PSYC101 - Consciousness, Sleep & Dreams, and Psychoactive Drugs

Flashcards covering key vocabulary related to consciousness, levels of awareness, sleep and dreams, sleep disorders, theories of dreaming, and psychoactive drugs from PSYC101 lecture notes.

Consciousness

Awareness of external events and internal sensations under a condition of arousal.

Arousal

Being engaged with one’s environment.

Global brain workspace

Various brain areas working in parallel for awareness, including the prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate, and association areas.

Reticular activating system (RAS)

Regulates arousal and includes the brain stem, medulla, and thalamus.

Higher-level consciousness

Controlled processes, the most alert states of human consciousness, during which individuals actively focus their efforts toward a goal.

Controlled processes

The most alert states of human consciousness, during which individuals actively focus their efforts toward a goal and require selective attention.

Selective attention

Concentrating on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others.

Executive function

Higher-order, complex cognitive processes, including thinking, planning, and problem solving.

Lower-level consciousness

Automatic processes, states of consciousness that require little attention and do not interfere with other ongoing activities.

Automatic processes

States of consciousness that require little attention and do not interfere with other ongoing activities.

Daydreaming

A state of consciousness that is between active consciousness and dreaming while asleep.

Altered states of consciousness

States that can range from losing one’s sense of self-consciousness to hallucinating, and can be induced.

Waking subconscious awareness

Involves subconscious processing or incubation, where information processing can occur simultaneously along many parallel tracks.

Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS)

Damage to the brainstem resulting in a state where someone 'awakens' from a coma with eyes open but only exhibits reflexes, previously known as persistent vegetative state.

Minimally conscious state (MCS)

A state where a person can follow simple commands and localize pain, different from UWS.

Locked-in syndrome (LIS)

A state where a person is conscious but unable to move.

Blindsight

Damage to the visual cortex where a person still has unconscious perception, able to respond to visual stimuli (like detecting motion) but cannot report it.

Unconscious perception

The ability to respond to visual stimuli without being able to consciously report seeing them.

Visual Agnosia

An inability to identify or recognize objects visually despite intact vision, often due to damage to the ventral stream.

Visual form agnosia

A specific type of visual agnosia where damage to the lateral occipital complex (ventral stream) results in an inability to identify or recognize objects, though vision is intact.

Sleep

A natural state of rest for the body and mind that involves the reversible loss of consciousness.

Biological rhythms

Periodic physiological fluctuations in the body that can influence behavior.

Circadian rhythms

Daily behavioral or physiological cycles that involve the sleep/wake cycle, body temperature, blood pressure, and blood sugar level, monitored by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).

Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

A small brain region that monitors circadian rhythms.

Melatonin

A hormone that increases at night in humans and has potential for reducing jet lag and other sleep problems.

Chronic sleep deprivation

Consistently getting less than the recommended 7 to 9 hours of sleep, leading to difficulties in attention, problem-solving, and decreased brain activity.

Electroencephalography (EEG)

A technique used to identify stages of sleep by measuring brain wave patterns.

Beta waves

Desynchronous brain waves that reflect concentration and alertness during wakefulness (Stage W).

Alpha waves

More synchronous brain waves that appear as we relax during wakefulness (Stage W).

Stage N1 (non-REM1) sleep

The initial stage of sleep, when people are just falling asleep, characterized by theta waves.

Theta waves

Slower brain waves than alpha waves, characteristic of N1 and N2 sleep.

Stage N2 (non-REM2) sleep

A stage of sleep where theta waves continue, interspersed with sleep spindles.

Sleep spindles

Brief bursts of brain activity that occur during N2 sleep.

Stage N3 (non-REM3) sleep

The deepest stage of sleep, characterized by delta waves, which are the slowest and highest-amplitude brain waves.

Delta waves

The slowest and highest-amplitude brain waves during sleep, characteristic of N3 sleep.

Stage R (REM) sleep

A stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movement; when most vivid dreams occur and brain waves are similar to relaxed wakefulness.

REM sleep

Rapid Eye Movement sleep, a stage of sleep when most vivid dreams occur, characterized by fast brain waves and high hippocampus activity.

Sleep cycle

A normal sequence of the five stages of sleep (N1, N2, N3, REM) lasting about 90 to 100 minutes, recurring several times during the night.

Reticular formation

A brain structure that plays a crucial role in the process of sleep.

Serotonin

A neurotransmitter involved in regulating sleep.

Norepinephrine

A neurotransmitter involved in regulating sleep.

Acetylcholine

A neurotransmitter involved in regulating sleep.

GABA receptors

Receptors in the brain that appear to help regulate the process of sleep.

Insomnia

A sleep disorder characterized by difficulty falling asleep, waking up during the night, or waking up too early.

Sleepwalking

A sleep disorder involving walking or carrying out complex behaviors while asleep.

Sleep talking

A sleep disorder involving talking during sleep.

Nightmares

Frightening dreams that awaken a dreamer from REM sleep.

Night terrors

Sudden arousal from sleep and an intense physiological fear reaction, typically occurring in N3 sleep.

Narcolepsy

A sleep disorder characterized by the sudden, uncontrollable, overpowering urge to sleep.

Sleep apnea

A sleep disorder in which the individual stops breathing during sleep.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

The unexplained death of an infant, which may have sleep apnea as a contributing factor.

Freud's wish-fulfillment theory of dreams

Dreams preserve sleep and provide a 'psychic safety valve,' expressing otherwise unacceptable feelings through manifest and latent content.

Information-processing theory of dreams

Dreams help us sort out the day's events and consolidate our memories.

Physiological function theory of dreams

Regular brain stimulation from REM sleep may help develop and preserve neural pathways.

Neural activation theory of dreams

REM sleep triggers neural activity that evokes random visual memories, which our sleeping brain weaves into stories.

Cognitive development theory of dreams

Dream content reflects dreamers' level of cognitive development—their knowledge and understanding.

Cognitive theory of dreaming

We can understand dreaming by applying the same cognitive concepts used in studying the waking mind.

Activation-synthesis theory

Dreaming occurs when the cerebral cortex synthesizes neural signals from activity in the lower part of the brain, attempting to find logic in random brain activity that occurs during sleep.

Lucid Dreaming

When a person becomes aware that they are dreaming, often associated with increased prefrontal cortex activity.

Psychoactive drugs

Drugs that act on the nervous system to alter consciousness, modify perception, and change moods, often by increasing dopamine levels in reward pathways.

Ventral tegmental area

The origin of dopaminergic cell bodies in the brain’s reward system, affected by psychoactive drugs.

Nucleus accumbens

The destination of dopaminergic projections in the brain’s reward system, affected by psychoactive drugs.

Tolerance

The need to take increasing amounts of a drug to get the same effect.

Addiction

A physical or psychological dependence, or both, on a drug.

Physical dependence

The physiological need for a drug that causes unpleasant withdrawal symptoms if discontinued.

Psychological dependence

The strong desire to repeat the use of a drug for emotional reasons.

Substance use disorder

A psychological disorder in which a person’s use of psychoactive drugs affects their health, ability to work, and ability to engage in social relationships.

Depressants

Psychoactive drugs that slow down mental and physical activity.

Alcoholism

A disorder involving long-term, repeated, uncontrolled, compulsive, and excessive use of alcohol that impairs health and social relationships.

Barbiturates

Depressant drugs that decrease central nervous system activity.

Tranquilizers

Depressant drugs that reduce anxiety and induce relaxation.

Opioids

Depressant drugs that act on the brain’s endorphin receptors.

Stimulants

Psychoactive drugs that increase the central nervous system’s activity.

Caffeine

A common stimulant.

Nicotine

A stimulant found in tobacco products.

Amphetamines

Also known as 'uppers,' a type of stimulant.

Cocaine

A powerful stimulant.

MDMA (Ecstasy)

A psychoactive drug considered a stimulant with some hallucinogenic properties.

Hallucinogens

Psychoactive drugs that modify a person’s perceptual experiences and produce visual images that are not real.

Marijuana

A hallucinogen.

LSD (lysergic acid diethylamide)

A potent hallucinogen.