Psych 1 Ivett Final Study

Hell on earth

Blood Brain barrier (BBB)

A selective permeability barrier that separates the circulating blood from the brain and extracellular fluid in the central nervous system, protecting the brain from harmful substances while allowing essential nutrients to pass through.

physiological dependence

A condition resulting from prolonged use of a substance, leading to withdrawal symptoms when the substance is reduced or discontinued.

psychological dependence

The emotional need for the drug

tolerance

 occurs when a person requires more and more of a drug to achieve effects previously experienced at lower doses; linked to physiological dependence

Withdrawal

Negative symptoms experienced when drug use is discontinued

GABA

The major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the brain and the spinal cord,Blocks the signals of excitatory neurotransmitters, Low levels may be responsible for anxiety and panic

Glutamate

The primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain

Important for longer-term processes,learning and memory

acetylcholine

Muscle action and memory

Endorphins

Pain and pleasure

Norepinephrine

Heart, intestines, and alertness

Serotonin

Mood and sleep

Depressants

 Drugs that suppress the central nervous system activity Work by binding to GABA receptors, which make the neuron less likely to fire, Usually, GABA agonists have a quieting effect on the brain

Alcohol

• Decreases reaction time and visual acuity

• Lowers levels of alertness

• Reduces behavioral control

• Can result in complete loss of consciousness

Stimulants

• Increase overall levels of neural activity

• Include: Cocaine, Amphetamine, Cathinones (i.e bath salts), MDMA

• Side effects can include nausea, elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, feelings of anxiety, hallucinations, and paranoia 

Opioid receptors

• Serve as analgesics (decrease pain) through their effects on the endogenous opioid neurotransmitter system (Highly addictive)

• Includes: Heroine, Morphine, Methadone, Codeine, Fentanyl

Hallucinogens

• Effects, LSD, NMDA, Marijuana

  • Cause changes in sensory and perceptual experiences. It can involve vivid hallucinations

  • Variable with regards to the specific neurotransmitter systems they affect

  • Mescaline and LSD (Serotonin agonists

  • PCP and Ketamine (NMDA glutamate receptor antagonists)

  • Medical marijuana

Caffeine:

• Involves antagonizing adenosine
activity.
• Increases levels of alertness and
arousal.

Nicotine:

• Interacts with acetylcholine receptors.
• Highly addictive.
• Plays a role in arousal and reward
mechanisms

cocaine mechanism

cocaine and
amphetamines block the
reuptake of dopamine from the
synapse into the presynaptic
cell

dopamine recpetors

proteins that control neural signaling, which affects many behaviors and functions in the brain and body

• Circadian rhythm

• A biological rhythm that occurs over approximately 24 hours

  • Generated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

  • The sleep-wake cycle, one of four main circadian rhythms, is linked to our environment’s natural light-dark cycle

Hypothalamus Suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

• The SCN in the hypothalamus serves as the brain’s clock mechanism

• The clock sets itself with light information received through projections from the retina, allowing it to synchronize with the outside world

Pineal gland:

• Melatonin regulates our sleep-wake cycle

• Melatonin release is stimulated by darkness, making us sleepy and inhibited by daylight

• releases melatonin

• Adaptive function (Evolutionary Hypothesis)

• • Sleep is essential to restore sources that are expended during the day

  • Sleep is an adaptive response to predatory risks, which increase in darkness

  • There is little evidence to support these explanations

vCognitive Function

• Focuses on sleeps importance for Cognitive function and memory formation

• Research shows that sleep deprivation results in disruptions in cognition and memory deficits

• These impairments become more severe as the amount of sleep deprivation increases

• Slow-wave appears to be essential for effective memory formation

 Stage 1

• (Alpha waves): Transitional phase occurring between wakefulness and sleep

  • Rates of respiration and heartbeat slow down

  • Overall muscle tension and core body temperature decrease

Stage 2

• (Theta waves): The body goes into deep relaxation

  • Characterized by the appearance of both sleep spindles and k-complexes

  • Sleep spindles: Rapid burst of high frequency brainwaves

  • K-complexes: Very high amplitude pattern of brian activity

Stages 3 & 4

• (Deep sleep)

  • Known as slow-wave sleep or Delta waves

  • Respiration and heart rate slow down further

• Rapid Eye Movement (REM)

Rapid eye movements: Paralysis of voluntary muscles; dreams; brain waves are similar to those seen during wakefulness

• Insomnia

• Difficulty falling or staying asleep-for at least 3 nights a week for at least one month’s time. The most common sleep disorder, may be associated with symptoms of depression

• Contributing factors include:

  • Age, drug use, exercise, mental status, bedtime routines

• Moujaes et al., 2023: Type of research, 1 strength, 1 flaw, key findings from the discussion

• The study investigated archival data from four different previously conducted altered states of consciousness (ASCs) studies

• Hypothesis: Pharmacological and nonpharmacological ASC intervention methods would show distinct changes in rs-fcMRI would be predictive at the individual level

• Results:

  • No common overlapping network in all four studies (not significant)

  • Both psilocybin and LSD induced:

    • Increased connectivity between regions involved in sensory & associative networks

    • Decreased connectivity between regions involved in different associative networks

    • Decreased connectivity within sensory networks

Meditation

• open awareness – involving observation of thoughts (“Let it come,
  let it be, let it go”)

• induced decrease connectivity between the posterior DMN and secondary visual networks (V2)

Hypnosis (esdaile)

• involves deep relaxation and visualization

  • Decrease connectivity within the primary visual (V1) network and 

  • Increased connectivity between the V1 network and the somatomotor, superior temporal gyrus (STG) anterior default mode network (DMN) and limbic/parahippocampal cortex (aPaHC) networks 

•  Ivan Pavlov’s experiment with dogs

• Russian psychologist

• Experiment: Dogs were conditioned to associate a sound cue with food. When the dogs heard the sound, they anticipated the food and salivated

• The process of conditioning involves the pairing of a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS):

• Stimulus that elicits a reflexive response

• Neutral stimulus (NS):

• Stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response (ringing a bell - does not cause salivation by itself before conditioning

• Unconditioned Response (UCR):

• A natural, unlearned reaction to a stimulus (salivation in response to food)

Conditioned stimulus (CS):

• Stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned response (CR):

• The behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus

Higher order conditioning

• An established conditioned stimulus is paired with a new neutral stimulus (the second-order stimulus) so that eventually, the new stimulus also elicits the conditioned response without the initial conditioned stimulus being presented

• Example:

  • The cat is conditioned to salivate when it hears the electric can opener

  • The squeaky cabinet door (second-order stimulus) is paired with the can opener (CS)

  • The cat salivates (CR) when it hears the squeaky cabinet door (CS)

• The cat learns to associate the cabinet door with the electric can opener therefore with food

• Acquisition:

• The initial period of learning when an organism learns to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus

• Extinction:

• Decrease in the conditioned responses when the UCS is no longer presented with the CS

  • If food stops being presented with the sound of the bell then eventually the dog will stop responding to the bell

• Spontaneous recovery:

• The return of a previously extinguished conditioned response following a rest period

• Stimulus discrimination:

• When an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar

  • The dog can discriminate between the specific bell sound that signals food and a similar bell sound that does not signal food

• Stimulus generalization:

• an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus

  • I.e If an individual learns to dislike a specific spider, they will usually then dislike all spiders

• Habituation:

• Learning not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change

  • As a stimulus is repeated, we learn not to focus on it

Operant conditioning:

• Is a process by which humans and animals learn to behave in such a way as to obtain rewards and avoid punishments

• Pleasant consequence/desired result → Behavior is more likely to occur again

• Unpleasant consequence/undesired result → Behavior is less likely to occur again

• Skinner Box:

• To study operant conditioning, Skinner placed animals inside an operant conditioning chamber (Skinner box) containing a lever that when pressed causes food to be dispensed as a reward, if not quick enough it would shock you.

• Positive punishment:

• Something is added to decrease the likelihood os a behavior

Scolding a student for texting in class

• Positive reinforcement:

• Something is added to increase the likelihood of a behavior

  • High grades, Paychecks, Praise

• Negative reinforcement:

• Something is removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior

  • The beeping sound that will only go away when you put your seatbelt on

• Negative punishment:

• Something is removed to decrease the likelihood of a behavior

  • Taking away a favorite toy when a child misbehaves

• Primary reinforcers:

• Those with innate reinforcing qualities (i.e food, water, sleep, pleasure). The value of those reinforces does not need to be learned

• Secondary reinforcers:

• Those that have no inherent value, Their value is learned and becomes reinforcing when linked with a primary reinforcer

  • Praise, a secondary reinforcer is linked with affection, a primary reinforcer

• Continuous reinforcement

• Every time the desired behavior is made the subject will receive some reinforcer

partial reinforcement

A system where not every correct response gets rewarded, helping the behavior last longer even if rewards

• Fixed-interval schedule:

• An exact amount of time passes between each reinforcement

• Variable-interval schedule:

• A varying amount of time passes between each reinforcement

Fixed-interval schedule

• An exact amount of time passes between each reinforcement/reward

variable-interval schedule

• A varying amount of time passes between each reinforcement

• Latent learning

• • Learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it

    • Children may learn behaviors from their parents that they do not demonstrate until they are older

• Fixed-ratio schedule:

• Reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses/actions

• Variable-ratio schedule:

• Reinforcement occurs after a varying number of responses

• Latent learning

• Learning that occurs but is not observable in behavior until there is a reason to demonstrate it

  • Children may learn behaviors from their parents that they do not demonstrate until they are older

• Cognitive maps

• • A mental picture of the layout of an environment

Observational learning:

• learning by watching others

Bandura’s Bobo doll experiment:

• Children observed adults act aggressively towards a 5ft Bobo doll

• The adult was punished, praised or ignored for their behavior

• The children were then allowed to play with the Bobo doll

• If the child had seen the adult punished, they were less likely to act aggressively towards the doll

• If the child had seen the adult praised or ignored, they were more likely to imitate the adult

• Vicarious reinforcement:

A process where the observer sees the model rewarded, making the observer more likely to imitate the model’s behavior

• Vicarious punishment:

• A process where the observer sees the model punished, making the observer less likely to imitate the model’s behavior

• Encoding:

• Involves the input of information into the memory system

• Storage:

• Is the retention of the encoded information

• Retrieval:

Is getting the information out of memory and back into awareness

• Automatic processing:

• Encoding of details like time, space, frequency, and the meaning of words

  • Usually done without conscious awareness

  • I.e remembering WHEN you last studied

• Effortful processing:

• Encoding of details that takes time and effort

  • I.e WHAT you last studied, learning new skills

• Semantic encoding:

• Encoding of words and their meaning (most effective)

  • Involves a deeper level of processing

Visual encoding:

Encoding of images

• Acoustic encoding:

encoding of sounds

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of memory (A-S Model)

• Information passes through 3 distinct stages in order to be stored in long-term memory

• Based on the belief that memories are processed the same way a computer processes information

Sensory memory:

• Storage of brief sensory events, such as sights, sounds, and tastes

Short-term memory (STM)

• A temporary storage system that processes incoming sensory memory

  • Can either be discarded or stored in long term memory

Long-term memory (LTM)

 Is the continuous storage of information. It has no limit and is like the information you store on hard drive of a computer

Memory consolidation

• Transfer of STM to long-term memory

• One way this is done is through rehearsal 

Explicit:

• Memories of facts and events we can consciously remember and recall/declare

Semantic:

• Knowledge about words, concepts, and language (i.e knowing who the president is)

Episodic

• Information about events we have personally experienced (i.e remembering your 5th birthday party)

Implicit:

• Memories that are not part of our consciousness (Formed through behavior)

Procedural:

• Stores information about how to do things (how to ride a bike)

emotional conditioning:

• you might have a fear of spiders but not consciously remember why or what occurred to condition that fear (She has no clear definition on her slide)

• Retrieval:

• Getting information out of memory storage and back into conscious awareness (Needed for everyday functioning like how to drive)

• Recall:

• Being able to access information without cues (used for an easy test)

• Recognition:

• Being able to identify information that you have previously learned after encountering it again (Used for a multiple-choice test)

• Relearning:

• Learning information that you previously learned (i.e learned spanish in high school, you might forget if not used. But if you try to relearn it it's quicker)

• Engrams:

• The group of neurons that serve as the “physical representation of memory” (Karl Lashley)

• Equipotentiality hypothesis:

• Each portion of any given area can encode or produce the behavior normally controlled by the entire area

  • If part of one area of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area can take over that memory function

Amygdala:

• Involved in fear and fear memories (memory storage is influenced by stress hormones)

  • Processes emotional information that is important in encoding memories at a deeper level and memory consolidation

• Hippocampus:

• Associated with explicit memory, recognition memory, and spatial memory

  • Projects information to cortical regions that give memories meaning and connect with other memories

  • Involved in memory consolidation

  • Damage lead to an inability to process new declarative memories

• Cerebellum:

• Plays a role in processing procedural memories, such as how to play the piano and classical conditioning

  • Damage prevents classical conditioning, such as an eye-blink in response to a puff of air

Prefrontal cortex:

• Appears to be involved in remembering semantic tasks

  • Encoding is associated with left frontal activity

  • Retrieval of information is associated with the right frontal region

• Suggestibility:

• Is the effect of misinformation from external sources that leads to the creation of false memories

  • It can cause people to claim to remember something that was only a suggestion someone made

  • Memories are fragile, making them vulnerable to the power of suggestion

• Rehearsal:

• Conscious repetition of information to be remembered