Chapter 15 Flashcards
Low level consciousness
Includes cognition & rhythms
High Level consciousness
Includes dreams, hypnosis & drugs
Consciousness
Our awareness of ourselves & our environment.
Cognitive neuroscience
The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked to our mental processes - relating specific brain states to conscious experiences.
Dual Processing
Unconscious processing occurring simultaneously on several different tracks. (conscious and unconscious)
Blindsight
is the ability of people who are cortically blind due to lesions in their striate cortex, to respond to visual stimuli that they do not consciously see.
Parallel processing
the ability of the brain to simultaneously process incoming stimuli of differing quality.
Selective attention
When your mind focuses on one specific thing in your environment. EX: hearing only one voice in a busy room.
Inattentional blindness
It may be further defined as the event in which an individual fails to recognize an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight due to lack of attention.
Change Blindness
Is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it.
Change Deafness
When listening to audio, people did not notice a change in the narrator.
Circadian Rhythm
Internal 24 hr clock.
Alpha Waves
type of brain wave that occur when a person is relaxed, but still awake. Alpha waves typically occur when you are falling asleep, as you pass from wakefulness into sleep
Hallucinations
Sensory experiences that occur without sensory stimuli.
Delta Waves
These brain waves are thought to emerge from the thalamus and are generally associated with slow-wave sleep (during stages three and four of the stages of sleep. This period of time during which delta waves occur is often known as deep sleep.
Suprachiasmic nucleus
A pair of rice sized 10,000 cell clusters in the hypothalamus. Causes the pineal gland to produce less melatonin in the morning.
5 Reasons we sleep
1 - Sleep protects. We do our best/safest hunting in the day time. sleep protects us as we are not built to hunt at night.
2- Sleep helps us recuperate. Helps the immune system and repairs brain tissue.
3 - Helps restore our memories of the day. sleep consolidates our memories.
4 - Sleep facilitates creative thinking. Dreams can inspire us.
5 - Sleep supports growth. During sleep the pituitary gland releases hormones necessary for muscle growth,
Insomnia
Persistent problems staying/falling asleep, resulting in exhaustion and increased depression.
Narcolepsy
people who have sudden and overwhelming attacks of sleepiness, usually lasting 5 minutes.
Sleep Apnea
People intermittently stop breathing during sleep.
Night Terrors
Affects children mostly, who have increased heart rate, appear terrified and may sit up and walk around.
Dreams
Dreams are vivid, emotional and sometimes bizarre.
Why we dream
1 - Satisfy our desires. A safe place to experience things that we don’t feel safe to experience in reality.
2 - File away memories. sort through the day’s experiences.
3- Develop and preserve neural pathways.
4 - Make sense of neural static. Dreams are the brains attempt to synthesize random brain activity.
5 - Reflect cognitive development. See dreams as a form of cognitive maturation.
Manifest content
The remembered storyline of a dream.
Latent content
unconscious drives and wishes that would be threatening if expressed directly.
REM Rebound
is the lengthening and increasing frequency and depth of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which occurs after periods of sleep deprivation.
