Lec 6: Consciousness

Question 1

Consciousness

Answer 1

subjective experince of the world, resulting from brain activity

quality or state of being aware of an external object or something within itself

Question 2

Awareness

Answer 2

state or ability to feel, to perceive or to be conscious of events

Question 3

Persistent Vegetative state

Answer 3

Extreme state: full coma that lasts more than a month; Teri shiavo

Question 4

Minimally conscious state

Answer 4

deliberate movement and communication are possible; erik ramsey

Question 5

By using brain imaging/recording to examine the brain of a person in an apparent coma,

Answer 5

doctors can determine whether the patient is a candidate for treatement

Question 6

locked in syndrome

Answer 6

all or nearly all of a person’s voluntary muscles are paralyzed, except for the eyes

Question 7

are people suffering locked in syndrome conscious?

Answer 7

yes, they are aware and retain cognitive function

Question 8

Jan Grzebski

Answer 8

In a minimally conscious state (due to a tumor near brain stem) for
19 years before he awoke and reported that he had in fact been
aware of events around him.

Question 9

when the corpus callosum is removed

Answer 9

the two halves of the brain cannot receive info directly from each other aka split brain

Question 10

with split brain

Answer 10

left hemisphere sees what’s happening on the right and right hemisphere sees what’s hapening on the left

Question 11

interpreter

Answer 11

only for the left hemisphere; attempts to make sense of right hemisphere actions

Question 12

sleep

Answer 12

although awareness of the outside world is turned down, EEG shows that the brain is still quite active in sleep

Question 13

sleep serves two important biological purposes

Answer 13

restoration (physical health)

facilitation of learning (psychological health)

Question 14

restorative theory and what is the evidence of that?

Answer 14

sleep allows the body to rest and repair itself

evidence

1) sleep increases after strenuous physical activity
2) growth hormones secreted in sleep
3) strengthens the immune system

Question 15

effects of sleep deprivation

Answer 15

1) mood problems
2) decrements in cognitive performance such as attention and memory lapses
3) may compromise immune system
4) falling asleep for a few seconds to a minute aka microsleeps

Question 16

Facilitation of Learning Theory

Answer 16

Sleep strengthens neural connections needed for learning to occur

Question 17

Waves just before sleep

Answer 17

Alpha waves

neural oscillations are slowing down and you’re just barely falling asleep and might experience hallucinations

Question 18

hypnic jerk

Answer 18

startled feeling when you’re about to fall asleep

feels like you’re falling which is due to muscle relaxation

Question 19

Stage 1 of falling asleep

Answer 19

Theta waves which are higher but slower amp waves; it’s the brief transition between waking up and sleeping

someone at this stage may not have even known they had fallen asleep

Question 20

Stage 2 of sleeping

Answer 20

Irregular waveforms

bursts in frequency (spindle) and amp (k-complex) of the wave forms

metabolism starts slowing down for about 20 minutes

Question 21

Stage 3/4

Answer 21

Delta Waves aka slow wave slave; transition towards true ‘deep sleep’

allows brain and body to recover from a ‘hard day’s work’, also when hormones are distributed

difficult to wake someone up at this stage; less sensitive to external events; will be groggiest if woken up in this stage and have a long period of cognitive impairment

Question 22

REM

Answer 22

Rapid eye movement

lightest phase of sleep and the amount of time spent in REM increases with each cycle

most dreaming occurs in REM sleep

REM and slow wave are important for learning to take place

students spend more time in REM during exam periods

Question 23

paradoxical sleep

Answer 23

increased brain activity, but your muscles are very relaxed

Question 24

sleep cycle

Answer 24

reverses after about 90 minutes with increasing frequency and decreasing depth (REM duration increases)

Question 25

Dreams

Answer 25

products of an altered state of consciousness in which images and fantasies are confused with realtiy

Question 26

Non-Rem dreames

Answer 26

dull; geneeral de-activation of many brain regions

Question 27

REM dreams

Answer 27

more likely to be bizarre and include intense emotions, visual and auditory hallucinations, and uncritical acceptance of illogical events

brain structures associated with motivation, emotion, reward, vision are active, pre-frontal cortex is not

Question 28

Freudian dream belief

Answer 28

dreams contain hidden content that represents unconscious conflicts

no scientific evidence that dreams represent hidden conflicts or for the special symbolic meaning of dream images

Question 29

activation synthesis theory

Answer 29

brain tries to make sense of random brain activity that occurs during sleep by combining the activity with stored memories

Question 30

evidence for A-S theory

Answer 30

emotion centers (limbic system) in the brain are active, explaining the intense emotions

frontal cortices aren’t active, explaining the uncritical acceptance of illogical events

Question 31

evidence against A-S theory

Answer 31

dreams are not as chaotic as the activation-synthesis theory suggests

are often similar to “everyday life” walking experience

Question 32

Threat Reversal theory

Answer 32

dreams sometimes simulate threatening events so that people can rehearse strategies for coping

Question 33

What is a setback for dram theories

Answer 33

theories are difficult to directly test and variables are difficult to manipulate