PSYCH 202 - Exam 3

circadian rhythm

any biological process that displays endogenous, entrainable oscillation of ~24 hours

ultradian

______ rhythms repeat more than a day; an example is eating

infradian

______ rhythms repeat less than once a day; an example is the menstrual cycle

free-running

an animal maintaining its own personal cycle in the absence of external cues is ________

period

time between 2 similar points of successive cycles

phase shift

a shift of activity produced by a synchronizing stimulus

entrainment

the process of shifting a rhythm

zeitgeber

any cue an animal uses to synchronize its activity with the environment (an example is light)

suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)

lesions of the _____, which is a subregion of the hypothalamus, eliminate circadian rhythms — shows cycles of electrical, metabolic, & biochemical activity even when isolated

melatonin

a hormone secreted by the pineal gland during dark phases; synthesized from serotonin, may be used to shift circadian rhythms

retinohypothalamic pathway

certain retinal ganglion cells send their axons along the ______ and synapse directly with the SCN; light information is carried along this pathway to the hypothalamus to entrain rhythms — connects retina with SCN

melanopsin

a special photopigment in certain retinal ganglion cells that makes them sensitive to light; these cells do not rely on rods and cones

absent/dysfunctional

retinal ganglion cells containing melanopsin are ______ in most totally blind people

25

when all external cues are removed, the circadian rhythm of the human sleep cycle is about _____ hours

sleep deprivation study with rats

a carousel apparatus was used with electrodes monitoring brain activity; when the EEG indicated sleep, the floor rotated, causing the sleeping rat to fall into water and wake up. experimental rats typically died after several days, and postmortem studies revealed lesions indicative of extreme stress

3-4

____ hours of sleep deprivation in 1 night leads to increased sleepiness, mood disturbance, and poor performance on tests of vigilance

2-3

_____ days of continuous sleep deprivation leads people to experience microsleeps

creativity

long periods of sleep deprivation may affect ______

alpha

_____ waves consist of a regular oscillation at a frequency of 8-12 Hz; appears in EEG when you relax & close your eyes

vertex spikes

sharp waves seen in EEG

stage 1 sleep

• first stage of non-REM sleep; accompanied by slowing of heart rate & relaxation of muscles; lasts several minutes

• transition from alpha to theta waves with vertex spikes

2

stage __ sleep is defined by sleep spindles and K complexes, as well as theta waves

3

stage __ sleep is defined by the appearance of delta waves; also called slow wave sleep

sleep spindles

waves of 12-14 Hz related to memory consolidation

SWS, REM

time spent in ____ decreases as the night progresses, while ____ sleep increases

REM

____ sleep involves abrupt, small-amplitude, high-frequency activity similar to the pattern of an awake individual, except the eyes are darting rapidly under the eyelids; all muscles are completely relaxed and show an absence of muscle tone; accompanied by irregular breathing and pulse rate as well as vivid dreams

visual imagery

dreams in REM sleep are characterized by ______, whereas other dreams are more of a thinking type

activation-synthesis theory

our dreams in REM sleep are the random results of which neurons happen to get activated, and our brain strings together these activated elements into a narrative

night terror

a sudden arousal from stage 3 SWS, marked by intense fear and autonomic activation

unilateral

dolphin brains experience ______ sleep because they need to occasionally come up to the surface to breathe

declines, increases

in an elderly person, the total amount of sleep ____, while the number of awakenings _____

stage 3

as age increases, the most dramatic decline is in _____ sleep

growth hormone

the pituitary gland secretes _____ during SWS

immune system

sleep deprivation impairs functioning of the _______

fatal familial insomnia

a defect in the gene for the prion protein leads people to stop sleeping in midlife; these people die 7-24 months after it begins

energy conservation, niche adaptation, body & brain restoration, memory consolidation

biological functions of sleep

ecological niche

unique assortment of environmental opportunities and challenges to which each organism is adapted; specialization for nighttime or daytime is a part of this

isolated forebrain

the ______in Frédéric Bremer’s experiment displayed constant SWS with no indications of wakefulness or REM and showed us that the forebrain alone can generate SWS

basal forebrain

constant SWS appears to be generated by the ______ in the ventral frontal lobe and anterior hypothalamus

tuberomammillary nucleus

neurons in the basal forebrain become active at sleep onset and release GABA to stimulate GABA-A receptors in the ______ in the posterior hypothalamus — maintains that we are either asleep or awake, and not in between

brainstem

the ____ system activates the sleeping forebrain into wakefulness

reticular formation

a diffuse group of cells whose axons and dendrites go in different directions, extending from the medulla through the thalamus; electrical stimulation here activates the forebrain

pontine

the _____ system triggers REM sleep; one important function of this system is to prevent motor neurons from firing

hypothalamic

the _____ system coordinates the other 3 sleep systems to determine which state we’re in

electrooculogram (EOG)

monitors eye movement

electromyogram

measures muscle activity

synchronized

neuron activity is _____ during sleep

beta, alpha

wakefulness is characterized by ____ waves (irregular & low amplitude) and ____ waves (regular & medium frequency)

K-complexes

large waves that show up in stage 2 sleep when a loud noise happens in the environment and your brain is trying to keep you asleep

delta

____ waves are high amplitude and low frequency

PGO waves

a distinctive pattern of high amplitude electrical potentials that is associated with REM sleep

waves of neural activity during REM sleep

pons → LGN → occipital cortex

narcolepsy

frequent, intense attacks of sleep that last 5-30 min and can occur at any time during usual waking hours, several times a day

cataplexy

a sudden loss of muscle tone leading to collapse of the body without loss of consciousness, seen in narcolepsy

orexin

a neuropeptide that normally keeps sleep at bay; loss of these neurons results in narcoleptic symptoms

sleep paralysis

the temporary inability to move or talk either just before dropping off to sleep or just after waking; may be accompanied by sudden sensory hallucinations

sleep enuresis

bed-wetting; associated with SWS

somnambulism

sleepwalking; occurs during SWS

REM behavior disorder (RBD)

• characterized by organized behavior by a person who appears to be asleep; usually begins after age 50 and is more common in men

• no brainstem inhibition of motor neurons

• often followed by symptoms of Parkinson’s and dementia

sleep-onset insomnia

a difficulty in falling asleep

sleep-maintenance insomnia

a difficulty in remaining asleep

sleep state misperception

people report that they didn’t sleep even when the EEG showed signs of sleep and they failed to respond to stimuli

sleep apnea

a disorder that arises from either the progressive relaxation of muscles of the chest, diaphragm, and throat cavity or from changes in the pacemaker respiratory neurons of the brainstem; breathing during sleep may cease for a minute or slow alarmingly, and blood oxygen levels drop

sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)

______ may result from sleep apnea as a result of immature systems that normally control respiration

GABA

most modern sleeping pills bind to _____ receptors

half

early in life, ____ of our sleep is REM

isolated brain

the _____ (resulting from severance between medulla and spinal cord) still showed all stages of sleep, meaning the body has no function in switching between stages of sleep

CSF

there is a higher spread of _____ during sleep; clears out waste from the brain that results from degradation products of neural activity during wakefulness

Reverse Hebbian Rule

REM sleep weakens connections when a dream co-activates neighboring neurons

parasomnia

characterized by unusual/abnormal behaviors/movements/experiences occurring during sleep or as a person is transitioning into sleep

retrograde amnesia

loss of memories formed prior to an event

medial temporal lobe

patient HM’s memory deficit seemed to be caused by the loss of the ______

declarative memory

facts and information acquired through learning

delayed non-matching-to-sample task

a test of object recognition that requires monkeys to declare what they remember by identifying which of 2 objects was not seen previously

nondeclarative memory

memory about perceptual/motor procedures

hippocampus & surrounding cortex

in one study of the removal of monkeys’ medial temporal lobe, memory deficits were most pronounced with lesions of the ____

patient NA

______ suffered an accident where a mini sword entered his nostril and damaged his dorsomedial thalamus and mammillary bodies, resulting in profound anterograde amnesia

Korsakoff’s syndrome

• a degenerative disease in which damage is found in the mammillary bodies and dorsomedial thalamus, but not in temporal lobe structures like the hippocampus

• results in a failure to recognize/sense familiarity with some items, but patients deny anything is wrong with them

• main cause: lack of the vitamin thiamine, can result from alcoholism

confabulate

fill a gap in memory with a falsification that one accepts as true

patient KC

due to complete hippocampus damage, this patient could not remember specific life events, but could remember facts about the world, locations of objects in his kitchen, and names of friends and family

episodic memory

detailed autobiographical declarative memory

semantic memory

memory for facts

hippocampus

brain area that mediates conversion of short-term declarative memory into long-term declarative memory

skill learning, priming, and classical conditioning

types of nondeclarative memory

temporal gradient

the closer an event was to the surgery, the less likely it was to be remembered

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories

procedural, working

HM’s ____ and ____ memory were still intact

Cohen & Squire

tested participants with advanced forms of amnesia by telling them to mirror-read words; they got better at the same rate of the controls but did not recognize any of the words or remember reading them upside down

Jimmie G

the “lost mariner” who suffered from Korsakoff syndrome

Clive Wearing

a famous orchestra conductor who suffered from Herpes encephalitis, which led to hippocampus damage

skill learning

the process of learning how to perform a challenging task by doing it over and over

basal ganglia

skill learning is impaired in people with ______ damage

priming

a change in the way you process a stimulus because you’ve seen it or something similar previously

cortex

the ____ is important for priming

associative learning

learning that involves relations between events

classical conditioning

______ is a type of associative learning in which an initially neutral stimulus comes to predict an event

cerebellum

circuits in the _______ are crucial for simple eye-blink conditioning

instrumental conditioning

a type of associative learning in which an association is formed between the animal’s behavior and the consequences of that behavior

cognitive map

an understanding of the relative spatial organization of objects

place cells

hippocampal neurons that selectively encode spatial location and fire when the subject occupies a particular location in the environment