Behavioral Neuroscience: Exam 4 Flashcards
1
Q
How much sleep do we need?
A
The vast amount of time spent sleeping suggests that sleep has a significant biological function.
-Most people sleep over 175,000 hours in their lifetime
2
Q
Three standard measures of sleep…
A
- EEG
- EOG
- EMG
3
Q
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
A
- Reveals “brainwaves
- Primary measure that is used
4
Q
Electrooculogram (EOG)
A
-Records eye movements seen during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
5
Q
Electromyogram (EMG)
A
-Detects loss of activity in neck muscles during some sleep stages
6
Q
Alpha Waves
A
- Bursts of 8-12 Hz EEG waves
- Eyes closed, preparing to sleep
- Relaxed state
7
Q
Four Stages of Sleep #1
A
Stage 1
- Similar to awake EEG, but slower
- Low voltage, high-frequency
8
Q
Four Stages of Sleep #2
A
Stage 2
- K Complexes: One large negative (upward deflection) wave followed by one large positive wave
- Sleep Spindles: Bursts of 12-14 Hz waves
Stage 1
- Similar to awake EEG, but slower
- Low voltage, high-frequency
9
Q
Four Stages of Sleep #3 & #4
A
Stage 3 & Stage 4
- SWS (slow wave sleep)
- Delta waves, large and slow
- Not taking in or sending out any information
10
Q
Emergent Stage 1
A
When you come out of deep sleep, this is where you dream.
11
Q
REM Sleep
A
Rapid Eye Movement Sleep
This is where you dream, during REM we experience loss of core muscle tone, low amplitude/ high frequency EEG, increased cerebral and autonomic activity, muscles may twitch, penile erection
12
Q
REM Sleep and Dreaming
A
- 80% of awakenings from REM yield reports of story-like dreams
- External stimuli may be incorporated into dreams
- Dreams run on real time
- Everyone dreams
- Penile erections are not a result of erotic dreams
- Sleepwalking and talking are less likely to occur while dreaming
13
Q
Freuds Interpretation of Dreams
A
Dreams are triggered by unacceptable repressed wishes.
14
Q
Manifest Dreams
A
What we experience.
15
Q
Latent Dream
A
The underlying meaning.
16
Q
Activation-Synthesis Theory
A
- Modern alternative to Freud’s explanation of dreams
- Dreams due to cortex’s attempt to make sense of random bran activity
17
Q
Recuperation Theories
A
- Sleep is needed to restore homeostasis
- Wakefulness causes a deviation from homeostasis
18
Q
Adaptation Theories
A
- Sleep is the result of an internal timing mechanism
- Sleep evolved to protect us from the dangers of the night
19
Q
Comparative Analysis of Sleep
A
- All mammals and birds sleep - must have an important function
- Not necessarily needed in large quantities
- No clear relationship between species’ sleep time and activity level
20
Q
Effects of Sleep Deprivation
A
- The more you are deprived, the more bad effects your going to have
- Long periods of wakefulness will result in disturbances
- Disturbances will get worse as deprivation continues
- After deprivation, much of the missed sleep will be regained
21
Q
2 Consistent Effects of Sleep Deprivation
A
- Proceed more rapidly into REM as REM deprivation increases
- REM rebound - more time spent in REM when deprivation is over
22
Q
Circadium Rhythm
A
“about a day”
-A biological pattern in the body, where different systems in the body shift their function depending on the time of day
23
Q
Zeitgebers
A
Environmental cues that entrain circadian cycles
24
Q
Psychoactive Drugs
A
Drugs that influence subjective experience and behavior by acting on the nervous system
25
Drug Administration
Route of administration influences the rate at which and the degree to which the drug reaches its site of action
26
Ingestion
- Oral route
- Easy and relatively safe
- Absorption via digestive tract is unpredictable
27
Injection
- Bypasses digestive tract
- Subcutaneously (SC): under the skin
- Intramuscularly (IM): into large muscles
- Intravenously (IV): into veins, drug delivered directly to brain
28
Inhalation
- Tobacco and marijuana
| - Absorbed through capillaries in lungs and sometimes in the nose (cribiform plate)
29
Absorption through mucous members...
-Nose, mouth, rectum
30
Mechanisms of Drug Action
- In order for a psychoactive drug to have an effect, it must get to the brain, it must pass through the blood-brain barrier
- Action of most drugs is terminated by enzymes in the liver - drug metabolism
- Small amounts may also be excreted in urine, sweat, feces, breath and mother's milk
31
Drug Tolerance
Decreased sensitivity to a drug as a consequence of exposure to it
-Shift in the dose-response cure to right
32
Cross Tolerance
Exposure to one drug can produce tolerance to similar drugs
| Ex: alcohol and benzodiazephines
33
Metabolic Drug Tolerence
Less drug is getting to the site of action
34
Functional Drug Tolerance
Decreased responsiveness at the site of action; fewer receptors; decreased efficiency of binding at receptors; receptors less responsive
35
Drug Withdrawal Effects
- Seen when drug use is terminated
- Symptoms are the opposite of the drug's effects
- Body has made changes to compensate for drug's presence - functions normally with the drug present
- Severity varies with drug pattern of use
36
Addicts...
are those who continue to use a drug despite its adverse effects on health and social life
-Addiction and physical dependence may occur together or separately
37
Conditional Tolerance and Withdrawal
- Situational specificity of drug tolerance is well documented
- Addicts are more likely to overdose in unfamiliar surroundings
38
Exteroceptive/ Interoceptive cues
associated with drug-taking become conditioned stimuli that elicit conditioned stimuli that elicit conditioned compensatory responses, producing tolerance prior to drug use or withdrawal in the absence of the drug
39
5 Commonly Abused Drugs
- Tobacco
- Alcohol
- Marijuana
- Cocaine
- Opiates
40
Tobacco
Nicotine - major psychoactive ingredient
- About 70% of those who experiment with smoking become addicted
- Only about 20% of attempts to stop smoking are successful (most people are going to require trying to quit 5 times)
41
Smoker's Syndrom
Chest pain, labored breathing, wheezing, coughing, increased susceptibility to respiratory infections
42
Long-Term Tobacco Use
- Susceptible to pneumonia, bronchitits, emphysema, lung cancer
- Quitting smoking by age 40 adds an average of 9 years to lifespan
43
Alcohol
- A depressant
- Heritability estimate for alcohol addiction is about 55%
- Metabolic and functional tolerance develops
- Affects almost every tissue in the body
44
Effects of Chronic Alcohol Consumption
Severe withdrawal in 3 phases:
1: 5-6 hours post drinking, tremors, nausea, sweating, vommiting
2: 15-30hrs, convulsive activity
3: 24-48hrs, delirium tremens, may last 3-4 days
- Korsakoff's syndrome
- Cirrhosis
- Fetal alcohol syndrome (affects children of mothers who were heavy alcohol users during pregnancy)
45
Marijuana
- Cannabis sativa, common hemp plant
- THC, primary psychoactive constituent, although 80 others are present
- Endogenous transmitter is anandamide
- High doses impair short term memory and interfere with tasks involving multiple steps
- Addiction potential is low
- Negative effects of long-term use are far less severe than those associated with alcohol and tobacco
46
Adverse Effects of Heavy Marijuana Use
- Respiratory problems, cough, bronchitis, asthma
- Single large doses can trigger heart attacks in susceptible individuals
- No evidence that marijuana causes permanent brain damage
- Possible correlation between marijuana use and schizophrenia, but no causal link has been shown
47
Medicinal Uses of Marijuana
- Treats nausea
- Blocks seizures
- Dilates bronchioles of asthmatics
- Decreases severity of glaucoma
- Reduces some forms of pain
48
Cocaine and Other Stimulants
- Increase neural and behavioral activity
- Cocaine and its derivatives are commonly abused
- Cocaine is an effective local anethetic
Crack - a potent, cheap and smokable form of cocaine
49
Amphetamine
"speed"
| -Effects like cocaine, can produce psychosis
50
MDMA
"ecstasy"
- Impairs dopaminergic and seratonergic function in animal studies; human relevance unclear
- Impairs executive function, inhibitory control and decision making
51
Opiates: Heroin and Morphine
- Morphine and codeine obtained from the opium poppy
- Opiates, these drugs and others with similar structures or effects
- Medicinal uses, analgesics (pain killers), treatment of cough and diarrhea
- High risk of addiction
52
Opiate Addiction
- Drawn to use by the rush following IV injection
- Tolerance and physical dependence develop
- Desire to avoid withdrawal adds motivation to use
- Although highly addicative, direct health hazards are relatively minor
53
Treatment for Heroin Addiction
- Methadone binds to opiate receptors
- Produces less pleasure
- Administered orally
- Prevents withdrawal
- Substituting a less dangerous drug for the abused drug
54
Relapse and Its Causes
Stress - drug use as a coping mechanism
Priming - a single exposure leads to a relapse
Environmental cues - conditioned drug tolerance, returning to place where drugs once taken causes conditioned compensatory responses, craving and relapse
55
Brain "Pleasure Centers"
- Brain circuitry exists that reinforces behaviors
- Many species will work for stimulation of brain "pleasure centers"
- Discovered by Olds and Milner
- Drug use may be reinforced by acting on this circuitry
56
Mesotelencephalic Dopamine System
-Neurons projecting from two midbrains areas to the telencephalon
2 Pathways:
-Nigrostriatal Pathway - number one source for dopamine in the brain, substantia nigra neurons projecting to dorsal striatum
-Mesocorticolimbic Pathway - Ventral tegmental area neurons projecting to cortical and limbic sites, including the nucleus accumbens (the major reward pathway for ICSS, natural rewards and addictive drugs)
57
*Nucleus Accumbens*
The major "reward" pathway for ICSS, natural rewards, and addictive drugs
-When we take a drug that we like, this is the area of the brain that spikes
58
Mesocorticolimbic Pathway and Reward
- Self stimulation sites that do not contain dopaminergic neurons project here
- Increase in dopamine release seen here in self-stimulation studies
- Dopamine agonists tend to increase self-stimulation and antagonists to decrease
- Lesions here disrupt self-stimulation
