Cognitive Neuroscience: social life + neurology

Memory: study which parts of the brain are active when trying to remember past events

Language:

Dual Processing: Daniel Kahneman’s system of thinking

System 1: quick, automatic, instinctive, little/ no effort

System 2: slower, effortful, complex

Controlled processing:

Features:

Examples:

• Learning to drive a car

• Solving a complex problem 

Serial vs Parallel processing:

Serial: SLOWER

• Processing items one by one

• - conscious processing

Parallel: FASTER

Different types of consciousness: 

Waking: aware and awake

Preconsciousness: not in conscious but can be retrieved 

Unconsciousness: mental processes that are inaccessible but influences what we feel, how we behave, and what we think

Altered state of consciousness: under influence (alcohol, drugs, coma)

MR. SCHOTLAND IS “not crazy” ABOUT THIS:

• Sleep

• Daydreaming

• Drowsiness

• Hypnotism

• Coma

• Trance

• Meditation

• Drugs/ Alcohol

Sleep as an altered state of consciousness:

• Different brain waves → patterns of action potential changes

Beta waves: present/ awake/ active

Circadian Rhythms: 

Daily cycle:

• primarily responding to light/ dark

• Found in most living things

Suprachiasmatic nucleus:

Pineal gland: 

• Produces melatonin

• Regulates sleep, wake cycle

SCN:

• Prevents melatonin from being produced when light is shun

Importance:

• Melatonin

• Core body temperature

• Cortisol levels

• Melatonin levels

• Other hormones 

REM sleep:

Eugene Aserinsky (1952)

• EEG on son (DISCOVERED REM)

Polysomnography:

• Diagnose sleep disorders

• Monitors sleep cycles

  • 4-6 stages (abt 90 minutes each)
    

Brain waves:

• Gamma waves: intense brain activity (brief bursts of high-level problem solving)

• Beta waves: associated with states requiring focused mental concentration (are commonly seen in stressful situations)

• Alpha waves: relaxed and daydreaming, a state of calm wakefulness.

• Theta waves: dominate during light sleep. As a person transitions from stage N1 to N2 sleep, theta wave activity continues, with occasional sleep spindles (sudden increases in wave frequency) and K-complexes (sudden increases in wave amplitude).

• Delta waves: present in deep sleep, specifically in stages N3/N4.

The paradox of REM sleep: 

• Increased heart rate and breathing rate

• Bursts of brain activity (person cannot be woken up easily)

• Motor cortex is active but blocked

• Body is internally active but externally paralyzed (ANTONIA)
  
  

Age groups and sleep:

• Infants (MOST 16-12 hours)

• Children (SOME 13-11 hours)

• Adults (LEAST 10-6 hours)

Stages of sleep:

N1 (stage 1)

• Falling asleep (hypnagogic transition)

• Beta → alpha → theta

• Sleep jerks (hypnic jerks)

N2 (stage 2)

• Theta: sleep spindles (freq increases) 

N3/4 (stage 3/4)

• Theta → delta

  • Parasomnias:

    • Sleep walking

    • Sleep talking

Freud's Dream Interpretation:

Latent: the underlying meaning of a dream

Manifest: the remembered storyline

Dreams are Psychoactive Therapy:

• Dreams out our difficult emotions into dreams

  • Our brains would not be able to process if we were awake
    

What do we dream about?:

Day dreams: familiar details of our life

REM sleep: vivid, emotional, bizarre

Dreams with negative events or emotions: 8/10 dreams

Dreams with sexual imagery: 1/10 in young men, 1/30 in young women

Dreams occurring in previous days: most common

Key takeaways from Ted Ed:

Wish fulfillment: Sigmund Freud’s theory that dreams represent subconscious desires and can reveal thoughts (LATENT CONTENT)

Memory enchantment: research indicate that dreaming can improve performance on tasks (aid in memory processing → REM/theta)

Cognitive filtering: dreaming helps brain discard unnecessary neural connections (prevents cognitive overload)

Emotional healing: dreams may facilitate healing by allowing individuals to process trauma with less stress

Problem solving: dreams provide an unrestricted environment for creative thinking and problem solving (can lead to insights not being accessible when awake)

Theories + functions:

Physiological function:

• Dreams provide sleeping brain with periodic stimulation (preserves/ develops neural pathways)

Processing theory:

Sleeping allows us to process all the info during the day (ways to deal with ordinary day to day stressors)

Activation synthesis: 

The chemicals that activate the nerves of the brainstem shift and change

Dreaming is reverse learning: 

Dreaming = clean up process (rid of unimportant things)

Continual Activation Theory: 

Sleep is the process through which we separate the memories worth encoding in long-term memory from those worth losing.

Evolutionary Theory: 

Rehearsing fight-and-flight responses, even though the legs and arms are not actually moving. (AMYGDALA IS RESPONSIBLE)

Restoration Theory: 

Body needs to recharge and re energize

Disorders + others:

Sleep deprivation: not enough sleep

• Negatively affects concentration

• Can be harmful to others (especially when driving motorized vehicles)

Insomnia: problems of falling / staying asleep

Narcolepsy: sudden uncontrolled sleep attacks, sometimes lapsing directly into REM sleep

Sleep apnea: stop breathing during sleep

Night terrors: appearance of being terrified, waking up from nightmares

Dyssomnia: cannot fall asleep or stay asleep (broader term for insomnia)

Parasomnia: reenacting tasks in sleep (similar to night terrors)

Memory in sleep: 

Procedural: muscle memory

Informational: brain making us remember what we have learned

Episodic: remembering a specific event