Unit 1: Part 2 Flashcards
What is consciousness?
Objective awareness of ourselves and our environment
What are 9 stages of consciousness?
Daydreaming and drowsiness
flow
dreaming
hallucinations
orgasm
food or oxygen starvation
sensory deprivation
hypnosis
meditation
What stages of consciousness are spontaneous?
Daydreaming and drowsiness
flow
dreaming
What stages of consciousness are physiologically induced?
Hallucinations
orgasm
food or oxygen starvation
What stages of consciousness are psychologically induced?
Sensory deprivation
hypnosis
meditation
What occurs in the consciousness when learning a behavior over time?
The behavior becomes semi-automatic and doesn’t require as much attention devoted to it
What is cognitive neuroscience?
Interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition
How does stimulus effect consciousness?
A strong stimulus can activate brain-wide coordinated neural activity that crosses the threshold for stimulus
weaker stimuli can be too weak or brief to be consciously percieved
What is an example of cognitive processing and subprocessing?
When you see a bird and are aware of its species is cognitive processing.
Sub processing is the brain’s processing of its color, form, movement that helps us figure out what it is doing and what type of bird it is
What is dual processing?
Principle that information is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks
What is blindsight?
Condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it
What is parallel processing?
Processing multiple aspects of a stimulus or problem simultaneously
Sequential processing
Processing one aspect of a stimulus or problem at a time, generally used to process new information or to solve difficult problem
Is Parallel or Sequential processing best for routine business?
Parallel
Is Parallel or Sequential processing best for solving new problems?
Sequential
What is sleep?
A periodic, natural loss of consciousness
When you are sleeping, are you completely ignorant to the outside world?
No, your perceptual window is still open. You are able to maintain sense of time, sound etc.
Why don’t you fall off the bed when you sleep?
Even though you move around when you sleep, your perception is still somewhat aware, preventing one from completely falling off the bed
What are the 2 biological rhythms?
24 hour biological clock
90 minute sleep cycle
What is circadian rhythm?
Biological clock, regular bodily rhythms that occur on a 24 hour cycle
What 3 things usually peak in performance during circadian peak?
temperature, thinking, and memory
What 2 things alter circadian rhythm?
Age and experience
What is Rem Sleep? Why is it also known as paradoxical sleep?
Sleep stage where rapid eye movement occurs, vivid dreams occur.
It is called paradoxical sleep because the muscles are relaxed, but other body systems are active
What are alpha waves?
Slow brain waves of a relaxed awake state
What are some attributes of NREM-1?
Slowed breathing and irregular brain waves
Hallucinations
Hypnagogic sensations
What are hypnagogic sensations?
Bizarre experiences, jerking or a feeling of falling or floating while transitioning to sleep
What are some attributes of NREM-2?
Periodic Sleep spindles
What are sleep spindles?
Bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity that aids memory processing
What are some attributes of NREM-3?
Slow wave sleep, Delta waves
Hard to Awaken
Children may wet the bed in this stage
What are some attributes of REM Sleep?
Lasts 10 minutes
brain waves become rapid and saw-toothed
Heart rate rises
Breathing becomes rapid and irregular
Rapid eye-movement
Genitals become aroused
Why do we not act out our dreams while we sleep?
During REM Sleep, the motor cortex is active which leads to some jerking, but the brainstem blocks its messages
As the night continues, how does it effect the length of the sleep stages?
NREM-3 grows shorter and disappears
REM and NREM-2 become longer
Are the sleep stages sequential or not?
They are not sequential. For example, NREM-2 can skip NREM-3 and go straight to REM Sleep. This can occur for the other stages as well
Are sleep patterns more influenced by nature or nurture?
nature
What is the function of the Suprachiasmatic nucleus?
Cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm. In response to light, it adjusts melatonin production which effects sleepiness
What are 6 possible reasons people need sleep?
Protection, Restoration, Memory, Creative Thinking, Growth, and Energy Conservation
How does sleep restore?
The body and brain can repair, require, and reorganize
The Body can heal from infection and restore the immune system
Neurons can repair themselves and adjust connections
How does sleep aid memory consolidiation?
Helps restore and rebuild fading memories of the days experiences
Memories are consolidated during slow-wave deep sleep by strengthening neural connections
Sleep reactivates recent experiences in the hippocampus and moves to the permanent area in the cortex
How does sleep support growth?
During slow-wave sleep, the pituitary gland releases human growth hormones
How does sleep conserve energy?
Being inactive during the night helps saves energy for activities in the daytime, activities which would be more inefficient during the night time
How does more sleep effect athletic ability?
During REM and NREM-2 sleep, the neural connections build enduring memories, contributes to muscle memory
What occurs if we do not get enough sleep?
We accumulate a sleep debt
What are some effects of sleep loss on behavior?
Irritability
Tiredness
Depressive Disorders
How does REM sleep protect against depression?
During this stage, the brain processes emotional experiences
How does lack of sleep effect health?
Increases Ghrelin
Increases cortisol
Increases risk for heart disease and various other negative health outcomes
Enhances limbic brain responses to food
What effect does sleep deprivation have on immune cells?
They suppress the immune cells that fight viral infection and cancer
Sleep deprivation effect on the Brain?
Decreased ability to focus, process and store memories
Sleep deprivation effect on the Muscles?
Reduced strength, slower reaction time and motor learning
What are the 5 major sleep disorders?
Insomnia, Narcolepsy, Sleep Apnea, Sleepwalking, and REM Sleep behavior disorder
What is Insomnia?
Difficulty falling or staying asleep
What is Narcolepsy?
Sudden Attacks of overwhelming sleepiness
What is Sleep Apnea?
Breathing stops repeatedly during Sleep
What is Sleepwalking?
Repeated episodes of complex motor behavior while asleep, occurs in NREM-3
What is REM Sleep behavior disorder?
Acting out the contents dd dreams while asleep
What are the common fixes for insomnia, are they effective?
Sleeping pills and alcohol are not effective because they reduce REM sleep, resulting in decreased concentration and memory
What are dreams?
sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping persons mind
What are common themes in dreams?
Failure, being attacked, experiencing misfortune
What do most dream storylines contain?
Recent experiences and preoccupations
What occurs if we experience a sensory stimulus while dreaming?
It may be interwoven into our dreams
What was Sigmund Freud’s theory on why we dream?
Dreams are a safe output for our inappropriate desires
What is manifest content?
The apparent and remembered storyline of a dream, often a symbolic version of its latent content
What is latent content?
the unconscious drives and wishes behind a dream
Is Sigmund Freuds wish-fulfillment theory valid?
no
What is the Information Processing perspective?
Believes that dreams help sift, sort, and fix the day’s experiences in our memory
REM Sleep and memory have a positive correlation
How does sleep develop and preserve neural pathways? Physiological function perspective
Provides the brain with periodic stimulation, which preserve and expand the brain’s neural pathways
How does sleep make sense of neural static? Activation Synthesis Perspective
Researchers propose that dreams erupt from neural activation spreading upwards from the brainstem
Follows the activation-synthesis theory
Neural activity evokes memories which are turned into dreams
What is the activation synthesis theory?
Dreams are the brain’s attempt to synthesize random neural activity
What parts of the brain are more active during dreams? Which are less?
Amygdala is more active, the frontal lobe regions are idle
How does sleep reflect cognitive development? Cognitive Development Perspective
Dreams become more complex as people grow up
This perspective believes that dreams emphasize the brain’s top-down control
Also Believes that dreams simulate our lives
What is REM rebound?
Tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation
What is a criticism of the Information processing perspective
If the brain dreams so it can process what occurred that day, why do we sometimes dream about things we haven’t experienced?
What is a criticism of the Physiological perspective
Doesn’t explain why people have meaningful dreams
What is sensation
The process where our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment
What is perception?
The brain organizing and interpreting sensory information
What is bottom-up processing
Information processing that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain’s integration of sensory information
What is top-down processing
Information processing where we construct perception based on personal experience and expectations
What is transduction
Conversion of 1 form of energy to another. Transformation of physical energy into neural impulses the brain can interpret
What are the 3 things all senses can do?
Receive sensory stimulation
transforms stimulation into neural impulses
deliver neural information to our brain
What is psychophysics?
Study of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli and our psychological experience of them
What is absolute threshold
Minimum stimulus energy needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time
What is signal detection theory
Detecting a weak stimulus depends not only on strength but psychological state
What are subliminal stimulus?
Stimuli below absolute threshold for an individual
What is difference threshold?
Minimum difference between 2 stimuli required for detection 50% of the time
What is Weber’s law?
Principle that to be perceived as different, 2 stimuli must differ by a constant minimum percentage
What is sensory adaptation?
Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation
What is wavelength? (vision)
Distance from the peak of wave to the peak of the next, determines hue
What is hue
Dimension of color
What is intensity
Amount of energy in a light wave or soundwave, determines brightness and loudness, amplitude
cornea
The eye’s clear protective outer layer, covers the pupil and iris
pupil
Adjustable opening in the center of the eye where light enters
iris
ring of muscle tissues, colored portion of the eye, controls size of pupil opening
What are 2 things the iris responds to?
Cognitive and emotional states
Ex. Brightness
Ex. Disgust = constriction
lens
Transparent structure behind the pupil that changes shape to help focus images on the retina
retina
Light-sensitive back inner surface of the eye, contains rods, cones, and neurons that begin to process visual information
Accomdation?
Process where the lens changes shape to focus images of near or far objects on the retina
Rods
Retinal receptors that detect black and white, are sensitive to movement and necessary for peripheral vision
Cones
Retinal receptors concentrated near the center of the retina that function well in the daylight, detects fine detail and allows color vision
What are bipolar cells?
Cells between photoreceptors and ganglion cells, transfers signals
What are ganglion cells
Takes information form photoreceptors and transfer to brain, axons form the optic nerve
optic nerve
Nerve that carries neural impulses from the eye to the brain
Where does the signal travel after reaching the photoreceptor cells?
Bipolar
ganglion
optic nerve
thalamus
visual cortex in the occipital lobe
blindspot
Point where the optic nerve leaves the eye, no receptor cells located there
Where are most cones located
Around the fovea, center of the retina
fovea
central focal point of the retina
What is a difference between cones and rods concerning communication with a bipolar cell?
1 cones transmits a signal to 1 bipolar cell
multiple rods transmits a signal to 1 bipolar cell
Young-Helmholtz trichromatic theory
Theory that the retina contains 3 different types of color receptors, red, blue, and green which can be stimulated in combination to produce any color
Opponent process theory
Theory that opposing retinal processing enable color vision. Opposing colors can’t be processed by the thalamus because they exist in the same channel
What are the 3 sets of opposing retinal processes
Red-green
blue-yellow
white-black
What are the stages that color processing occurs in?
- Retinas green, red, and blue cones respond to color stimuli
- Cones responses processed by opponent-process cells
Feature detectors
Nerve cells in the visual cortex that respond to specific features of the stimulus
How do feature detectors work
Some of these cells respond to a specific type of stimuli, receives information from ganglion cells then passes information to other cortical areas/supercell clusters to respond
audiion
Act or sense of hearing
What determines loudness?
Amplitude of a wavelength
what determines pitch?
Frequency of the wave lengths, number of complete wavelengths that pass a point in a given time
what is sound measured in
decibels
What represents the absolute threshold for hearing
Zero decibels
What is the first step is processing sound?
When the sound waves strike the eardrum, causing it to vibrate
What are the 3 parts of the middle ear?
Malleus, incus, stapes
middle ear
chamber between the eardrum and cochlea containing 3 tiny bones that concentrate the vibration of the eardrum on the cochlea
cochlea
Coiled, bony, fluid-filled tube in the inner ear, sound waves travel through the fluid to trigger nerve impulses
Inner ear
Innermost part of the ear containing the cochlea, semicircular canals, and vestibular sacs
What occurs when vibrations from the middle ear hits the cochlea?
The cochlea’s opening, the oval window, begins to vibrate, also vibrating the fluid inside. This causes ripples in the basilar membrane which bends the hair cells lining the surface
What occurs when the hair cells on the basilar membrane move?
The hair cell movements trigger impulses in the nearby nerve cells. Those nerve cells converge to form the auditory nerve which then sends the neural messages to the thalamus and then to the auditory cortex in the temporal lobe
Sensorineural hearing loss
Hearing loss caused by damage to the cochlea’s receptor cells or to the auditory nerve
conduction hearing loss
Caused by mechanical system damage that conducts sound waves to the cochlea, the eardrum or the middle ear bones
Cochlear implant
Device for converting sounds into electrical signals and stimulating the auditory nerve through electrodes threaded into the cochlea
How does the brain interpret loudness?
The louder the sound is, the more hair cells are activated. Number of activated hair cells determine loudness
Place theory
Links the pitch we hear with the place where the cochlea’s membrane is stimulated.
Ex. A high pitch stimulated a certain spot on the basilar membrane, which tells the brain it is a high pitch
problem with pitch theory
can only explain how we hear high pitch sounds but not low pitch. High pitches vibrate a small portion of the membrane, while low pitches vibrated more which made it hard to pinpoint the area of vibration
frequency theory
Theory that the rate of nerve impulses traveling up the auditory nerve matches the frequency of a nerve which enables pitch.
Ex. A soundwave with a frequency of 100 waves/s will cause 100 pulses/s to travel up the auditory nerve
What is a problem with the frequency theory? What is the possible theory solution?
An individual neuron can’t fire faster than 1000 times er second, how are frequencies above 100 waves sensed?
Volley theory
Volley theory
neural cells can alternate firing, so they can achieve a combined frequency above 1000 waves per second
Why can we detect the direction of sound?
We have 2 ears and there exists a slight intensity difference and time lag. The auditory system is so sensitive that it can detect these slight differences and allow us to locate sound
What are 4 things the skin Is sensitive too?
Pressure, warmth, cold, pain
What does pain tell you?
That there is something wrong
What psychological perspective is pain?
Biopsychosocial
Biological influences on pain
Activity in the spinal cords large and small fibers
genetic differences in endorphin production
Brain interpretation of CNS activity
Social-cultural influences on pain
Others presence
empathy
cultural expectations
Psychological influences on pain
Attention to pain
prior experiences
expectations
Are thir specialized pain receptors?
No, the closest are nociceptors that are present in the skin, muscles, and organs that detect harmful temperatures, pressure, or chemicals
Gate control theory
The spinal cords contains a neurological gate that blocks or allows pain signals
What opens up the spinal cord “gate”
Activity of pain signals traveling up small nerve fibers
What closes the spinal cord “gate”
Activity in large fibers or by information coming from the brain
What are small spinal cords mostly responsible for
Conducting most pain sigmals
What are large spinal cord fibers mostly responsible for?
They are stimulated by massage, electrical stimulation, or acupuncture
phantom limb sensations
When the brain lacks sensory sensory input from a missing limb, resulting in the brain misinterpreting and amplifying irrelevant CNS activity
What does memory remember about pain?
The pain’s peak and how much pain was felt at the end
How do placebo painkillers help relieve pain?
People who believe the placebo will relieve their pain causes the brain to release actual endorphins which works
Does distraction help pain?
Distraction activates brain pathways that inhibit pain and increase tolerance
gustation
Sense of taste
What are the 6 senses of taste
Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami, oleogustus
How did tastes ensure survival for our ancestors?
Pleasureful tastes led ancestors to energy-protein rich foods
Aversive tastes deterred them from foods that may be toxic
What did sweetness indicate for our ancestors?
Energy source
What did saltiness indicate for our ancestors?
Sodium for multiple processes
What did sourness indicate for our ancestors?
toxicity
What did bitterness indicate for our ancestors?
poisons
What did umami indicate for our ancestors?
Proteins to grow and repair tissues
What did oleogustus indicate for our ancestors?
Fats for energy, insulation, and cell growth
How does the tongue taste foods?
The tongue contains around 200 taste buds that each contain a pore that catches the food molecules and release neurotransmitters
How do pores transmit signals about foods?
Each pore contains 50 to 100 taste receptor cells, some receptors respond to certain senses of taste. It then transmits it message to a matching partner cell in the temporal lobe
olfaction
Sense of smell
How do we process scents?
The molecule of a substance reaches a cluster of receptor cells at the top of each nasal cavity. These olfactory receptors are alerted and sends the signal through their axon fibers to the olfactory bulb, then to the temporal lob smell cortex and the limbic system involved in memory and emotion
pheromones
Olfactory chemical messages that are secrets by members of the same species, can serve as sexual attractants
How many receptor proteins are there and how do they process scents?
There are around 350 receptor proteins embedded in the nasal cavity. Scent trigger a combination of these receptors that are then interpreted by the olfactory cortex
Why do some scents trigger emotions or memories?
The brain area where it processes scent is connected with the brain’s limbic centers associated with memory and emotion
Kinesthesi
Movement sense, our system for sensing the position and movement of individual body parties
vestibular sense
Sense of body movement and position tat enables balance
What are the 2 structures that enable sense of balance
Fluid-filled semicircular canals and the vestibular sacs
What occurs to balance when the head moves
Movement of the canals and sacs sends signals tot eh cerebellum to sense body position and maintain balance
Why do we experience dizziness
When you come to an abrupt halt or continue moving, the semicircular canals and receptors will continue sending signals that you are moving
What is an example of vestibular sense?
When you fall, your arms automatically try to catch yourself
What area of the brain does smell reside in?
Olfactory bulb
What area of the brain does kinesthesis and vestibular sense reside in
cerebellum
What area of the brain does taste reside in
Frontal/temporal lobe border
What area of the brain does hearing reside in
Temporal lobes
What area of the brain does vision reside in
Occipital lobe
What area of the brain does touch reside in
Somatosensory cortex
Sensory interactions
Principle that one sense by influence another
McGurk effect
2 senses that disagree with each other will form a 3rd sense that blends the 2
Embodied congition
Influence of bodily sensations, gestures, and other states on cognitive preferences and judgments
