May 23, 2019 Part 2 Flashcards
What is consciousness?
- it is the awareness of our self and the environment
- >can have different levels of awareness
Name the four types of consciousness
1) Alertness
- >you are awake and aware of who you are
2) Daydreaming
- >more relaxed and not as focused on alertness
3) Drowsiness
4) Sleep
What are the 4 main types of brain waves
1) Alpha
- >daydreaming state
- >lower frequency than beta waves
2) Beta
- >associated with being awake and concentrated
3) Theta
- >slower/lower frequency than alpha waves
- >right after you fall asleep
4) Delta
- >slower/lower frequency than theta waves
- >deep sleep or coma
What are the 4 main stages of sleep? What duration do these 4 sleep stages occur over?
-there are 4 sleep stages that occur over 90 minutes
- first three stages are non-REM(N1/N2/N3)
- last stage is REM stage
- > REM stage is characterized by rapid eye movement
What is N1 characterized by?
- dominated by theta waves
- hallucination, Tetris effect and hypnic jerks(muscle twitching that you may experience)
What is N2 characterized by?
- deeper stage of sleep than N1
- > harder to wake someone up in this stage
- > more theta waves, as well as sleep spindles or K-complexes
What are the functions of K complexes and sleep spindles
Sleep spindles
- > burst of rapid brain activity
- > maybe help us sleep through loud noises
- > so remain in a tranquil sleep state
K complexes
- > suppress cortical arousal and keep you asleep
- > also help sleep-based memory consolidation
- > they occur naturally but you can make them occur by touching somebody
What is N3 characterized by?
- slow wave sleep
- > very difficult to awaken
- > characterized by delta waves
What is the most important function of REM sleep
- it is for memory consolidation
- >formation of episodic memories
What is the complete cycle of sleep in order? Also how long does each stage last? What does it depend on?
- N1->N2->N3->N2->REM->N1
- how long you spend in each stage depends on
- > how long you have been asleep and your age
- > eg; babies spend more time in REM sleep
What is the function of the circadian rhythms? What is it controlled by
- they are our regular body rhythms across a 24 hour period
- >it is controlled by melatonin produced in the pineal gland
What happens to prefrontal cortex activity during REM sleep
- the activity is decreased
- >explains why our logic is sometimes weird af during dreams
What is the Sigmand Freud theory to why we dream
- dreams are our unconscious thoughts
- > they are our desires that need to be interpreted
- > note this theory is bullshit and hasn’t been proven
What is the evolutionary biology theory to why we dream
- it is to prepare for the real world
- allows us to problem solve
- others say it has no purpose
-so it is across the board to what is the function of dreams when it comes to evolutionary biology
What are the terms manifest content and latent content in reference to Sigmund Freud’s theory of dreams
Manifest content
->literal meaning
Latent content
->the hidden meaning
- Sigmand just wanted us to understand that dreams have meanings
- > interpreting them can help us resolve and identify hidden conflict
What is the activation synthesis hypothesis?
- brain gets a lot of neural impulses in the brainstem
- > the frontal cortex inteprets these random signals
-frontal cortex=synthesis, while brainstem=activation
- overall the point of this theory is that
- > our brain is simply trying to find meaning from random brain activity
- > therefore, dreams might not even have any meaning
What are the consequences of sleep deprivation?
- more susceptibility to obesity
- > as body makes more cortisol and the hunger hormone ghrelin
- can increase risk for depression
- more irritable and poorer memory
What is insomnia? What are some treatments
-trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
- treatments can involve psychological training and lifestyle changes
- > it is a better alternative to medication
What is narcolepsy? Is the cause known? How can it be overcome?
- narcolepsy is the inability of preventing oneself from falling asleep
- > it can include just falling into REM sleep
- > cause is not completely known and it is thought to be genetic
-neurochemical interventions can cause someone to overcome narcolepsy potentially
What is sleep apnea?
- it is the inability to breathe while sleeping
- > body realizes you are not getting enough oxygen and wakes up just long enough to gasp for air
-don’t get enough N3
What is sleep walking/ sleep talking? When do these two occur? In what stage of sleep?
- they are mostly genetic
- > occur during the N3 stage
- > are harmless
- > occur more often in children
Give examples of induced states of consciousness
-hypnosis+ medication
