MODULE 4: CONSCIOUSNESS

• Consciousness


  Awareness of sensations, feelings, and thoughts about the things that are going on around you
• Ciccarelli & White, 2018: '"Is your awareness of everything that is going on around you and inside your own head at any given moment, which you use to organize your behavior"'
• Different Levels of Consciousness

  • Waking Consciousness
  • Altered State of Consciousness
• Waking Consciousness


  • Clear, organized, alert
• Altered State of Consciousness


  • Shift in the pattern and quality of mental activity
  • Divided consciousness
• Altered State of Consciousness


  • Hypnosis
  • Drowsy state
  • Under influence
  • Meditation
  • Daydreaming
  • Sleeping
• Thought Processes


  • Controlled Processes
  • Automatic Process
• Controlled Processes


  Involves conscious attention, at work when we do activities that require focus and attention
• Automatic Process


  Involves lower level of attention, do not need focus or attention
• Sleep Processes


  • Process C (Circadian Process)
  • Process S (Homeostatic Process)
• Process C (Circadian Process)


  Depends on circadian rhythm or body clock, dependent on light-dark cue
• Circadian Rhythm


  Body's endogenous clock that runs approximately 24hrs, partly relies on amount of light to regulate sleep-wake cycle
• Light


  Acts as zeitgeber or time-giver
• The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)


  A set of paired nuclei in the poster part of the hypothalamus that regulate circadian rhythms, photic (light related) information from SCN signals pituitary gland/ pineal gland to release melatonin, signal brain and body for sleep onset but is not responsible for sleepiness
• Process S (Homeostatic Process)


  Depends on physiological regulation, driven by sleep pressure
• Sleep reduces adenosine


  Decrease sleep pressure/ process S
• Adenosine


  Generates sleep pressure or the desire to sleep, accumulates in the basal forebrain and cerebral cortex during wakefulness and decreases during sleep, amount in your brain increases the longer you are awake, caffeine mimics adenosine and attaches to adenosine receptors but does not clear adenosine, builds up excessive amount of adenosine which explains why you feel extra sleepy after the caffeine is flushed out (caffeine crash), it takes 5-7hrs to remove 50% of caffeine concentration
• Stages of Sleep


  • NON-REM Stages
  • REM Stage
• NON-REM Stages


  • NREM Stages (N2 Sleep Spindles) enhances retention of short-term memory to long-term memory, helps in shifting through relevant memory
  • N1 - Transitional, 5% of sleep time, decrease in awareness but we have subjective sense of being awake, appearance of theta waves
  • N2 - Presence of sleep spindles and K complexes (for memory consolidation)
  • N3 - Slow-wave sleep (SWS), deepest stage, difficult to wake the person up, delta waves
• REM Stage


  • REM Sleep - Overnight therapy theory (mental health), REM brain connects distantly-related concepts (creativity), activated EEG that resembles activity in waking but muscle atonia, rapid eye movement, called paradoxical sleep
• Theories of Sleep Function


  • Adaptive Theory of Sleep - Sleep is a product of evolution that help us avoid predators who are active during nighttime
  • Restorative Theory of Sleep - Sleep restores and maintains physical health
• The more sleep spindles during N2


  The better the learning retention
• Pulses of action potential between hippocampus and the cortex


  To transfer fact-based memories
• Sleep deprivation


  Mood reactivity, problems in memory & learning, raises the risk of Alzheimer (amyloid protein), NREM is reduced in Alzheimer's
• Theories of Dreaming


  • Dreams as wish fulfillment - manifest & latent content
  • Activation-synthesis - other brain areas are activated by the pons; interprets those signals
  • Activation Information Mode - brain uses meaningful parts of person's recent experiences to explain cortical activation
• Brain Activity During Dreaming


  • Increase in activity - visuospatial areas, motor cortex, amygdala & anterior cingulate cortex, hippocampus (memory)
  • Decrease in activity - prefrontal cortex (ordered thought)
• The Content of Dreams
• Psychoactive Drugs


  Chemical substances that alter thinking, perception, memory, or some combination of those abilities
• Physical Dependence


  Body is unable to function without the drug, signs are drug tolerance and withdrawal
• Psychological Dependence


  Belief that drug is needed to continue a feeling of emotional or psychological well-being
• Types of Drugs


  • Stimulants
  • Depressants
  • Hallucinogens
• Stimulants


  • Psychoactive drugs that speed up or increase activity in the central and/or peripheral nervous system, examples: amphetamines, cocaine, nicotine, caffeine
• Depressants


  • Psychoactive drugs that slow down or decrease activity in the central and/or peripheral nervous system, examples: major tranquilizers, minor tranquilizers, alcohol, opiates
• Hallucinogens


  • Produces sensory changes and alterations, examples: LSD, MDMA, marijuana
• Nicotine


  Stimulant, release of adrenaline and dopamine
• Alcohol


  Depressant, indirect stimulation of GABA
• Caffeine


  Stimulant, replaces adenosine receptor