PSYCH 1115- Week 8 Flashcards
How is consciousness defined?
- Alertness (being awake vs. being unconscious)
- Self-awareness (ability to think of one’s self)
- Having free-will (being able to make a decision)
- Person’s mental content, thoughts, images
- Our awareness of ourselves and our environments
What is meant by ‘dual processing’?
- Conscious ‘high’ track: minds take deliberate actions we know we are doing (ex: problem solving, naming an object, defining a word) “I saw a bird!”
Done in the ‘ventral stream’
- Unconscious ‘low’ track: ddddour minds perform automatic actions, often without being aware of them, parallel processing (walking, acquiring phobias, processing sensory details into perceptions and memories) ‘I saw a bird with these colour and shapes and trajectory’
Done in the ‘dorsal stream’
Parallel Processing: I can ride a bike while planning out a dinner for tonight.
Selective Attention?
- our attention is a limited resource and we shouldn’t really multitask
- time & performance is affected
- Inattentional Blindness: refers to our failure to notice part of our enviroment when our attention is directed elsewhere, like not noticing a mouse run across the floor.
Change Blindness?
Not noticing small changes in our environment. May be hyperfocusing on the object or person that is changing and actually notice the changes, but then other times, may not be focusing on the changing object or person.
Biological Rhythms & Sleep:
- Circadian Rhythm: ‘about a day’ - refers to the body’s natural 24 hr cycle , roughly matched to the actual day + night cycle
- What changes? body temp, arousal/energy, mental sharpness
- Light triggers the suprachiasmatic nucleus to decrease (morning) melatonin from the pineal gland and increase (evening) at nightfall
- EEG - records brain waves of the brain
the 4 Sleep Stages:
- Stage 1: Falling Asleep: goes from awake waves (beta) to non-attentive waves (alpha). STILL AWAKE.
- Fell Asleep: breathing slows down. Waves become slower and more irregular. Waves go from alpha to theta (NREM-1).
- Asleep but no Dreams: NREM-1(theta waves)
- Stage 2: 20 minutes Later: NREM-2 + K-complexes. ‘Spindles’ on EEG occur here.
- Stage 3: Later: NREM-3. Very hard to wake a person up. Minimal awarenes. Delta Waves.
- Stage 4: About 1 hour after Falling Asleep: REM sleep, eye movement, dreams, spinal cord has a hormone that prevents you from moving, heart rate increases. Usually of ordinary everyday events that we experienced, but also traumatic stuff. Not necessarily sexual stuff!
What is Narcolepsy?
What is Sleep Apnea?
What are Night Terrors?
What is Insomnia?
- ‘numb seizure’ – sleep attacks, even a collapse into REM or paralyzed sleep at the wrong moments during the day
- ‘with no breath’ – repeated awakenings after breathing stops. sleeping at night is not restorative for them.
- sudden scared-looking behaviour, with rapid heartbeat and breathing. Not considered dreaming. Not in REM sleep at all, but in Non-REM sleep. Sleep walking and talking also occurs in this non-REM deep sleep, so not restorative.
- Persistent inability to fall asleep or stay asleep. Pills really don’t work!
Good reasons for SLEEP?
- Restorative effects: flushes brain out
- Sleep protected our ancestors from predators
- Growth hormones are active during this time
- Sleep builds and strengthens memories. Solidifies our learning!
- Sleep facilitates creative problem solving
Freud had a theory about sleep:
Freud’s theory of wish fulfillment suggest that dreams reflect unconscious desires or impulses. Most interested in latent content of our dreams, not the actual story line that we dreamed.
The below Freud analysis lacks scientific support though!
Why do we DREAM?
Match evidence to the chart below:
A. Researchers record neural activity while a mouse wanders through a maze. They find similar neural activity during REM sleep. The rat remembers how to complete the maze the next day.
B. After a mouse completed a motor task and had a night’s sleep, researchers looked at the mouse’s brain. They found some neural connections had been pruned to allow the strengthening of other connections during REM sleep.
C. The activation of the limbic system (emotion), in combination with visual and auditory activation produces more engaging dreams.
D. Dreams become more complex as we grow older, only becoming ‘adult-like’ by about age 9-10 yrs.
What is REM Rebound?
Refers to the increased frequency & intensity of REM sleep following sleep deprivation
Use of some prescription and recreational drugs can suppress REM sleep, and stress can trigger REM rebound.
Cognitive Neuroscience?
an interdisciplinary field that studies the brain activity associated with the mental processes of perception, thinking, memory, & language
What is a psychoactive drug?
What is a recreational drug?
- chemical substance that alters perceptions and mood
- induce an altered state of consciousness, usually for pleasure
Builds up tolerances!
Dopamine reward system?
part of the reward system that is involved in releasing neurotransmitters that encourages that behaviour again.
What is neuroadaptation?
refers to the changes in the brain undergoes to accommodate the presence of a new substance.
ex. continued cocaine use sharply reduces the # of dopamine receptors in the brain’s reward system. This is why experience ‘withdrawal’ – physical and mental
What are depressants?
What are stimulants?
What are hallucinogens?
- ex: barbituarates & opiates & heroin- very addictive. depress the CNS. reduces memory & concentration.
- ex: caffeine – disrupts sleep for 3-4 hrs. An adenosine antagonist (blocker). Can also lead to withdrawal symptoms if used daily. ex. nicotine – signals CNS to release neurotransmitters, diminishes appetite, boost alertness, calms anxiety, reduces sensitivity to pain. ex. cocaine & MDMA – reuptake inibitors, so they block reuptake of dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin. Long term use of ecstasy can damage serotonin-using neurons.
- ex. LSD – interfere with serotonin transmission. therefore causes hallucinations.
ex. weed – amplifies sensations, disinhibits impulses, euphoric mood, lack of ability to sense when full. BUT impaired motor coordination, perceptual ability, reaction time. THC builds up in the body, increasing the effects of the next use, & over time, the brain shrinks in areas processing memory and emotion.
Antagonist – blocks neurotransmitters from binding to receptor sites.
Agonist – doesn’t block
Biopsychosocial model to DRUG use:
- Biological Perspective: individual variations in genetics or neurotransmitter systems. Family history, links to genes.
- Psychological Perspective : personality traits such as sensation-seeking , are related to drug use. More stress. PSTD leads to more drug use. Maybe less satisfaction in life.
- Cultural Perspective: many cultures and spiritual groups have used psychoactive drugs as entheogens (generating the ‘divine within’)
