Q17 - Cardiac Cycle and Amygdala Fear Response

Theoretical 1 Real exam question - full text reproduced under IBO's CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license

Nervous System Physiology Cardiovascular Physiology

Perception of the emotional stimuli is a reciprocal process between the brain and the heart. In an experimental task, pictures depicting facial expressions were quickly and sequentially presented to the subjects at different phases of the cardiac cycle. Participants then rated the emotional intensity of the faces in a scale of 0 to 100. Given the role of the amygdala in the process of fear, the amygdala response was measured in normal individuals and subjects with pure autonomic failure (PAF) at the time of presenting facial expression images (using the fMRI method). The results of the study are as follows. (Consider p < 0.05 indicates significant difference between groups).

Figure 1. Figure 1.

Using the information and data, determine which of the statements are true or which are false.

A. Perception of the fear face in the systolic phase is higher than the diastole phase.

B. The difference between systolic and diastolic response of the amygdala to neutral face images is the opposite of facial expressions of fear.

C. Increasing the arterial baroreceptors sensitivity in the carotid and aorta may cause a significant reduction in the perception of the fear.

D. Increased blood flow to amygdala in the systolic phase compare to the diastole phase cannot explain the results of this study.

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Question reproduced from IBO 2018, Theoretical Paper 1, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 - attributed to the International Biology Olympiad. Open the full exam PDF · Community solutions (unofficial)