Chapter 4 - Consciousness Flashcards
Consciousness
- Persons awareness of everything that goes on around them at any given moment.
- Generated by set of action potentials in communications among neurons.
Waking consciousness
- Thoughts, feelings, and sensations are clear and organized and person feels alert.
Altered state of consciousness
- Shift in quality or pattern of mental activity as compared to waking consciousness.
Suprachiasmatic nucleus
- Tiny section of brain (in hypothalamus)that influences Glandular system.
- internal clock that tells person when to wake and to sleep.
- Hypothalamus tells pineal gland to secrete melatonin (makes person feel sleepy)
Sleep deprivation
-Any significant loss of sleep; results in irritability and problems with concentration.
Rapid eye movement (REM)
- Eyes move rapidly under eyelids when person is typically experiencing a dream.
Electroencephalogram (EEG)
- Allows scientists to see brainwave activity as a person passes through various stages of sleep and to determine what type of sleep person has entered.
Alpha waves
- Brain waves that indicate state of relaxation or light sleep.
Theta waves
- Brain waves indicating early stages of sleep.
Delta waves
- Long, slow waves that indicate the deepest stage of sleep.
N1: Light sleep
- Easiest to wake a person up.
May experience: - Hypnagogic images: hallucinations or vivid visual events.
- Hypnic Jerk: Knees, legs, or whole body jerks.
N2: Sleep Spindles
- Brief bursts of activity only lasting a second or two.
N3: Delta Waves
- deepest stage of sleep (50% or more waves are delta waves)
- Body at lowest level of functioning-Time at which growth occurs.
R: Rapid eye movement
- REM Sleep is paradoxical Sleep (high level of brain activity).
- More vivid, detailed, and longer dreams.
REM rebound
-Increased amounts of REM sleep after being deprived of REM sleep on earlier nights.
Nightmares
- Bad dreams occurring during REM sleep. More coming in children.
REM behavior disorder
- Mechanism that blocks movement of the voluntary muscles fails.
- Allows person to thrash around, or get up and act out nightmares.
- may be sign of Parkinson and Alzheimer
Night terrors
- Person experiences extreme fear and screams or runs around during deep sleep.
- Doesn’t wake fully.
- occurs in and up to 56% of young children, decreases with age.
Sleepwalking (Somnambulism)
- Episode of moving around or walking around in ones sleep and occurs during deep sleep.
- More common among the children than adults.
- Sleepwalking can be a defense against criminal charges.
Insomnia
- Inability to get sleep, stay asleep, or get a good quality of sleep.
Sleep apnea
- Disorder in which a person stops breathing for nearly half a minute or more.
- Continuous positive airway pressure device (CPAP)
Narcolepsy
- Sleep disorder in which a person falls immediately into REM sleep during the day without warning.
- Cataplexy: sudden loss of muscle tone
Restless leg syndrome
- Uncomfortable sensations in legs causing movement and loss of sleep.
Nocturnal leg cramps
- painful cramps in calf or foot muscles.
Hypersomnia
- Excessive daytime sleepiness.
Circadian rhythm disorder
- Disturbances of sleep-wake cycle such as jet lag and shift work.
Enuresis
-Urinating while asleep in bed.
Freud: dreams as wish fulfillment
- Manifest content: the dream it’s self.
- Latent content: true, hidden meaning of a dream.
Women dream about
-People if they know, personal appearance concerns, issues related to family and home.
Men dream about
- Outdoor or unfamiliar settings; may involve weapons, tools, cars, or sexual dreams with unknown partners.
Psychoactive drugs (dependence)
- Alter thinking, perception, and memory.
Physical dependence
- tolerance: More of drug is needed to achieve same affect.
- Withdrawal: Physical symptoms resulting from lack of an addictive drug in body systems. (nausea, pain, tremors, crankiness, and high blood pressure)
Brain plays important role in dependency
- Drugs enter brains reward pathway, causing release of dopamine and intense pleasure.
- Brain tries to adapt by decreasing synaptic receptors for dopamine.
- more drugs now needed to achieve same pleasure response - drug tolerance.
Psychological dependence
- Feeling that drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotional or psychological well-being.
- any drug can cause this.
Stimulants
-Drugs that increase functioning of nerve system.
Amphetamines
-Drugs that are synthesized (made in labs) rather than found in nature.
Cocaine
- natural drug: produces euphoria, energy, power, and pleasure.
Nicotine
- active ingredient in tobacco.
Caffeine
- stimulant found in coffee, tea, most sodas, chocolate, and many over-the-counter drugs.
Depressants
-drugs that decrease functioning of nervous system.
Barbiturates
- depressant drugs with sedative effect.
Benzodiazepines
- lower anxiety and reduce stress.
Rohypnol
- “Date rape” drug.
Alcohol
- chemical resulting from fermentation or distillation of various kinds of vegetable matter.
- often mistaken for a stimulate, actually a CNS depressant.
- most commonly used and abused depressant.
Opiates
-Suppress sensation of pain by binding to and stimulating nervous systems natural receptor sites for endorphins.
Opium
- Substances made from opium poppy and from which all narcotic drugs are derived.
Morphine
-Narcotic drug derived from opium; used to treat severe pain.
Heroin
- narcotic drug derived from opium that is extremely addictive.
Hallucinogens
- Manufactured highs: developed in labs.
- Drugs that cause false sensory messages, altering perception of reality.
LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide)
- Powerful synthetic hallucinogen.
PCP
Synthesized drug now used as animal tranquilizer that can cause stimulants, depressant, narcotic, or hallucinogen effects.
MDMA (ecstasy or X)
- designer drug that can have both stimulant and hallucinating effects.
Stimulating hallucinogenics
-Drugs producing mixture of psychomotor stimulant and hallucinogenic effects.
Marijuana
- Nonmanufatured high: naturally occurring.
- mild hallucinogen derived from elves and flowers of type of hemp plant.
- produces feeling of well-being, mild intoxication, mild sensory distortions or hallucinations.
- Affects reaction time and perception of surroundings.
- Psychologically addicting.
Hypnogogic Hallucination
- can occur just as a person is entering N1 sleep.
Hypnopompic hallucination
- happens just as person is in between-state of being in REM sleep (voluntary muscles are paralyzed) and not yet fully awake.
Withdrawal
- Physical symptoms that can include nausea, pain, tremors, crankiness, and high blood pressure, resulting from a lack of an addictive drug in the body systems.
Drug tolerance
- The decrease of the response to a drug over repeated uses, leading to the need for higher doses of drug to achieve the same effect.
Sleep paralysis
- The inability of the voluntary muscles to move during REM sleep.
Beta waves
- Smaller and faster brain waves, typically indicating mental activity.
Non-REM sleep
-any of the stages of sleep that do not include REM.
Hallucinogenic
-drugs including hallucinogens and marijuana that produce hallucinations or increased feelings of relaxation and intoxication.
