PSYC 111 Chapter 3: States of Consciousness

Vocabulary flashcards covering consciousness, selective attention, dual processing, sleep cycles, biological rhythms, sleep disorders, dream theories, and psychoactive drugs.

Consciousness

Our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment, helping us make sense of our sensations, emotions, and choices.

Cognitive Neuroscience

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with our mental processes, such as thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating.

Selective Attention

The focusing of conscious awareness on a minute aspect of all that we experience, processing roughly 40 bits out of 11,000,000 bits of sensory information per second.

Cocktail Party Effect

The ability to attend to only one voice within a sea of many voices while remaining unconsciously responsive to unattended signals, such as hearing one's own name.

Inattentional Blindness

The failure to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere, as demonstrated when viewers fail to spot a gorilla or an umbrella-toting woman.

Change Blindness

A form of inattentional blindness where individuals fail to notice changes in their environment following a brief visual interruption.

Dual Processing

The principle that information is simultaneously processed on separate conscious, deliberate ('high road') and unconscious, automatic ('low road') tracks.

Blindsight

A condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing or recognizing it, demonstrating an intact visual action track.

Visual Perception Track

A visual processing pathway that enables us to think about the world, recognize objects, and plan future actions.

Visual Action Track

A visual processing pathway that guides our moment-to-moment physical movements without requiring conscious recognition.

Parallel Processing

Unconscious information processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously, enabling the mind to take care of routine business quickly.

Sequential Processing

Conscious, deliberate processing of one thing at a time, required for solving new or complex problems.

Circadian Rhythm

Our internal biological clock that roughly synchronizes bodily functions, body temperature, and mental arousal with the 24-hour cycle of day and night.

Photoentrainment

The process where an organism adjusts its internal biological clock to match the external light-dark cycle via melanopsin-containing ganglion cells in the eye.

Suprachiasmatic Nucleus (SCN)

A pair of cell clusters in the hypothalamus that controls circadian rhythm by triggering the pineal gland to adjust melatonin production in response to light.

Melatonin

A sleep-promoting hormone produced by the pineal gland whose production is suppressed by bright light and increased in darkness.

Alpha Waves

The relatively slow, regular brain waves characteristic of an awake but relaxed state with eyes closed.

Delta Waves

The large, slow brain waves associated with deep NREM-3 slow-wave sleep.

NREM Stage 1 (N1)

The initial stage of non-REM sleep characterized by theta waves, slowed breathing, irregular brain waves, and potential hypnagogic sensations.

Hypnagogic Sensations

Bizarre sensory experiences occurring during the transition into N1 sleep, such as feeling weightless or sudden bodily jerks from a sensation of falling.

NREM Stage 2 (N2)

A sleep stage lasting about 20 minutes characterized by sleep spindles and K-complexes, occupying approximately half of total nightly sleep.

Sleep Spindles

Bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain-wave activity during NREM-2 sleep that aid in memory processing and consolidation.

NREM Stage 3 (N3)

Deep, slow-wave sleep lasting about 30 minutes characterized by delta waves, from which awakening is difficult and during which sleepwalking can occur.

REM Sleep

A recurring sleep stage with rapid eye movements, saw-toothed brain waves, elevated heart rate, vivid storylike dreaming, and motor cortex paralysis.

Sleep Cycle

A repeating biological sequence lasting approximately 90 minutes that transitions through NREM stages (N1, N2, N3) and REM sleep.

Sleep Debt

The cumulative difference between the amount of sleep an individual's body actually needs and the amount obtained over time.

Sleep Deprivation Effects

The physiological consequences of insufficient sleep, including cognitive decline, mood disruption, increased ghrelin, decreased leptin, and suppressed immunity.

Sleep Inertia

A temporary feeling of grogginess, disorientation, and reduced mental performance immediately after waking up from deep sleep.

Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI)

A rare genetic prion disease causing progressive destruction of the thalamus, preventing entry into REM sleep and leading to death within 18 months.

Insomnia

A major sleep disorder affecting about 1 in 5 adults characterized by persistent difficulty falling or staying asleep.

Narcolepsy

A chronic neurological sleep disorder marked by sudden, uncontrollable attacks of overwhelming sleepiness during daily activities, often accompanied by cataplexy.

Cataplexy

A sudden loss of voluntary muscle tone triggered by strong emotions, commonly occurring alongside narcolepsy.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea

A sleep disorder in which a sleeper repeatedly stops breathing during sleep due to airway occlusion, causing slow-wave sleep deprivation and fatigue.

Parasomnias

Abnormal behaviors, movements, emotions, or perceptions that occur during sleep transitions or deep NREM-3 sleep, including sleepwalking and night terrors.

Sleepwalking

A parasomnia occurring during deep NREM-3 sleep where an individual sits up, walks, or performs waking activities without conscious awareness.

Night Terrors

A parasomnia occurring in deep NREM-3 sleep characterized by extreme fear, screaming, and doubled heart rate, of which the sleeper remembers nothing.

Sleep Paralysis

The persistent immobility caused by the brainstem blocking motor signals during REM sleep that lingers upon waking, often evoking fear or intense hallucinations.

Manifest Content

According to Freud, the apparent and remembered story line of a dream that serves as a censored, symbolic version of its underlying latent content.

Latent Content

According to Freud, the unconscious drives, desires, and erotic wishes in a dream that would be threatening if expressed directly.

Activation-Synthesis Theory

The theory that dreams erupt from the brain's attempt to synthesize random neural activity spreading upward from the brainstem during REM sleep.

REM Rebound

The tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep deprivation, demonstrating that REM sleep serves a deeply biological need.

Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS)

The sudden, unexplained death of an infant under 1 year old, significantly reduced through public education campaigns advising that infants sleep on their backs.

Psychoactive Drug

A chemical substance that alters perceptions, mood, consciousness, and behavior by acting at the brain's synapses.

Substance Use Disorder

A diagnosable condition characterized by continued drug or alcohol use despite significant life disruption, hazardous use, and impaired control.

Tolerance

The diminishing effect with regular use of the same dose of a drug, requiring larger doses to achieve the desired effect due to neuroadaptation.

Neuroadaptation

The process by which brain chemistry adapts to offset the continuous presence of a drug, leading to tolerance.

Addiction

Compulsive craving and use of a substance or engagement in a behavior despite adverse physical, psychological, or social consequences.

Withdrawal

The uncomfortable and distressing physical or mental symptoms experienced when an individual abruptly ceases or reduces an addictive drug.

Depressants

A class of psychoactive drugs, including alcohol, barbiturates, and opioids, that calm neural activity and slow body functions.

Alcohol Use Disorder

A condition characterized by prolonged, excessive alcohol consumption that can shrink brain tissue, disrupt memory formation, and impair judgment.

Disinhibitor

A substance property that slows brain activity controlling judgment and self-restraint, causing individuals to act more readily on underlying impulses.

Barbiturates

Depressant tranquilizers that depress central nervous system activity to induce sleep or reduce anxiety, which can be fatal when mixed with alcohol.

Opioids

Depressant drugs derived from opium or synthesized that relieve pain, constrict pupils, slow breathing, and cause the brain to stop producing natural endorphins.

Stimulants

A category of psychoactive drugs that excite neural activity and speed up body functions, including caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and Ecstasy.

Nicotine

A powerfully addictive stimulant in tobacco products that triggers epinephrine and dopamine release, increasing alertness while suppressing appetite.

Cocaine

A powerfully addictive stimulant derived from the coca plant that depletes brain supplies of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine, followed by a severe crash.

Methamphetamine

A highly addictive stimulant related to amphetamines that stimulates dopamine release to enhance energy and mood, but over time reduces baseline dopamine levels.

Ecstasy (MDMA)

A synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen that triggers dopamine release and floods the brain with stored serotonin, risking long-term mood depression.

Hallucinogens

Psychedelic psychoactive drugs that distort sensory perceptions and evoke vivid sensory images in the absence of actual sensory input.

Near-Death Experience

An altered state of consciousness reported after being revived from cardiac arrest, often characterized by out-of-body sensations and visions of bright lights and tunnels.

LSD

A powerful synthetic hallucinogen created by Albert Hofmann that produces intense perceptual distortions, vivid imagery, and varied emotional trips.

THC

The primary psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that triggers mild hallucinations, relaxation, euphoria, and heightened sensory sensitivity while impairing memory.

Biopsychosocial Approach to Substance Use

A conceptual framework analyzing drug use through biological influences (genetics), psychological influences (stress), and social-cultural influences (peers).