Conciousness and the Brain Flashcards
States of Consciousness:
- conciousness
- NWC
- ASC
Consciousness: the awareness of your own thoughts, feelings and perceptions (internal events and our surroundings (external stimuli) at any given moment. It’s a psychological construct.
Normal Waking Consciousness (NWC): The states of consciousness we experience when we are awake and aware of our internal events and the surrounding environment. Our experience during normal waking consciousness creates our reality and a baseline to judge all other states of consciousness.
Altered State of Consciousness (AWC): Any state of consciousness that deviates from normal walking consciousness. It can deliberately induced or occurs naturally. (In a coma, meditation etc.)
CHARACTERISTICS OF NORMAL WAKING CONSCIOUSNESS AND ALTERED STATE OF CONCIOUSNESS:
Levels of awareness:
NWC: How conscious you are of internal or external events. This varies in NWC.
Continuum of awareness - ranges from total awareness (focus/attention) to a complete lack of awareness/consciousness.
ASC: Decreases or increases compared with NWC as you become more or less aware of your perceptions and surroundings.
Content limitations:
NWC: Our thoughts are organised and logical as they are restricted.
ASC: Mental defences are generally lowered and the content of your thoughts may be broader, illogical and deeper.
Attention:
NWC:The information that you are actively processing, either consciously or outside our conscious awareness. Attention can be focussed on external or internal and shift consciously or unconsciously.
ASC: A lowered level of attention.
Automatic and Controlled processes:
NWC: Automatic: Requires little conscious awareness/mental effort. It doesn’t interfere with other activities as they are simple, easy-mastered tasks. EG: A 30 year old texting
Controlled: Requires actively focusing on one task and full conscious awareness, usually complex or new tasks. EG: Learning to drive
ASC: Difficult to carry out controlled processes and ability to perform some automatic processes can be impaired. In some altered states of consciousness, however, you may be so focused (an athlete in the zone) that you find some tasks easier.
Perception and Cognition Distortion:
NWC:Perception: Processes involving the way the brain organises and interprets sensory information.
Cognition: Relates to mental activities and it entails our knowledge, beliefs, thoughts and ideas that we have about our environment and ourselves.
ASC: Perception: Perception of sensory input can be vivid or duller.
Cognition: Tendency for cognitive functions to become distorted. Thoughts may become disorganised and thinking may lack logic and problem solving may be impaired.
Emotional Awareness:
NWC:The ability to be aware of our feelings and show a range of emotions that is normal for us and appropriate for the situation.
ASC: Emotions can be heightened or dulled. Unpredictable, emotionless or overly emotional.
Self-control:
NWC:The ability to monitor and direct personal behaviours and responses.
ASC: Ability to maintain self-control is often reduced, inhibitions are lowered and you might do things you would not do during a NWC. However, for other people there is a gain of self-control.
Time orientation:
NWC: The ability to correctly perceive the speed at which time passes.
ASC: Time tends to pass differently, may slow down or speed up and time is distorted.
EG: Thinking you have slept for 2 hours but it’s been 9 hours.
Define:
Selective attention
Selective Inattention
Divided attention
Cocktail party phenomenon
- *Selective attention:** The limitations placed on how much we can focus on at any given moment. It is usually difficult to attend to more than one event at the same time, especially if this requires a great deal of mental effort. (THINKING ABOUT DRIVING AND ONLY DRIVING)
- *Selective Inattention:** Diverting our attention away from our consciousness can be helpful or unhelpful. (TRYING NOT BE DISTRACTIVE)
- *Divided attention:** Our capacity to perform two or more activities at the same time and is generally only possible if the tasks can be performed with very little mental effort. (TEXTING WHILST TALKING TO SOMEONE)
Cocktail party phenomenon: Shows that much more information is processed in our consciousness than that to which we initially attend.
Explain the adaptive (survival) and restorative theories of sleep:
Adaptive and Evolutionary Theories:
- Sleep conserves energy: When an animal sleeps, its metabolism slows, thus reducing the need for food.
- Sleep depends on the need for food: Animals that need to graze for hours sleep less because they need to find more food to survive.
- Sleep depends on an animal’s vulnerability to predators: Small animals that are very vulnerable to predators sleep more so that they can hide safely from carnivores that will eat them. Larger prey animals sleep less because they are more exposed in their environment and need to be ready to escape from predators.
LIMITATIONS
- The assumption that sleep is very useful but not essential: All species sleep, despite the amount of food or danger they are in.
- The assumption is that sleeping is a way to hide safely from predators: For animals that are highly preyed upon, sleeping can be dangerous. The loss of awareness during sleep makes the animal very vulnerable to predators and unlikely to be able to respond to danger.
Restore and Recover Theories:
- Sleep repairs and replenishes the body and prepares it for action the next day: Neurotransmitters produce cellular waste during the day and are eliminated when we sleep.
- Sleep enhances mood: Not getting enough sleep can lead to negative thoughts, feelings and behaviours, making us cranky, irritable and unhappy.
- Sleep activates growth hormone: Growth hormone is responsible for physical growth. It has been linked with sleep the more likely you are going to grow and meet your potential growth.
- Sleep increases immunity to disease: Sleep is a natural medicine, as it appears to help our immune system become stronger and make immune cells that fight disease and infections are produced during sleep.
- Sleep increases alertness: Sleep keeps our minds alert and assists our psychological state. When we are not getting enough sleep, we tend to be inattentive and more easily distracted.
- Sleep consolidates memories: According to the consolidation theory of memory, sleep plays an important role in forming new memories.
LIMITATIONS
- The assumption that more sleep is needed to recover when we are physically active: There is little evidence that we need ore sleep when we exercise.
- The assumption that the body rests during sleep: The brain is active during sleep. Increased blood flow and energy expenditure occurs during REM sleep and this slows down the synthesis of proteins, assisting the body in getting ready for the next day.
CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ALCOHOL-INDUCED STATE:
Levels of awareness
Lowered - Alcohol depresses the nervous system and significantly decreases a person’s level of awareness of internal and external events.
Content Limitations
More or less - The content is less restricted than in NWC. The type of information that enters may be broader, irrational or illogical. People are likely to be more talkative and less inhibited or easily talked into saying or doing things they normally would not do.
Controlled and Automatic processes
Difficulty performing controlled processes - Alcohol impairs the functioning of the brain, this affects reaction times, thinking and perception. Complex tasks are more difficult and simple tasks do the same.
Perceptual and Cognitive distortions
Likely perceptual and cognitive distortions - Alcohol depresses the brain and its functions, distorting thoughts, perceptions and behaviours. Reaction time and reflexes are slowed, speech is slurred and judgment is impaired. The perception of stimuli from our senses is dulled.
Emotional Awareness
Alcohol can give you a false sense of confidence, which can affect the way you behave and express emotions. It can cause someone to become aggressive and violent or sad and uncommunicative.
Self-Control
Decrease in self-control - Alcohol can cause people to behave aggressively, become over-friendly, share private thoughts and do silly things. They may take risks they would not normally take.
Time Orientation
Time orientation diminishes - The ability to track the time is lost when in an alcohol induced state. Time can appear to pass more quickly or more slowly than it actually does.
Characteristics and patterns of the stages of sleep including rapid eye movement (REM) and the non-rapid eye movement (NREM) stages of sleep:
Awake: Typically associated with NWC and focused attention. Beta waves = high frequency and low amplitude
Drowsy: Alpha waves = high frequency and low amplitude
NREM 1: Transition from being awake to being asleep. It is a brief state lasting 5 mins It is a very light sleep that we can easily awake. Hypnogogic state: jerking sensation.
Theta waves = medium frequency and mixed amplitude
- Eyes roll
- Muscles relax
- Heart and Breathing decreases
NREM 2: True sleep begins; we spend about 20 mins and are fairly easy to be woken up from. This accounts for 50 % of our sleep.
Sleep spindles = short bursts of rapid brainwave activity
K-complexes = single sudden high amplitude waves
This occurs along with Theta waves.
- Eyes stop rolling
- Muscles become further relaxed
- Breathing and Heart rate continues to decrease
NREM 3: Brief transitional stage that marks the start of deep sleep, we are less responsive and more difficult to waken, we feel very groggy and disorientated. We spend roughly 5 mins in this stage.
Delta waves = low frequency and high amplitude
- Eyes do not move
- Muscles are relaxed
- Heart rate and Breathing continues to become slower and more regular
NREM 4: Deepest stage of sleep, it is extremely difficult to wake someone. We spend usually 30 mins in this stage.
Delta waves = low frequency and high amplitude
- No eye movement
- Little if any muscle activity
- Heart and breathing at their slowest and most regular
REM: It is a period of sleep where our eyes move rapidly for a short period of time. It is a lighter stage of sleep. This stage of sleep usually lasts for 10 mins People generally dream more and remember their dreams. Cataplexy happens during this stage.
Saw tooth waves = Irregular, high frequency, low amplitude found among these random, fast beta like waves.
- Repetitive bursts of rapid eye movement
- Heart rate, respiration and blood pressure increase and fluctuate
- Body temperature tends to match the surrounding environment
- No muscle tension, they are relaxed to the point of being almost paralysed.
Draw the brain waves for all stages
:) check your notes
CHARACTERISTICS OF DAYDREAMING AS AN ASC:
Levels of awareness
A lowered level of awareness - especially of what is happening in our surrounding environment.
Content Limitations
Fewer content limitations - We can have bizarre, uncommon or unrealistic thoughts that don’t need to be bounded by reality.
Controlled and Automatic processes
Difficulty performing controlled processes - Our ability to effectively perform two or more tasks at once is lowered, therefore performing controlled or automatic processes is difficult.
Perceptual and Cognitive distortions
Likely distortions - Daydreaming in class may prevent us from learning about the content material. Daydreaming decreases our awareness of our surroundings; our perceptions can also be distorted.
Emotional Awareness
Changes in emotional awareness - Daydreams are more likely to be positive or pleasurable and this may enhance mood. Daydreams may also flatten our response to emotional situations in the real world.
Self-Control
Changes in self-control - While daydreaming, your thoughts are on internal events rather that what is happening around you.
Time Orientation
Diminishing time orientation - We lose our sense of time when daydreaming. Time can appear to move very fast or slow when daydreaming.
Measurement of physiological responses including EEG, EOG, EMG, heart rate, body temperature and galvanic skin response (GSR):
EEG: Detects, amplifies and records electrical activity in the brain the form of brainwaves.
Observations in NWC:
Alert: Beta
Drowsy: Alpha
Observations in ASC:
NREM: Alpha, theta, delta, sleep spindles, k-complexes REM: Saw tooth
EOG: Detects, amplifies and records electrical activity in the muscles that allow the eye to move.
Observations in NWC:
Alert: Rapid if involves eye movement
Drowsy: Little
Observations in ASC:
NREM: none or very little
REM: bursts of rapid eye movement
EMG: Detects, amplifies and records electrical activity of muscles.
Observations in NWC:
Alert: Moderate to high depends on activity
Drowsy: Moderate
Observations in ASC:
NREM: Moderate to low
REM: Non-existent, paralysis
ECG/EKG: Detects, amplifies and records the amount of times a heart beats per minute.
Observations in NWC:
Alert: Medium to fast depends on activity
Drowsy: medium to slow
Observations in ASC:
NREM: slow and regular
REM: increases and varies
Thermometer: Measures the temperature of the body
Observations in NWC:
Alert: depends on activity
Drowsy: moderate to low
Observations in ASC:
NREM: low
REM: depends on surrounding environments
GSR: Measures the electrical conductivity of the skin.
Observations in NWC:
Alert: Moderate to high depending on activity
Drowsy: moderate to low
Observations in ASC:
NREM: Low
REM: Varies from low to moderate
Use of sleep laboratories, video monitoring and self-reports:
Sleep Laboratory’s: A place used for scientific research on sleep that usually resembles a bedroom.
ADV:
- Research is conducted in a controlled environment
- A number of research methods can be employed at once
- The equipment is difficult is not impossible to transport outside the laboratory
- Sleep researchers can comfortably work in their workplace with all their resources without having to intrude into participants homes.
DIS:
- Artificial Environment that may disrupt normal sleep patterns.
- Sleeping participants maybe be continually woken up and this may affect normal sleep patterns.
- Being monitored and wired up can be frightening or invasive experience for some people.
Video Monitoring: Using cameras that allow footage to be seen and taped in the dark without disturbing the participant.
ADV:
- Insight into observational behaviour during sleep
- Can be undertaken in sleep laboratory or in a normal bed
- Researchers can continuously monitor the behaviour either at the time of collection or at a later stage or both
- Data can be recorded alongside the physiological measurements at the time
DIS:
- Data can be open to interpretation so requires clean definitions for a specific behaviour.
- May miss important events if only considering still photographs.
- Participants behaviour may be blocked by the view of the camera.
Self-Reports: Statements and answers to questions made by the participants, concerning their thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
ADV: Gives rich and important insight into actual thoughts, feelings and behaviors experienced by the participants
DIS: Subjective measures that are open to interpretation and difficult to communicate and compare with others.
CHARACTERISTICS OF SLEEP AS AN ASC:
Levels of awareness
We have some awareness of our external environment when we are asleep but we are not fully conscious of what is going on around us. Compared with normal waking consciousness, however, when asleep our awareness of stimuli is much reduced.
Content Limitations
Fewer content limitations - When we sleep, we relinquish conscious control of our thoughts. The contents of our dreams tend to be much broader and deeper than our thoughts in normal waking consciousness.
Controlled and Automatic processes
Performing other tasks is probably impossible.
Perceptual and Cognitive distortions
Our attention to sensory stimuli is lowered during sleep, including our perception of pain. Our thoughts are more likely to be disorganised and unrealistic during our dreams.
Emotional Awareness
More or less emotional awareness - Our emotions can be more or less intense or flattened during sleep.
Self Control
Less self-control - Our ability to maintain self-control, including monitoring our own behaviour, is lowered during sleep.
Time Orientation
Distorted time orientation - Our ability to perceive the speed at which time passes may be affected.
Sleep recovery patterns
Effects of total and partial sleep deprivation:
Loss of REM: Possible memory impartment, mood disturbances, possible reduction in protein synthesis.
Loss of NREM - Prevents the body from replenishing itself physically.
General Sleep Deprivation Effects:
Psychological Effects:
Cognitive difficulties
- Difficulties paying attention and concentrating
- Difficulties processing information
- Difficulties thinking and reasoning, poor decision making
- Memory problems
- Impaired creativity
- Distorted perceptions
Affective (feeling) disturbances
- Mood disturbances - high emotionally, confusion, irritable, sadness
- Enjoyed tasks seem boring
- Lack of motivation
- Feelings of fatigue
Behavioural difficulties
- Slowed performance
- Clumsiness, injuries
- Risk-taking behaviours
- Problems performing tasks, especially simple tasks and ones requiring sustained attention or concentration
Physiological Effects:
- Slower physical reflexes
- Hand tremors
- Droopy eyelids
- Difficulty in focusing eyes
- A heightened sensitivity to pain
- Headaches
- Lower energy levels
Health issues caused by chronic sleep deprivation?
Depression
Diabetes
Obesity
Anxiety
Sleep disorders
