Class 22

Question 1

Two dimensions of consciousness

Answer 1

• Wakefulness
• Awareness

Question 2

Qualia

Answer 2

subjective aspects of experience

Question 3

The explanatory gap

Answer 3

(or the hard problem)
can one get from physicalism to explaining qualia?

Question 4

Realism asserts that consciousness

Answer 4

is a distinct property

Question 5

illusionism argues that consciousness

Answer 5

doesn’t actually exist and the question is why we think it does

Question 6

Reticular activating system mainly comprised of input from (is involved in)

Answer 6

(RAS)
brainstem (medulla and pons)

• Arousal, sleep-wake cycles

Question 7

Damage to different areas the reticular activating system this system can result in

Answer 7

varying degrees of disorders of consciousness

Question 8

2 pathways of the RAS

Answer 8

Dorsal (acetylcholine)
Ventral (norepinephrine + serotonin)

Question 9

Dorsal RAS Pathway

Answer 9

(acetylcholine): thalamus, modulates cortical excitation

Question 10

Ventral RAS Pathway

Answer 10

(norepinephrine + serotonin): hypothalamus + basal forebrain, sleep and wakefulness

Question 11

Sleep/wake cycles coordinated via the

Answer 11

suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus

Question 12

Both __ and __ mechanisms are implicated in controlling arousal

Answer 12

circadian and homeostatic mechanisms (e.g. adenosine)

Question 13

Sleep pressure

Answer 13

adnosine involved in

Question 14

Homeostatic systems for ___ work by ____

Answer 14

sleep promotion work by

inhibiting the RAS and other parts of the arousal circuitry

Question 15

Caffeine is an ____

Answer 15

adenosine receptor antagonist and prevents adenosine’s effects

Question 16

P3a respond to __

Amplitude of P3a has been considered ___

Answer 16

rare, task-irrelevant sounds

an index of how ‘distracted’ someone is by an incoming sound that is not relevant to the task at hand

Question 17

P3b respond to __

P3b is taken as an ___

Answer 17

task-relevant target processing

indication that the participant is processing this information actively and has awareness of it

Question 18

P3b

P3b is taken as an ___

Answer 18

task-relevant target processing

indication that the participant is processing this information actively and has awareness of it

Question 19

Patterns of activity that accompany a specific experience can be studied by ___

Answer 19

looking at stimuli that do not differ in physical quality but can report different percepts (i.e. multistable illusions)

Question 20

Differential perception of an illusion also changes

Answer 20

underlying neural patterns for the same stimulus, according to variations in what and where is heard

Question 21

Awareness without attention:

Answer 21

dual-task studies where unattended info was identified

Question 22

Attention without awareness:

Answer 22

masked priming studies

Question 23

We can only be conscious about a limited ___ but __-

Answer 23

number of things at a time, but
even information that doesn’t reach our consciousness is processed

(ex. masked priming)

Question 24

Disorders of consciousness clinically defined as

Answer 24

when there is a failure to either the systems responsible for wakefulness/aroussal or awareness

Question 25

Unresponsive wakefulness state demonstrates

Answer 25

persistent vegetative state

sleep/wake cycles, spontaneous breathing, reflexes, but does no show capacity to interact with others

Question 26

Minimally conscious state, demonstrates

Answer 26

Can demonstrate some measurable evidence of awareness, such as responding to yes/no questions

Question 27

Behavioural assessments of consciousness can

Answer 27

be unreliable and lead to a misdiagnosis of a patient

Question 28

Libet’s task

Answer 28

Unscheduled activity with a weak imperative to move:

‘You can do it whenever you want… but you should do it at some point’

Look at clock as hand move around screen - at some point move hand. Tried to mesure when person choese to move hand. Take note when you had concous desire to move happened. Mesure EEG activity. slow ramp up to when someone makes activty begining 3 seconds before move but concouss report its millasceonds before move. - Free Will?

Question 29

Problems with Libet

Answer 29

only timeframs when making dicisson but not when deciding to not do something

by removing all times movement didnt have, removing some random flucutations.

Question 30

Researchers have been able to decode what a subsequent choice of digit would be based on

Answer 30

neural activity from up to 4 seconds prior

If red line is the peak of activity where decisson is made, but activity increased even before conous awatness, decpde what discission is made.

Question 31

In the absence of a purpose for action, it may be that ____ contribute an impetus for when to move

Answer 31

flucations of neural activity

Question 32

deliberate movements & readiness potential

Answer 32

Unlike arbitrary movements, deliberate movements did not demonstrate a readiness potential

Deleberatte vs arbartary result - (arbtary the dicisson made has no impact on the result)

delebrate - give money to one org vs another - no ramp of activity charatraize readness potental. - actuall decission making

Question 33

What is Concsciousness

Answer 33

awarnes of ones onwn existance, sensation, thoughts, surroundsings, etc.

having an experence

Question 34

masked priming

Answer 34

presented very quickly

not report what they saw

but still see that informatoin has an input

Question 35

locked in syndrome

Answer 35

arrousal and awarness but cannot move body at all

(but could blink)

Question 36

Communicating with people with DOCs

Answer 36

in MRI ask to imagine tenis or imagne walking in room

expect areas involved in spatal processing to be actvated

Stduy shows can hear and respons accodignly to directoins, give oppurtunity to ask other questions