Chapter 4: Consciousness Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering consciousness, sleep, dreams, hypnosis, meditation, biofeedback, and psychoactive drugs from Chapter 4.

Consciousness

Being awake and alert, which includes sensory awareness of surroundings and inner awareness of thoughts, feelings, and memories.

Selective Attention

A mental filter that helps the brain focus awareness on important information while ignoring less important information.

Cocktail Party Effect

The phenomenon of being able to focus on one person's voice in a noisy environment, where personally meaningful information (such as hearing your name) quickly captures attention.

Inattentional Blindness

Failing to notice something even though you are conscious and it is right in front of you.

Personal Unity

The sense of being the same person over time despite changing thoughts, feelings, and experiences.

Conscious Level

The level of awareness where a person is currently conscious of thoughts, feelings, or perceptions.

Preconscious Level

Mental content that is not currently in awareness but can be easily recalled into consciousness.

Unconscious Level

Mental content that is usually not accessible to awareness, containing repressed memories or impulses in Freud's theory.

Repression

An automatic and unconscious process that keeps anxiety-provoking ideas, impulses, or memories out of awareness.

Nonconscious Level

Bodily processes that occur without direct conscious awareness, such as neurons firing or hair growing.

Biological Rhythms

Natural patterns or cycles in our bodies that influence sleep, wakefulness, and alertness.

Circadian Rhythm

A type of biological rhythm that follows an approximately 24-hour cycle to help determine when we feel awake and when we feel sleepy.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

The brain's "master clock" located in the hypothalamus that uses information about light and darkness to regulate circadian rhythms.

Light Regulation of Melatonin

The pathway where light detected by the eye's retina signals the SCN, causing the pineal gland to decrease melatonin production to promote wakefulness.

Beta Waves

Faster, higher-frequency brain waves characteristic of being awake and alert.

Theta Waves

Slower brain waves characteristic of light sleep.

Delta Waves

Slow brain waves characteristic of deep sleep in Stages 3 and 4.

Sleep Spindles

Brief bursts of brain activity that occur during Stage 2 light sleep.

5 Stages of a Sleep Cycle

A cycle lasting about 90 minutes consisting of NREM sleep (Stages 1 through 4) and REM sleep (Stage 5), typically repeated 4 to 6 times per night.

Paradoxical Sleep (REM)

Stage 5 REM sleep, called paradoxical because brain activity increases and looks active while muscles are mostly paralyzed and vivid dreaming occurs.

Microsleep

A brief period lasting a few seconds where the brain slips into sleep even though a person appears awake.

Lucid Dreams

Dreams in which a person is aware that they are dreaming and may have the ability to influence or control dream events.

Continuity Hypothesis

The view that dreams contain residue of the day, continuing our waking thoughts, everyday experiences, and concerns into sleep. (dream content reflects a person's waking-life thoughts, emotional concerns, and everyday experiences.)

Activation-Synthesis Model

A biological theory proposing that dreaming is the brain's attempt to synthesize random neural activity from the pons and reticular formation into a coherent story.

(explains dreams as the brain's attempt to make sense of random electrical signals during REM sleep)

Neurocognitive Model of Dreams

The theory that the brain constructs dreams using memories, thoughts, emotions, and imagination via the default network when sleeping.

Imagery Rehearsal Therapy (IRT)

A nightmare treatment involving remembering a repeated nightmare, rewriting it while awake to find a safe resolution, and mentally rehearsing the rewritten dream.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder characterized by persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep, chronically affecting 10–15% of people.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder involving sudden, uncontrollable sleep attacks where a person may abruptly transition into REM sleep.

Sleep Paralysis

A brief loss of muscle control just after falling asleep or waking up due to a delayed signal from the brain to unfreeze muscles.

Sleep Paralysis Hallucinations

Hallucinatory experiences involved in 75% of sleep paralysis episodes, categorized as Intruder, Vestibular-Motor (V-M), and Chest Pressure.

Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder characterized by repeated pauses in breathing during sleep due to airway blockages, often causing loud snoring and treated with CPAP.

Sleep Terrors

A deep NREM sleep disorder where a person may scream or thrash around while remaining partially asleep, remembering little to nothing upon waking.

Somnambulism

Sleepwalking; a deep NREM sleep disorder caused by the brain attempting to transition directly from deep NREM sleep to wakefulness.

Enuresis

Bedwetting associated with deep sleep, most common in children, which can stem from medical issues, genetics, or emotional distress.

Hypnosis

An altered state of consciousness characterized by focused attention, high suggestibility, and deep relaxation, requiring participant cooperation.

Transcendental Meditation (TM)

A form of meditation where attention is focused on a repeated word or sound called a mantra to block out distracting thoughts.

Mindfulness Meditation (MM)

A form of meditation focusing non-judgmental attention on present-moment experiences, such as breathing.

Biofeedback

A method using electronic equipment to monitor automatic body functions so individuals can learn to consciously control them.

Psychoactive Drugs

Substances that alter how the brain and mind work, changing mood, thoughts, awareness, behavior, and perception.

Substance Use Disorder (SUD)

A condition defined by DSM-5-TR where an individual experiences difficulty controlling substance use despite serious health, personal, or social problems.

Tolerance

A state where increasing amounts of a substance are required to achieve the same effect previously produced by smaller doses.

Withdrawal

Uncomfortable physical or psychological symptoms that occur when substance use is reduced or stopped.

Delirium Tremens (DTs)

A severe form of alcohol withdrawal characterized by confusion, agitation, and hallucinations.

Opiates

Narcotics derived directly from the opium poppy, such as morphine, used to relieve pain and induce sleep.

Opioids

Synthetic or semi-synthetic drugs (such as heroin, codeine, Demerol, and fentanyl) manufactured to act on opioid receptors for pain relief and euphoria.

Barbiturates

Depressant drugs with medical uses for anxiety, insomnia, and high blood pressure that rapidly lead to physical and psychological dependence.

Propofol

An anesthetic depressant drug that slows brain activity and causes sedation, which can dangerously depress breathing if overdosed.

Amphetamines

Synthetic stimulants that produce euphoric feelings and alertness, used in medications like Ritalin and Adderall for ADHD.

Cocaine Mechanism of Action

Cocaine produces euphoria by blocking dopamine reuptake in the synaptic cleft, causing dopamine accumulation followed by a crash when dopamine levels fall.

Nicotine

An addictive stimulant in tobacco products that enhances attention and memory, depresses appetite, and raises metabolic rate.

THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol)

The primary psychedelic substance in marijuana that alters time perception and heightens sensory awareness.

LSD

A synthetic hallucinogen that causes vivid visual distortions, such as visual snow, and potential flashbacks.

Hallucinogen Persisting Perception Disorder (HPPD)

A disorder involving recurring perceptual distortions or flashbacks mimicking an LSD trip long after drug use.

Ketamine

A dissociative anesthetic with hallucinogenic effects that causes feelings of detachment from one's body, used medically for anesthesia and treatment-resistant depression.