Consciousness, Attention, and Sleep

Flashcards based on lecture notes about consciousness, attention, sleep, and related topics.

Thalamocortical Rhythmic Pump Model

The thalamocortical 'rhythmic pump' model for states like waking, SWS, and REM is important for understanding mechanisms of consciousness integration.

Bottom-up Attentional Capture

A sudden dog bark can hijack top-down attention because it overrides the central executive via bottom-up salience.

Unconscious Sensorimotor Processes

During a coffee cup search, spatial navigation toward the cup is necessarily unconscious.

Global Integration in Thalamocortical Core

The thalamocortical core uses massive white matter tracts instead of localized circuits to enable global integration of sensory/cognitive signals.

Neural Synchrony and Perception

Neural synchrony enhances perception by amplifying signal-to-noise ratios for salient features.

Thalamocortical Loop Damage

Damage to the thalamocortical loop would most impair all circadian rhythms equally.

Declarative Knowledge

Declarative knowledge likely depends on top-down attention + working storage

Anesthesia and EEG Rhythms

EEG rhythms during anesthesia would most resemble SWS delta.

Koch/Crick Hypothesis

Koch/Crick's key hypothesis about consciousness is that it emerges from thalamocortical resonance.

Neural Synchrony and Binocular Rivalry

During binocular rivalry, neural synchrony would primarily enhance the dominant conscious percept.

Parietal Lobe Damage

A patient with parietal lobe damage can identify a clock but cannot draw it, illustrating intact consciousness, impaired sensorimotor integration.

Gamma Oscillations and Memory

Gamma oscillations (40-100 Hz) during a memory task that suddenly desynchronize impair feature binding of the memorized object.

Theta Rhythm

Theta rhythm (4-7 Hz) increases during navigation but decreases during math as theta enables spatial mapping, not calculation.

Explicit to Implicit Processing

After mastering piano scales, fMRI shows reduced prefrontal activity because explicit learning transitions to implicit processing.

Alpha Waves

Alpha waves (8-12 Hz) during eyes-closed rest enhance cognition by suppressing irrelevant sensory input.

Mini-Mental Exam Results

A mini-mental exam revealing disorientation to time but intact face recognition suggests Prefrontal dysfunction, preserved temporal lobes.

Implicit Grammar Learning

Implicit grammar learning in children paradoxically requires explicit attention to speech patterns.

Glutamate Release

During visual learning, glutamate release in the temporal lobe primarily aids Long-term potentiation.

Attentional Blink

A 'attentional blink' experiment shows missed stimuli reflects temporary suppression of gamma synchrony.

Sleep and Memory

Sleep follows waking for optimal memory because waking encodes, sleep consolidates.

Posner's Task

In Posner's task, a left-cued target appearing on the right shows delayed RT due to Attentional disengagement and reorienting.

Itti & Koch's 'Saliency Map'

Itti & Koch's 'saliency map' explains why a flashing light in a dark room Automatically wins attentional priority.

Pulvinar Thalamus Damage

Pulvinar thalamus damage most affects binding object features to locations.

Wyatt & Tallon-Baudry Experiment

Wyatt & Tallon-Baudry dissociated attention and consciousness by varying stimulus visibility and cue validity independently.

Attention Network Task (ANT)

The Attention Network Task (ANT) tests 'alerting' by cuing when a target will appear.

Gamma Bursts

During conscious perception, gamma bursts at 60Hz vs 80Hz distinguish awareness vs attention.

Prefrontal Lesions

Prefrontal lesions impair Posner task performance specifically in Invalid cue conditions.

'Winner-take-all' Networks

In Itti & Koch's model, 'winner-take-all' networks explain Sustained focus on one conversation in a noisy room.

Top-Down Attention

Top-down attention to a red apple in green leaves relies primarily on color-sensitive V4.

Parietal Lobe Damage

After parietal lobe damage, a patient cannot attend to left-space stimuli aligning with salience map dysfunction.

REM Dreams

REM dreams show high amygdala activity but low prefrontal activity, explaining vivid emotions with poor critical evaluation.

Dream Amnesia

Dream amnesia upon waking occurs due to lack of norepinephrine in REM.

Dreams in SWS

Dreams are rarely experienced in slow-wave sleep (SWS) because SWS has ultra-slow delta rhythms incompatible with vivid imagery.

REM Sleep Paralysis

REM sleep paralysis prevents acting out violent dreams.

Colorless Dreams

A patient reporting colorless dreams after V4 damage suggests color processing is active in REM.

REM and Consciousness

REM's EEG resemblance to waking but with blocked input/output supports consciousness as an internal simulation.

Cholinergic Agonists

Cholinergic agonists would most enhance REM dreaming intensity.

Emotional Memory Consolidation

Emotional memories consolidate better during REM naps because amygdala-hippocampus dialogue is amplified.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming likely involves partial prefrontal cortex activation.

Za-268 Gene Expression

Za-268 gene expression in REM indicates synaptic plasticity during dreaming.

SWS 'Up-States'

SWS 'up-states' with thalamic spindles + hippocampal sharp-waves are vital for declarative memory consolidation.

Dreams in SWS vs REM

Dreams in SWS vs REM differ in SWS: Logical/repetitive; REM: Bizarre/emotional.

Slow Oscillations in SWS

Slow oscillations (<1 Hz) in SWS enable memory by synchronizing cortical neuron firing.

Ketamine and SWS Spindles

Ketamine increases SWS spindles, likely enhancing memory consolidation.

Suppressed Prefrontal Activity

In SWS, suppressed prefrontal activity explains absence of executive control in dreams.

Hippocampal Sharp-Wave Ripples

Hippocampal sharp-wave ripples during SWS are most critical for transferring memories to neocortex.

Cortical 'Down-States'

Cortical 'down-states' in SWS involve neuronal hyperpolarization.

SWS Timing

SWS dominates early night sleep to consolidate daytime memories first.

Alcohol and SWS

Alcohol before bed suppresses SWS, primarily impairing fact-based memory.

Hippocampal Damage

A patient with bilateral hippocampal damage would show Disrupted SWS memory consolidation.

Global Workspace Theory (GWT)

Global Workspace Theory (GWT) posits that consciousness broadcasts information brain-wide.

Gamma Phase-Locking

Gamma phase-locking across distant regions supports GWT because it enables cross-regional communication during consciousness.

Phineas Gage

Phineas Gage's personality change after frontal injury illustrates disruption of the 'experiencing self'.

Increased Gamma Synchrony

Meditators showing increased gamma synchrony likely experience enhanced sensory binding.

Unconscious States

Unconscious states (e.g., coma) lack long-distance gamma phase-locking.

Precuneus

The precuneus supports the 'self' in consciousness by processing first-person perspective.

Out-of-Body Experiences

Out-of-body experiences induced by parietal stimulation suggest 'Self-location' is a construct.

Dehaene's Workspace Model

Dehaene's workspace model includes 'processors mobilized into consciousness,' implying modular systems compete for global access.

Epileptic Seizure

During an epileptic seizure, loss of consciousness correlates with disrupted gamma synchrony.

Consciousness

Consciousness is least likely to require a 'Cartesian theater' (single brain location).