PSYA01 - Module 6

Dualism

the idea that the mind and body are two separate entities

Conscious experience

entirety of what the brain does

Corpus Callosotomy/split-brain surgery

a procedure that cuts the corpus callosum, reduces frequency and severity of seizures linked with epilepsy

Consequence of split-brain surgery

the two hemisphere are unable to share info across the cortex which separates many parts that link perception and language

Corpus Callosum

large band of axons that connects the two hemispheres

Symptoms of corpus callosotomy

left side of body starts to act on its own, awareness of behaviour is altered

Hemispheric Specialization

some abilities are processed more on one side of the brain than the other (left and right brained ppl)

Left Temporal Lobe

location where language-related input is perceived

Conscious experience

conscious content and states of consciousness

Conscious content

the subjective experiences of your internal and external world, “sense of self”-plans, dreams, day-to-day perception of space and time

States of consciousness

different levels of arousal and attention, my experience of a specific state is based on several processes

William James (1890) remark

my experience is what I agree to attend to

Attention

the process of selecting information from the internal and external environments to prioritise for processing, it can be involuntary/automatic in some cases

Passive Attention

when bottom-up info from the external world requires a response (earing loud noise in a quiet room)

Active Attention

attention directed by goals and top-down processing (searching for keys at a cluttered table)

Selective Attention

attending to one source of info while simultaneously ignoring other info

Stimulus Salience

an idea that some stimuli in an environment captures attention bcz of its physical props (colour or loudness) the bottom-up qualities of a scene that influence attention

Attention capture

occurs when attention is diverted because of the salience of a stimulus

Cocktail party effect

a situation associated to selective attention; at a party you can focus your attention to a conversation and ignore other info

Dichotic Listening

an attention task where one but different streams of info was played in each ear and tasked to pay attention to one stream, results proved the brain does not ‘block’ out all info from the unattended message, specific kinds of info were processed and later recalled

Divided attention

multitasking, engaging in two or more tasks

Automaticity

refers to fast, effortless processing of info without conscious thought, isn't affected by other tasks

Inattentional blindness

tendency to miss changes to some kinds of info when attention is engaged somewhere else

Flicker test

a change attention task used to study intentional change detection and inattentional blindness

Intentional change detection

an attention task that requires the participant to actively search for a change made to the stimulus

Magic

an art form that relies on and exploits natural tendencies of our attentional system

Inhibition

the process of actively reducing processing of some info while the brain attends to a specific task (used in magic) 2nd component of attention

Subliminal Stimulus

a sensory stimulus that is processed but does reach the threshold for conscious perception, info that we ARE NOT aware of therefore does not influence our behaviour

Subconscious Perception

info that we ARE aware of, but we ARE NOT aware that it influences our behaviour

Subliminal processing

info that can’t consciously detect, even if we were looking for it

Subvisual messages

messages that are presented way too quickly for visual system to perceive

Subaudible messages

messages played at a low volume or in a way that the brain cannot consciously be aware of the content

Attention disorders

Deficits in attention that influences our ability to perceive and respond to information by influencing perceptions in reality itself

Visual Neglect

an attention disorder that occurs due to lesions in the right parietal lobe of the cortex, patients lose awareness of visual stimuli on the left

Dorsal stream

a pathway that processes visual info to perceive (vision for perception)

Ventral stream

a pathway that processes visual info for executing movements (vision for action)

Visual agnosia

a disorder that occurs due to damage to the ventral stream

Optic Ataxia

a disorder that occurs due to damage to the dorsal stream

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)

one of the most commonly diagnosed psychological problems in childhood, contains 9 individual measures and 9 different behaviours, needs to have 6 or more in each category to qualify for diagnosis

Symptoms of ADHD

behaviours such as; impulsivity, poor planning, hyperactivity, and low attention span, deficits on neuropsychological testing and poor academic performance

Medication for ADHD

Ritalin and Adderall

Fatal Familial insomnia

a rare genetic disorder affecting the thalamus, that causes people to die from lack of sleep

Electroencephalograms

a device that measures the sum of electrical activation across the surface of the cortex

Electrooculogram

a device used to measure eye movements

Electromyograms

a device used to measure muscle tension around the jaw

Biological clocks

internal clocks that prepare the body for daily, seasonal, and annual rhythms

Diurnal species

species that are active during the day and then sleep at night

Circadian Rhythms

daily body clocks that tell the body when to sleep and wake

“Free running” cycle

a 25 hour clock that runs if there are no morning cues that reset the our clock

Zeitgebers

Cues (reliable stimuli) from the environment that provide info about the time of day which set the biological clocks

Jet lag

An event that occurs when your body is out of sync with the time cues from the external world (travelling to a different time zone)

Daylight saving time consequences

shifting clocks one hour ahead during spring time to make use of more sunlight, but this causes disruptions in decision making and attention measured five days after the shift

Artificially stimulating/repressing clocks

changing the amount of light exposure at the appropriate time of day

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

a structure located directly above the optic chiasm which the body’s timekeeper that sends signals to different regions of the brain to set the body’s circadian clock

Pineal gland

a structure that receives signals from the SCN to secrete melatonin at the appropriate time

Melatonin

a sleep hormone that is highest before bed to signal the absence of light

Dyssomnias

a category of sleep disorders that refers to problems with the quality of sleep

Parasomnias

a category of sleep disorders that are problems that occur during sleep

Insomnias

the inability to fall asleep or stay asleep

Sleep hygiene

a series of behavioural practices that promote the ability to fall and stay asleep

Two causes of insomnia

stress in the environment or insomnia is symptom of a serious underlying medical condition

Conditioned insomnia

a form of insomnia that occurs when sleep cues causes anxiety about the inability to fall asleep (learned)

Idiopathic insomnia/child onset insomnia

a neurophysiological abnormality in the CNS that begins in childhood and experienced through adulthood as insomnia and is resistant to treatment and difficult to diagnose early on

Hypersomnia

a symptom of several different disorders and is the excessive need for sleep or sleepiness during daytime hours

Common cause of hypersomnia

poor sleep quality is the common cause of a excessive sleep symptom

Sleep apnea

a medical condition where the patient stop breathing during the night and CO2 builds up the bloodstream causing them to wake up, resulting in poor quality sleep/long term health problems

Untreated sleep apnea

risk factors such dementia, diabetes, hypertension, and stroke involved in this untreated sleep disorder

Sleep apnea treatments

a pressurised air mask (CPAP) and sometimes surgery

Narcolepsy

a rare genetic neurodegenerative disorder, main symptom is the sudden and uncontrollable need to sleep for a few sec or mins, can enter REM sleep

Cataplexy

the second symptom of narcolepsy where one experiences muscle weakness or muscular paralysis during waking hours triggered by emotionally engaged events

Hypnagogic hallucinations

vivid sensory hallucinations that occur right before the onset of sleep

Hypnopompic hallucinations

vivid sensory hallucinations that occur right before waking

REM sleep behaviour disorder

a neurodegenerative disorder that results in the inability of the brain to paralyze the body during sleep and one acts out the contents of their dreams

Minor tranquillisers/anxiolytics/melatonin

treatment to manage symptoms of REM sleep behaviour disorder

Deep stage/slow-wave sleep disorders

behaviours such as bedwetting, sleepwalking, night terrors that occurs in children and sorted out once they age

Nocturnal Enuresis

a disorder of SWS that can be treated by using small alarms that sound at the first sign of moisture in sheets, teaches children of the sensation of a full bladder with waking

Night terrors

a disorder of SWS that causes one to be frantic, panickily scream but with little to no memory of the cause once the they are awake

Somnambulism

a disorder caused by SWS that causes one to conduct behaviours as if they are awake, not knowing the risk, sleepwalking

Activation-synthesis hypothesis

a hypothesis about dreaming that suggests that dreams do not serve a purpose, but rather are the consequence of other processes that occur across the cortex during sleep

Evolutionary hypothesis of dreams

a hypothesis about dreaming that suggests that dreams have a biological significance, related to survival

Three features of associated with the pattern of brainwaves

frequency, amplitudes and regularity

Beta waves

irregular, low amp, waves with a frequency of 13-30Hz that appear on EEG when a person is alert and actively processing information

Alpha waves

regular, medium frequency brain waves that appear on EEG when a person is relaxed

Theta waves

brain waves (3.5-7.5 Hz) that appear on an EEG when a person is deeply relaxed or falling asleep

Stage 1

a light stage of sleep, one moves from a state of relaxation to early sleep that involves theta waves

K-complexes

a pattern of neural excitation followed by neural inhibition that happen once a minute during stage 2 sleep

Sleep spindles

brief burst of activity that happen 2-5 times per min during stage 2 sleep that are currently thought to play a role in memory consolidation

Stage 2

a stage of sleep that prepares the brain to enter delta wave activity using beta waves, K-complexes and sleep spindles

Delta waves

regular, slow, high amp brain waves that appear on an EEG when a person is deeply asleep, occur during stage 3-4 of sleep

Slow-wave sleep (SWS)

a broader name for sleep occurring in stage 3-4

Non-REM sleep

stages 1, 2 and slow-wave sleep

REM (rapid eye movement)

a stage of sleep where narrative-based dreams happen, EEG recordings become irregular similar to awake waves

REM sleep antonia

the paralysis of the body during a sleep stage

Hypnogram

a graphic depiction of a person’s progress through the stages of sleep over the course of a night

Psychoactive drugs

psychoactive substances from the environment, other than food, that influence mood, thoughts, or behaviour

As tolerance develops

larger doses of drugs are needed

Dependence

the physical or psychological need for the drug to maintain normal functioning

Physical Withdrawal

caused by the absence of drugs after dependence, symptoms include headaches, shaking, vomiting and changes in mood

Depressants

a drug category that dampens, slows, or inhibits the activity of CNS

Stimulants

a drug category that excites/increases the activity of CNS