...Chapter 7: Consciousness Flashcards
What neurotransmitter systems are related to wakefulness? (Useful acronym: HANS). How about REM sleep and non-REM sleep?
Wakefulness (Histamine, Acetocholine, Noepinephrine, Serotonin). REM sleep (ACh, Norep, Serotonin [inactive]) Non-REM Sleep (decreases Ach, Norep, Serotonin)
How does consciousness differ from attention and working memory?
Attention? (But, attention seems to be the access control mechanism that determines what will, or will not, become conscious. Example: You listen in order to hear. ) Working memory?(Consciousness coordinates a number of sources from the past and present [as well as thoughts about the future]. Working memory is a tool of consciousness.)
What are three characteristics of consciousness listed by Pinker?
Sentience (Subjective experience, phenomenal awareness, feelings. ) Access to Information (The ability to report on the content of mental experiences without being able to report on how this content was created biologically. ) Self-Knowledge (Having accurate information about the “self”)
What is a coma?
Coma: A complete loss of consciousness due to damage to the brainstem or widespread damage to both hemispheres. Suppressed brainstem reflexes (e.g., pupil dilation). Patients who survive will recover to a higher stage of consciousness in 2-4 weeks.
What is a permanent vegetative state? Describe the fMRI study that assessed ‘consciousness’ in these patients.
Permanent veg state: when your one year in persistent veg which is 4weeks in veg which is coma due to lack of brain oxygen. fMRI study got people to either think of playing tennis as yes or walking through their house as no. This made different brain areas light u o could essentially talk to the person (5/54 responded)
What is blindsight?
Patients who suffer a lesion in their visual cortex can still respond to visual stimuli presented in the blind part of their visual field (not conscious of what they’re seeing)
What do studies of anesthetized patients tell us about unconscious perception?
that even when we’re for sure unconsious, we still on some level preiciece things as sen by the ability to recall the surgeons words when completely under
What did Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc (1980) discover?
found that rapidly (1 msec) presentations of images increased participants affective preference for those items. Participants did not consciously perceive the items, but they were still unconsciously influenced.
What is subliminal perception? Describe Marcel’s (1983) experiment investigating subliminal perception.
subliminal perception is when you see something without consciously being aware that you saw it, Marcel (1983) calculated each participants individual threshold for consciousness. Demonstrated subliminal semantic priming. This result suggests that our unconscious is relatively smart.
What do bi-stable figures (the vase/face illusion) and binocular rivalry tell us about consciousness?
bi-stable figures tell us that We cannot consciously perceive multiple representations of the same stimulus at the same time. We therefore just quickly flip back and forth between representations. Binocular rivalry (two dif images to the two eyes, and you can only focus on one at a time)
What is the logic of opposition, as it pertains to the study of unconscious perception?
normally pure measures are3 not used and you don’t know if its conscious unoncous or fringe consiouness. Therefore you need to design study so that C and U show quantitatively different patterns like exclusion task: flashing a word very quick (people did;t know it was flashed) and then giving a fill in the word that’s pl_ _ _ they will say the word that was flashed EVEN when told to put anything but said word.
How does continuous flash suppression work?
In CFS, dynamic (flashing) stimuli are presented to one eye through goggles. This changing stimulus will suppress the perception of a static image presented to the other eye. However, fearful faces „break through‟ this suppression more quickly than neutral faces. (normally our eyes just focus on the moving object and not the static one, but when the static is threatening we divert out attention)
How are neuronal cell assemblies related to consciousness? Do they likely involve rate coding or synchronous firing? Why?
Assemblies fire in unison, which binds them temporally. Perceptions are made up of multiple assemblies. Assembly coding requires a mechanism that consistently groups the same neural assembly together (e.g., the conscious experience of seeing a red rose). Likely synchronous firing because assemblies fire together to create a conscious perception. (fine details that bind together to make a moment, must have neutrons firing simultaneously therefore function bound unite, schcronized)
How does attention influence consciousness, at least as they relate to cell assemblies?
attention helps base info that enters mind. Attention biases the competition among cell assemblies, particularly during their formation. Bottom-up influences via cortical layer 5 neurons projecting to the thalamus and superior colliculus. Top-down influences via layers I, II, and III, and possibly through intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus (which connect to the PFC).
