Consciousness Flashcards
The awareness that we have of our surroundings, our internal states, and ourselves
Consciousness
Increased awareness, where we’re paying especially close attention to the various forms of sensory input that we’re receiving
Alertness
The structure in the brain that is most closely associated with alertness is known as the
Reticular formation and one if its sub components knows as reticular activating system (ARS)
Reticular formation is a complex network of neuron clusters located in the brainstem
When a person cannot be easily roused, can also occur for various reasons, including trauma, loss of oxygen toy the brain, and drug use (both reaction all drugs and for medical purposes such as anesthesia)
Unconsciousness
An even deeper form of unconsciousness, which refers to someone who has lost consciousness, does not react normally to stimuli like light, sound, or pain, does not make any voluntary motions, and is not in a normal sleep/ wake cycle
Coma
Recording brain activity during sleep
Electroencephalograph or EEG
Record muscle and eye activity
Electromyography and electrooculography
A sleep study measuring multiple physiological parameters is called
Polysomnographic study
Waves when a person is fully awake
Beta waves - high frequency, low amplitude, and not very rhythmic
Waves when we start getting fatigued, less alert, and especially when we close our eyes and rest without falling asleep
Alpha waves- lower frequency
Characterized by quick bursts of eye movement, EEG shows brain waves similar to those observed when a person is awake, but muscle movement is very low, almost to the point of being paralyzed.
REM sleep
What division of sleep does dreaming occur and when during the sleep clycle does it occur?
REM sleep- interspersed throughout the sleep cycle, but becomes longer as the night progresses
What is REM rebound
If we miss sleep one night, the next night we’ll spend more time in REM sleep to catch up
Waves during the stage 1 of non-REM sleep
Theta waves- even lower frequency than alpha waves and tend to have lower amplitudes, although somewhat irregular.
What occurs during stage 1 sleep
Slow eye movement. Overall, stage 1 sleep is quite light
What waves do we see during stage 2 of sleep cycle?
Theta waves- we also observes bursts of activity called K-complexes and sleep spindles
What occurs during stage 2 of the sleep cycle
No eye movement, heart rate and breathing rate slow down
These can be observed in theta waves of stage 2 sleep. These are periodic high-amplitude bursts.
K-complexes
These can be observed in the theta waves of stage 2. These are occasional high-frequency bursts of activity that are thought to play a role in memory consolidation
Sleep spindles
Deep sleep stage of the sleep cycle.
Stage 3- used to be divided into 3 and 4 until 2008
The waves observed in deep sleep
Delta waves- also known as slow-wave sleep, and the slow, or low-frequency
- fairly high amplitude
Stage 3 sleep is thought to be important for?
Memory processing, as well as being a stage of sleep where the brain recovers from its daily activities
Deep, slow-wave sleep tends to predominate towards the _________ of a night’s sleep, while more time is spent in lighter REM sleep towards the ________ of a night’s sleep.
Beginning, end
Sleep cycle is around how long for adults and children
Adults- 90 minutes
Children- 50 minutes
The 24-hour-sleep-wake cycle is known as
The circadian rhythm
A hormone generated from the pineal gland that promotes drowsiness
Melatonin
Hormone that is best known for modulating the chronic stress response, but also contributes to wakefulness
Cortisol
The most common sleep disorder, makes it difficult to fall asleep
Insomnia