Week 1 Flashcards
Supposed measures of consciousness
- Self-Reports
- Physiological measures (e.g., EEG)
- Behavioural measures
Cognitive view of consciousness
The cognitive view of consciousness proposes that consciousness is a product of complex cognitive processes in the brain, such as attention, perception, memory, and language.
analogy: Humans are “information processors”. The “mind” is the computer’s software and the brain is the computer’s hardware.
Controlled (effortful) Processing:
Mental processing that requires some degree of volitional control and attentiveness.
Automatic Processing
Mental activities that occur automatically and require no or minimal conscious control or awareness.
Divided attention
The ability to perform more than one activity at the same time.
Difficult if tasks require similar cognitive resources.
Circadian Rythm
Cyclical changes that occur on a roughly 24-hour basis in many biological processes.
* Brain’s “biological clock”.
* Pineal gland releases a hormone melatonin.
Circadian Rythm regulator
Regulated by the Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
SCN location
- Located in hypothalamus
- Pineal gland releases a hormone melatonin.
How does SCN learn
Retinal signals
Sleep deprivation results
- Difficulties learning
- Poor attention
- Lethargy
Sleep deprivation health causes
- Weight gain
- Diabetes
- Heart problems
- Weakened immune systems
Needed amount of sleep dependants
- Age
- Health
- Quality of sleep
- Genetics
- Species
Randy Gardner takeaway
- Stayed awake for 264 hours
- Rem sleep increased following sleep deprivation
Stages of sleep (PART 1)
Awake and Alert:
* Beta Waves
Calm wakefulness:
* Alpha waves
Stage 1:
* Theta waves
* Myoclonic jerks
* Hypnagogic imagery
More stages of sleep
Stage 2:
Sleep Spindles
* Short burst of neural activity.
K-complexes
* A large waveform that occurs intermittently.
Stage 3 and 4:
Delta waves (1-2 waves per second)
* Stage 3 < 50% of waves are delta.
* Stage 4 > 50% of waves are delta.
* “Deep sleep” required for feeling well rested.
* Time spent in deep sleep declines with age.
Last stage of sleep
Stage 5 (REM sleep):
Rapid eye movement (REM)
* Darting of the eyes underneath closed eyelids during sleep.
Non-REM sleep (NREM)
* Stages 1 through 4 of the sleep cycle, during which rapid eye movements do not occur and dreaming is less frequent and vivid.
REM sleep
* Stage of sleep during which the brain is most active and during which vivid dreaming most often occurs.
* Rebounds when REM sleep is lost
Insomnia
Difficulty falling and staying asleep.
Factors such as age, drug use, exercise, mental status, and bedtime routines can contribute to insomnia
Types of Insomnia
- Regularly taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep.
- Waking too early in the morning.
- Waking up during the night and having trouble returning to sleep.
Behavioural Insomnia management
- Make sure you have a consistent wake schedule.
- Go to bed only when you are tired (e.g., nodding off).
- If you are in bed and not sleeping get out of bed (set a criteria, e.g., 10 minutes).
- Only use your bed for the purposes of sleeping (not reading and watching tv).
- Exercise regularly.
- Avoid drugs like alcohol and caffeine in the evening.
Pharmacological Insomnia management
- Can be addictive.
- Have adverse side effects (e.g., amnesia)
- Can lead to rebound insomnia.
How do Cortisol and Melatonin interact
As one’s production begins to ramp up the other begins to slow down
Narcolepsy
Falling of sleep during the day uncontrollably
Narcolepsy symptoms
- “Sleep attacks”
- Cataplexy
- Hypnagogic (Falling asleep) and Hypnopompic (waking up) hallucinations.
- Sleep paralysis
- Disturbed nighttime sleep
Narcolepsy causes
- Insufficient hypocretin producing neurons in the hypothalamus.
- Genes play small role but do not tell the whole story
Narcolepsy treatment
- Stimulants
- Behavioural strategies
(Obstructive) Sleep Apnea
Disorder caused by a blockage of the airway during sleep, resulting in daytime fatigue.
Health problems from (Obstructive) Sleep Apnea
- Night sweats
- Weight gain
- Hearing loss
- Irregular heartbeat
- Raises risk of death.
Sleep Apnea (Obstructive) treatment
- Weight loss
- CPAP air mask
Night Terrors
- Sudden waking episodes characterized by screaming, perspiring, and confusion followed by a return to a deep sleep.
- Lasts a few minutes.
- Stages 3 and 4 (not REM)
- Harmless
Night Terror treatment
Getting older
Sleepwalking
- Walking while fully asleep.
- Occurs during deep sleep stages.
- Usually harmless.
- Person is often not aware they have done it.
- Occurs more often in children.
- Contrary to popular belief it is perfectly safe to wake-up a sleepwalker.
Dreams
- Most people dream but a large number of people typically can’t recall or forget their dreams after waking from a night’s sleep.
- Lab studies that wake individuals during REM show that self-reported “non-dreamers” do actually dream.
- Rare to never experience dream
Cross-Cultural similarities for dreams
- Dreams are typically more negative (emotionally and thematically) than positive.
- Ratio of male to female characters within a dream
1:1 for women
2:1 for men - Dream content is often continuous with past or present pre-occupations of the individual dreamer.
Freuds theory that explains why we dream
Freud’s Dream Protection Theory
The Interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung)
- Published by Sigmund Freud in 1899
- Dreams reflect “wish-fulfillment” of unconscious desires.
Prevents unconscious urges from ruining sleep. - Primitive unconscious urges/desires are expressed symbolically within the dream and require “interpretation”.
- Manifest Content
- Latent Content
Manifest Content
The raw facts and details about the dream.
Latent Content
The underlying meaning about details within the dream.
Problems with Freuds Dream Theory
- People with brain damage who can’t dream will sleep soundly.
- Dreams are often not wish-fulling:
Mostly negative
Consist of benign people and activities
Can be nightmarish. - Most dreams involve no sexual themes.
What is Activation Synthesis Theory
- Theory that dreams reflect inputs from brain activation originating in the pons, which cortical regions of the brain then attempt to weave into a story.
- REM is induced by increased Acetylcholine in the Pons and reductions in Serotonin and Norepinephrine.
What is Charles Bonnet Syndrome
People who cant see recieve crazy detailed hallucinations who can’t see
What do scientists believe happens when we lose an ability to sense something
The brain will try and fit in the “grey areas” with previous remembered stimulus thus creating hallucinations
What is the new general idea of hallucinations
That they are much closer to what we actually perceive
Out of body experiences (OBE)
- The sensation of our consciousness leaving our body.
- People who experience OBE’s often report other strange experiences as well (e.g., hallucinations, perceptual distortions, lucid dreams, etc.)
- OBE’s often occur in conjunction with near-death experiences
What is the God Helmet
- Bike Helmet created by Stanley Koren
- Implied EMR created illusions and OBE
- Most likely attributed to sensory deprivation and not EMR
Deja Vu
- Feeling of reliving an experience that’s new.
- Lasts approx. 10-30 seconds.
- Resemblance of past events poorly remembered.
Deja Vu possible causes
- Excess levels of dopamine in temporal lobe.
- People with small temporal lobe seizures will report Déjà Vu prior to the seizure.
Hypnosis
- Set of techniques that provides people with suggestions for alterations in their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
- People are chosen to be “hypnotized” on the basis of their suggestibility. They are not “hypnotized” to be suggestable.
Hypnosis myths
- Puts people in a “trance.”
- People can be made to do things they don’t want to do.
- People are unaware of their surroundings.
- People forget what took place.
- Hypnosis can give you special abilities.
- Hypnotism enhances memory.
Regression Therapy
People are hypnotized to remember events from childhood (where their psych problems originated).
Problem with Regression therapy
- Reports of age-regressed individuals often cannot be corroborated by individuals present at the time.
- Poggendorf Illusion
- EEG responses
Past-Life Regression Therapy
People are regressed to remember events from a past life.
Problem with Past-Life Regression Therapy
- Branch of Regression Therapy
- Claims of regressed individuals often prove false when fact-checked.
- Ability to be regressed to a past-life is dependent on a belief in reincarnation.
Psychoactive drug
- Substance that contains chemicals similar to those found naturally in our brains that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons.
- Alter how we think, feel, and act.
what do Effects of the drug depend on
- Type
- Dose
placebo model for psychoactive drugs
The combination of use of drugs and placebo to monitor behaviour
What do the routes of administration do for drugs
- Determine how they enter the bloodstream
- Determine how quicly they enter the bloodstream
