Chapter 3 Flashcards
What is consciousness?
Our awareness of ourselves and our environment
What is cognitive neuroscience?
The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)
What is consciousness to psychologists?
It is a fundamental yet slippery concept.
At its beginning, psychology was “the description and explanation of states of consciousness”. During the first half of the twentieth century, the difficultly of scientifically studying consciousness led many psychologists to turn to?
Direct observations of behavior. By the 1960s psychology had nearly lost consciousness and was defining itself as “the science of behavior”
What is cognition?
Mental processes
Evolutionary psychologists speculate that consciousness offers a?
Reproductive advantage
What questions are at the heart of cognitive neuroscience?
“How do brain cells jabbering to one another create our awareness of the taste of a taco, the idea of infinity, the feeling of fright?”
In addition to normal, waking awareness, consciousness comes to us in altered states including?
Daydreaming (spontaneously), sleeping, meditating (psychologically induced), and drug induced hallucinating (physiologically)
What is dual processing?
The principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
What does blindsight mean?
A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it
Perception, memory, thinking, language, and attitudes all operate on two levels
A conscious, deliberate “high road”, and an unconscious, automatic “low road”
The human brain is a device for converting?
Conscious into unconscious knowledge
The eye sends information simultaneously to different?
Brain areas, which support different tasks
A visual perception track enables us to?
“Think about the world”, to recognize things and to plan future actions
A visual action track guides our?
Moment to moment movements
Define selective attention
It is the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
Unconscious parallel processing is faster than?
Conscious sequential processing, but both are essential.
- Parallel processing enables your mind to take care of routine business.
- Sequential processing is skilled at solving new problems, which requires your focused attention
What are the mind’s two tracks, and what is dual processing?
Our mind has a separate conscious and unconscious tracks which perform dual processing which is organizing and interpreting information simultaneously
Describe the cocktail party effect
It is our ability to pay attention to one voice over the many others
At the level of conscious awareness, we are “blind” to all but?
A tiny sliver of visual stimuli
Inattentional blindness is a by-product of?
What we are really good at which is focusing attention on some part of our environment
What is inattentional blinds?
When we fail to see visible objects when we are focused on something else
Draw our eyes and demand our attention
Popouts
What is change blindness?
When we fail to notice changes in our environment
What is the circadian rhythm?
It is our biological clock; regular bodily rhythms (temp., and wakefulness) that occur on a 24 hr cycle
EEG recordings confirm that the brain’s auditory cortex responds to?
Sound stimuli even during sleep
True or false:
1) When people dream of performing some activity, their limbs often move in concert with the dream
2) Older adults sleep more than young adults
3) Sleep experts recommend treating insomnia with an occasional sleeping pill
4) Sleep walkers are acting out their dreams
5) Some people dream every night, others seldom dream
All of the statements are false
What does circadian mean?
From latin circa, “about”, and diem, “day”
What can alter our circadian rhythm?
Age and experience
Dolphins, porpoises, and whales sleep with?
One side of their brain at a time
What is REM sleep?
Rapid eye movement sleep; a recurring sleep stage during which vivid dreams commonly occur. Also known as paradoxical sleep, because the muscles are relaxed (except for minor twitches) but other body systems are active
What are alpha waves?
The relatively slow brain waves of a relaxed, awake state
Define sleep
A periodic, natural loss of consciousness- as distinct from unconsciousness resulting from a coma, general anesthesia, or hibernation
What are hallucinations?
They are false sensory experiences, such as seeing something in the absence of an external visual stimulus
What are delta waves?
The large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep
About every ___ minutes, you cycle through four distinct sleep stages
90
What can you experience during the brief NREM-1 or Stage 1 sleep?
- Fantastic images resembling hallucinations
* May have a sensation of falling or floating weightlessly
After stage 1 you can begin Stage 2 for about 20 minutes with periodic sleep spindles which are?
Burst of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity
What happens during REM state
Unlike stage 1, during REM sleep your
- heart rate rises
- breathing becomes rapid & irregular
- every half minute or so your eyes dart around in momentary bursts of activity behind closed lids
- This is when we dream
- Genitals become aroused
- Brains motor cortex is active but brainstem blocks its messages
- Cannot easily be awakened
- Sometimes called paradoxical sleep
- Paralysis
Why would communal sleeping provide added protection for those whose safety depends upon vigilance, such as soldiers?
With each soldier cycling through the sleep stages independently, it is very likely that at any given time at least one of them will be awake or easily wakened in the event of a threat
The sleep cycle repeats itself about every 90 minutes for younger adults, how much for the older adults?
More frequently
What are the 4 sleep stages, and in what order do we normally travel through those stages?
Stage 1, stage 2, stage 3, stage 4, REM and we normally go through them in: Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, then back up through Stage2 before we experience REM sleep
Story like dreams
REM
Fleeting images
Stage 1 or NREM-1
Minimal awareness
Stage 3 or NREM-3
Our sleep patterns are?
Genetically influenced
With sleep as with waking behavior, what interacts?
Biology and environment
What is the affect of light on us?
It activates light-sensitive retinal proteins. This signals the brain’s suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease production of melatonin (sleep inducing hormone)
What is the suprachiasmatic nucleus?
A pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that responds to light sensitive retinal proteins; causes pineal gland to increase or decrease production of melatonin, thus modifying our feelings of sleepiness
The ________ nucleus helps monitor the brain’s release of melatonin, which affects our _______ rhythm
Suprachiasmatic
Circadian
What are 5 sleep theories?
1) Sleep protects (has survival value)
2) Sleep helps us recuperate (helps restore & repair brain tissue)
3) Sleep helps restore & rebuild our fading memories of the days experiences (During sleep, we strengthen memory traces)
4) Sleep feeds creative thinking
5) Sleep supports growth
How can sleep loss make you gain weight?
Sleep deprivation increases ghrelin, a hunger arousing hormone, and decreases its hunger-suppressing partner, leptin. It also increases cortisol, a stress hormone that stimulates the body to make fat
How does sleep affect our immune system?
When infections set in we typically sleep more, boosting our immune cells. Sleep loss can suppress our immune cells that battle viral infections & cancer
What is insomnia?
Recurring problems in falling or staying asleep
How does sleep deprivation affect the brain?
Diminished attentional focus and memory consolidation; increased risk of depression
How does sleep deprivation affect the Immune system?
Suppression of immune cell production & increased risk of viral infections such as colds
How does sleep deprivation affect the Fat cells?
Increased production; greater risk of obesity
How does sleep deprivation affect the Joints?
Increased inflammation and arthritis
How does sleep deprivation affect the heart?
Increased risk of high blood pressure
How does sleep deprivation affect the stomach?
Increased hunger-arousing gherlin and decreased hunger suppression leptin
How does sleep deprivation affect the muscles?
Reduced strength; slower reaction time and motor learning
The most common quick fixes for true insomnia are sleeping pills and alcohol, why are these not a good idea?
These can aggravate the problem, reducing REM sleep & leaving the person the next day feeling blah. They can also lead to tolerance (state in which increasing doses are needed to produce an effect)
What is narcolepsy?
A sleep disorder characterized by uncontrollable sleep attacks. The sufferer may lapse directly into REM sleep, often at inappropriate times
Define sleep apnea
A sleep disorder characterized by temporary cessations of breathing during sleep & repeated momentary awakenings
What are night terrors?
A sleep disorder characterized by high arousal and an appearance of being terrified; unlike nightmares, night terrors occur during stage 3 sleep, within two or three hours of falling asleep, & are seldom remembered.
Define dreams
A sequence of images, emotions, & thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind. Dreams are notable for their hallucinatory imagery, discontinuities, and incongruities, and for the dreamer’s delusional acceptance of the content and later difficulties remembering it.
What stage does sleep walking occur?
Stage 3
What is manifest content?
According to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream (as distinct from its latent, or hidden, content
What is latent content?
According to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream (as distinct from its manifest content)
Explain the dream theory: Freud’s wish-fulfillment
What are the critical considerations?
Dreams provide a “psychic safety valve”- expressing otherwise unacceptable feelings; contain manifest (remembered content) & a deeper layer of latent content (hidden meaning)
Critical considerations: Lacks any scientific support; dreams may be interpreted in many different ways
Explain the dream theory: information processing
What are the critical considerations?
Dreams help us sort out the day’s events and consolidate our memories
Critical considerations: But why do we sometimes dream about things we have not experienced?
Explain the dream theory: Physiological function
What are the critical considerations?
Regular brain stimulation from REM sleep may help develop & preserve neural pathways
Critical considerations: This does not explain why we experience meaningful dreams
Explain the dream theory: Neural activation
What are the critical considerations?
REM sleep triggers neural activity that evokes random visual memories, which our sleeping brain weaves into stories
Critical considerations: The individual’s brain is weaving the stories, which still tells us something about the dreamer
Explain the dream theory: Cognitive development
What are the critical considerations?
Dream content reflects dreamers’ cognitive development- their knowledge & understanding
Critical considerations: Does not address the neuroscience of dreams
Most other mammals also experience REM rebound suggesting that the causes and function of REM sleep are?
Deeply biological
Biological and psychological explanations of behavior are?
Partners, not competitors
What is REM rebound?
The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation (credited by repeated awakenings during REM sleep)
Define hypnosis
A social interaction in which one person (the hypnotist) suggests to another (the subject) the certain perceptions, feelings, thoughts, or behaviors will spontaneously occur
What is hypnotic ability?
The ability to focus attention totally on a task, to become imaginatively absorbed in it, to entertain fanciful possibilities
Can hypnosis relieve pain?
Yes
Hypnosis inhibits?
Pain-related brain activity
When is the use of hypnosis potentially harmful, and when can it be used to help?
Can plant false memories.
Can help with pain
What is post hypnotic suggestion?
A suggestion, made during a hypnosis session, to be carried out after the subject is no longer hypnotized; used by some clinicians to help control undesired symptoms and behaviors
A split in consciousness, which allows some thoughts and behaviors to occur simultaneously with others
Dissociation
Hypnosis reduces brain activity in?
The region that processes painful stimuli
A chemical substance that alters perceptions and moods
Psychoactive drug
What is neuroadaptation?
The user’s brain chemistry adapts to offset the drug effect
Drugs such as alcohol, barbiturates (tranquilizers), and opiates that calm neural activity & slow body functions
Depressants
Drugs that depress central nervous system activity, reducing anxiety but impairing memory and judgment
Barbiturates
Opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; they depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety
Opiates
Drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy, and methamphetamine) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions
Stimulants
Drugs that stimulate neural activity, causing speeded-up body functions and associated energy and mood changes
Amphetamines
Cocaine is snorted, injected, or smoked. It enters the bloodstream quickly, producing a rush of euphoria that depletes the brain’s supply of?
The neurotransmitters dopamine, serotonin, and norephinephrine
A powerful addictive drug that stimulates the CNS, with speeded up body functions and associated energy and mood changes, over time, appears to reduce baseline dopamine levels
Methamphetamine
A synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition
Ecstasy (MDMA)
Psychedelic (“mind-manifesting”) drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions & evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input
Hallucinogens
A powerful hallucinogenic drug; also known as (lysergic acid diethylamide)
LSD
An altered state of consciousness reported after a close brush with death (such as through cardiac arrest); often similar to drug-induced hallucinations
near-death experience
The brain emits large, slow delta waves during _____ sleep
NREM-3
As the night progresses, what happens to the REM stage of sleep?
It increases in duration
In interpreting dreams, Freud was most interested in their ?
Latent content, or hidden meaning
Near death experiences are strikingly similar to the hallucinations evoked by?
LSD
