalogram potential), while feedback indicating success induced a respective increase in eye rate (Groen et al., 2007).

Emotions through cardinal and peripheral states tin be detrimental to particular types of decisions. Patients with deficits in the expression of emotion tin can testify enhanced, rational decision making, reflecting this removal of emotional bias (Shiv et al., 2005a, b; Di Martino et al., 2009). Changing moods influence the cognitive weighting of determination parameters, with low mood (and implicitly low autonomic reactivity) linked to a preference for low-risk, depression-advantage outcomes (Smith and Ellsworth, 1985), while anxiety (typically engendering heightened sympathetic tone) leads to a heightened intolerance of uncertainty (Stern et al., 2009). Together these studies illustrate the integration of autonomic control with cognitive processes underlying conclusion making.

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Emotional Orientations and Somatic Markers

David Reid , ... Tracy Helliwell , in Understanding Emotions in Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 2017

Give-and-take 2—Somatic Markers

Damasio (1996) has studied the making of such decisions through the neurological characteristics of people who no longer seem able to brand them. He has put forward the somatic marking hypothesis to explain what he has observed. The term "somatic marker" is used for the juxtaposition of prototype, emotion, and bodily feeling we have that informs our conclusion-making:

Because the feeling is about the body, I gave the phenomenon the technical term somatic country ("soma" is Greek for body); and because information technology "marks" an prototype, I chosen it a marker. Annotation again that I utilize somatic in the nearly general sense (that which pertains to the torso) and I include both visceral and nonvisceral sensation when I refer to somatic markers.

(Damasio, 1996, p. 173)

We would suggest that Mr. Hatt's response was informed by his somatic markers, and also that your somatic markers came into play when y'all judged some possible responses to be likely actions of a teacher and others to be unlikely. You have a constellation of somatic markers that are active in educational activity situations. Another teacher'due south somatic markers might exist dissimilar, and he or she would make dissimilar decisions than you would, only at the aforementioned fourth dimension you can recognize similarities in the choices your somatic markers would guide you toward. The teacherly emotional orientation can be seen as a constellation of somatic markers shared by teachers.

In their work on teachers' circuitous controlling, Brown and Coles (2000) state the following:

Somatic markers act to simplify the decision as to which behaviour to endeavour. Negative somatic markers mean that the behaviours exercise not even come up to mind every bit possibilities for action. A positive somatic mark means that the behaviour becomes one of a number available for use.

(Brown and Coles, 2000, p. 168)

Seeing a teacher utilize a strategy finer that you accept a negative somatic marker for and accept ceased to consider creates a jolt that might permit you to consider using that strategy once again. Then whether somatic markers are positive or negative is not a fixed state.

Somatic markers are thus acquired though feel, nether the command of an internal preference system and under the influence of an external gear up of circumstances which include not only entities and events with which the organism must collaborate, but also social conventions and upstanding rules.

(Damasio, 1996, p. 179)

The question that informs our learning as instructor educators is, "How is it possible to piece of work with people on our courses so that they become teachers?" We know that experienced teachers deal with situations where at that place are many different possible responses all the fourth dimension, and they normally know what to exercise. They acquit similar teachers. They have a teacherly emotional orientation. Their somatic markers are well suited to interim appropriately. The students who get-go our courses, on the other hand, seem to lack somatic markers that would permit them to conduct similar teachers in many situations. How practise they larn these somatic markers, and with them a teacherly emotional orientation?

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Neurobiological theories of habit

George F. Koob , ... Michel Le Moal , in Introduction to Addiction, 2019

5.vi Somatic marker theory of addiction

Verdejo-Garcıa A, Bechara A. A somatic marking theory of addiction. Neuropharmacology 2009;56:48–62 [347].

Verdejo-Garcia and Bechara sought to apply a "somatic marker" model of addiction to explain "myopia for the future," manifested in the behavioral decisions of many individuals with a history of chronic drug apply. The somatic marker hypothesis was originally proposed by Damasio [348]. It provides a systems-level neuroanatomical and cognitive framework for decision-making and for choosing according to long-term outcomes rather than short-term ones. Here, the term "somatic markers" refers to the collection of trunk- and brain-related responses that accept been connected by learning anticipated future outcomes of sure scenarios. A negative somatic marker is linked to a particular time to come outcome and functions as an warning bong. A positive somatic marking is linked to a futurity result that functions as an incentive [348]. Verdejo-Garcia and Bechara [347] argued that there are at least two underlying types of dysfunction in addiction, in which emotional signals (somatic markers) plow in favor of immediate outcomes: (i) hyperactivity in the amygdala or impulsive system, which exaggerates the rewarding impact of available incentives, and (ii) hypoactivity in the prefrontal cortex or reflective system [347]. They further argued that hypoactivity in the prefrontal cortex forecasts the long-term consequences of a given action.

The neurobiological footing for the somatic marking theory of addiction is hypothesized to involve dysfunction in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex organization and hyperactivity of the amygdala ([347]; Fig. 31). The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is critical for processing emotional (somatic) states from secondary inducers and has been termed a "reflective" system, in which its dysfunction causes loss of the ability to process and trigger somatic signals that are associated with future prospects [347]. The amygdala is disquisitional for processing emotional (somatic) states from primary inducers and is hypothesized to be an "impulsive" system. In such a functional context, the amygdala is hypothesized to become altered such that it diminishes the emotional/somatic impact of natural reinforcers, simply it exaggerates the emotional/somatic touch on of the immediate prospects of obtaining drugs [347]. Thus, these authors hypothesized that drug cues larn properties that trigger bottom-upwards, automatic, and involuntary somatic states through the amygdala, and this bottom-up somatic bias tin modulate tiptop-down cognitive mechanisms that are usually under control of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. If the bias is sufficiently strong, then drugs tin trigger bottom-upward, involuntary signals through the amygdala that attune and compromise top-down, goal-driven attentional resources that are needed for the normal operation of the reflective arrangement and are disquisitional for enabling an individual to resist the temptation to seek the drug.

Effigy 31. Somatic marker theory of addiction [347].

A schematic model of somatic country activation and decision-making. (A) This is the neural circuitry (in green) that represents the impulsive organisation, in which the amygdala is a trigger structure for emotional (somatic) states from main inducers. It couples the features of main inducers, which tin be candy subliminally (e.g., via the thalamus) or explicitly (e.g., via main sensory cortices), with effector structures that trigger the emotional/somatic response. Withal, the amygdala is as well direct connected to the ventral striatum (V.South.), and its trigger can also activate classic motivational systems that are associated with the approach of drug-related cues. (B) This is the neural circuitry (in red) that represents the reflective system, in which the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPC) is a trigger structure for emotional (somatic) states from secondary inducers. Information technology couples systems that are involved in retention to systems that are involved in processing emotions, so that memories or thoughts about drug cues are linked to their emotional attributes. Memories, information, or knowledge that are held temporarily in working memory and manipulated past the executive processes of working memory are dependent on the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), but these working processes likewise include the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex and lateral region of the orbitofrontal cortex. The hippocampus is also engaged, at least in situations in which the memory of a scenario exceeds 40   due south, which is the maximum chapters of short-term memory that is mediated by the DLPFC. Structures that are involved in representing previous feeling states include the insula and surrounding somatosensory cortices, as well as the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) and precuneate cortex. This coupling that is mediated by the VMPC can also lead to the triggering of somatic states (ruddy lines). (C) Somatic signals that are triggered simultaneously by the impulsive arrangement and reflective system compete. This competition is argued to actually occur in the body proper, although some authors have challenged the validity of this peripheral link. Even if this peripheral link proves to be invalid, neuroanatomical evidence supports neural contest at the next link of the circuitry, the neurotransmitter cell bodies in the brainstem. Whether the competition of hailing somatic signals via the impulsive and cogitating systems occurs in the body or the brainstem, a "winner takes all" somatic signal emerges, either positive or negative, and this resultant ascending feedback somatic bespeak (bluish lines) participates in two functions: in one, it provides a substrate for feeling the emotional state through the insula and surrounding somatosensory cortices; in the other, it provides a substrate for biasing decisions through motor effector structures, such as the striatum (Str.), the inductive cingulate cortex (ACC), and adjacent supplementary motor area (SMA). Another highly candidate region that is involved in this complex motor preparation is the cerebellum (not shown in this diagram). In calorie-free of more recent evidence on the role of the insula in cigarette smoking, we propose that the insula has a more than specific role. Especially during withdrawal or drug deprivation, homeostatic signals that arise in the torso are perceived in the insula equally feelings of urges, which in turn act on the impulsive system and sensitize it (green line), whereas its activity on the reflective system is to inhibit information technology or "hijack" it. The machinery by which insular activeness sensitizes the impulsive arrangement remains to be determined. One possibility, for example, is that neuronal signals from the insula actuate the ventral tegmental area and increase the mesolimbic dopamine surge, thereby heightening the motivation to seek drugs. Such a possible mechanism can connect the insula to the classic neural systems that accept been implicated in addiction (i.eastward., the mesolimbic dopamine system).

 Taken with permission from Verdejo-Garcıa A, Bechara, A. A somatic marker theory of addiction. Neuropharmacology 2009;56:48–62 [347].

Data that back up this hypothesis include numerous studies that showed impairments in decision-making performance among individuals with booze, cannabis, cocaine, opioid, methylenedioxymethamphetamine, and methamphetamine abuse [347] . The experimental chore that is oft used is a variant of the Iowa Gambling Task [349] , which measures several factors, including immediate rewards and delayed punishments, risk, and the uncertainty of outcomes. Brain imaging patterns in methamphetamine-using individuals while performing another task, a ii-choice prediction task that measures controlling function under conditions of uncertainty, showed lower activation of the orbitofrontal, dorsolateral, insular, and inferior parietal cortices. Orbitofrontal activation was inversely correlated with the duration of methamphetamine use [350] . Stroke that involved the insula was associated with a greater likelihood of eliminating craving cigarettes [351] . Most studies of emotional perception have focused on analyzing alterations of the processing of emotional facial expressions in subjects with long-term substance abuse. In alcohol-dependent individuals, several studies have observed significant alterations of the processing of facial expressions, although the range of emotions that are affected is nevertheless controversial. 1 written report showed that alcohol-dependent individuals presented specific overestimation of the intensity of emotion in facial expressions that were mainly related to expressions of fear [352] , but others take reported impairments in recognizing facial expressions of happiness and anger [353] .

The somatic marker hypothesis provides an interesting link between the CNDS hypothesis of Bickel and colleagues ( [333] ; see above) and the dark side of Koob and Le Moal [340,341] . Peculiarly intriguing is the hypothesis that overactivity of the amygdala, combined with the hypoactivity of superlative-down control, can trigger impulsivity equally outlined past Verdejo-Garcia and Bechara [347] . Indeed, i could argue that the somatic mark hypothesis lays the foundation for a neurobiological circuit for the phenomenon of negative urgency [342] . I take-home message is that imaging and neuropsychological studies in the addiction field should engage more than of the dark side in tasks that reflect elements of negative emotional states that are associated with drug withdrawal and protracted abstinence, not only from the perspective of negative reinforcement simply too from the perspective of impulsivity and conclusion making.

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