Pysch Test 2

Module 1.5A: Sleep: Consciousness

-consciousness: our subjective awareness of ourselves and our environment

-conscious awareness helps us make sense of our life through sensations, emotions, and choices

-our conscious awareness helps focus our attention

-cognitive neuroscience: study of brain activity linked with cognition (thinking, knowing, remembering

and communicating)

-a true experiment could never be done on unresponsive patients because it is unethical so we must rely

on case studies for brain research on unresponsive people

-dual processing: we process information simultaneously on separate tracks→ conscious and unconscious

tracks….when you see a hummingbird you consciously think “hey a hummingbird” but at the same time,

unconsciously, your brain is processing the color, shape, distance, and movement of the hummingbird

-parallel processing: unconscious; processing multiple aspects of a stimulus/problem

simultaneously; allows you to take care of routine business

-sequential processing: conscious; process one aspect of a stimulus/problem at a time; used to

process new information or solve new/difficult problems

-parallel processing is faster than sequential processing

-blindsight: condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously

experiencing it

Module 1.5B: Sleep: Sleep Stages and Theories

-sleep: periodic, natural loss of consciousness

-while sleeping we are not “dead to the world”

...our window of perception remains open a little bit;

example would be how we roll around when sleeping but do not fall off our beds

-circadian rhythm: regular bodily rhythms that occur in a 24-hour cycle (temperature, sleep-wake cycle,

breathing)

-circadian rhythm is also referred to as our biological clock

-sleep stages are defined by the distinct brain wave patterns happening in that stage

-Sleep stages:

-NREM1: Light sleep (hypnic jerks, might be unaware you fell asleep)

-NREM2: Sleep spindles (spindles refers to brain activity; spend most time in NREM2)

-NREM3: Deep sleep (deepest sleep you get; less vivid dreams)

-REM: Rapid eye movement (vivid dreams; paralyzed;memory consolidation)

-Over the course of the night you typically go through 4 to 6 sleep cycles

-You “bounce around” the sleep stages as you sleep; it is not one continuous line through the stages

-We spend 40-50% of our sleep in NREM2; about 20-25% in REM-suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN): in hypothalamus; controls circadian rhythm; adjusts melatonin

production based on light changing our level/feelings or sleepiness

-REM rebound: if we do not get enough REM sleep one night our body will automatically compensate in

the following days by adding extra REM sleep to the sleep cycle

-Why do we sleep?

-Protection→ Possible evolutionary need for protection from predators (adaptive theory)

-Restore→ Restore/repair muscles, chemicals, neurons, fight infection (restorative theory)

-Consolidation→ Store memories from the day; convert to long-term memory

-Creative Thinking→dreams can inspire creativity or help solve problems (sleep on it)

-Supports growth→ pituitary gland releases growth hormone

-Conserve Energy→ so we have energy for when we are awake

Module 1.5C: Sleep: Sleep Loss, Sleep Disorders, and Dreams

-we sleep for about ⅓ of our lives: lack of sleep is bad for us

-recommended amount of sleep is 8-10 hours a night for teenagers

-sleep deprivation: you do not get enough sleep

-if we do not sleep enough if affects our:

-mood→ quicker to anger; can lead to depression

-focus→ work, school, driving we are not as focused; prone to accidents

-weight→ can can weight without enough sleep due to hormone imbalance

-overall health→ heart health, high blood pressure…

-immune system→ suppresses ability to fight infection

-Sleep disorders: condition which disrupts or impairs normal sleep patterns which leads to impaired

functioning while we are awake

-Sleep disorders to know:

-Insomnia→ trouble falling asleep and staying asleep

-Narcolepsy→ sudden attacks of overwhelming sleepiness; can be dangerous

-Sleep apnea→ stop breathing while sleeping; marked by very loud snoring

-Somnambulism→ sleep walking; happens in NREM3

-REM Sleep Behavior Disorder→ acting out dreams while asleep; can lead to injury

-dreams: a sequence of images, emotions, and thoughts passing through a sleeping person’s mind

-People report about 8 of every 10 dreams include some negative emotion

-dreams tend to have something to do with our waking lives→ nightmares after trauma, violent dreams

after violent movie watching…

-Dream Theories: attempt to explain why we dream

-Information Processing→ dreams help sort out the day’s events and consolidate memory

-Physiological Function→ REM sleep may develop/preserve neural pathways in brain

-Activation Synthesis→ REM triggers neural activity that evokes random memories which our

brain weaves into stories (attempt to explain why we have vivid REM dreams)

-Cognitive Development→ Dreams reflect our knowledge and understanding and simulates good

and bad parts of our lives

Module 1.6A: Sensation: Basic Concepts

-Difference between sensation and perception-sensation: information being detected and picked up from your environment

-perception: process of organizing and interpreting sensory information

-transdiction: conversion of one energy into another like the conversation of sound waves into neural

impulses our brain can interpret or light into neural impulses

-absolute threshold: the minimum stimulus energy we can detect 50% of the time

-Vision→ in perfect dark conditions we can see a candle 30 miles away

-Hearing→ ticking of a watch 20 feet away

-Touch→ bee wing dropping onto our cheek from 1cm

-signal detection theory: try to understand why people respond differently to the same stimuli and how

people detect stimuli like sound amid background noise; does not agree with idea of 1 absolute threshold,

but instead believes detection is based on experience, alertness, expectation..

-Subliminal: stimuli you cannot consciously detect 50% of the time; below our absolute threshold

-Weber’s Law: 2 stimuli must differ by constant minimum percentage for us to detect difference

-Light→ a dim light being turned up 5% will be more noticeable than a bright light being turned

up 5%

-Weight→ Add 10 grams to 100 gram weight is noticeable, but adding 10 grams to a 1000 gram

weight is harder to detect

-Weber’s Law operates on “just noticeable difference” which states smallest detectable change is constant

proportion of original stimulus; larger the original stimulus, larger change needs to be to be noticed

-Sensory adaption: if we experience a constant stimulation we begin to ignore that stimulus

-you stop noticing the feeling of a ring on your finger

-

“nose blind” → constant exposure to smell, you stop smelling it

-adjust to temperature of pool water after you are in it for a while

Module 1.6B: Sensation: Vision

-cornea: clear protective outer layer of the eye; covers pupil

-pupil: adjustable opening in center of eye; light enters here

-iris: muscle tissue; forms color part of your eye

-lens: behind pupil; changes shape to help focus images; process of lens changing shape is called

accommodation

-retina: contains rods and cones and neurons that begin processing of visual information

-optic nerve: carries neural impulses from eye to brain

-blindspot: we have a blindspot in our eyes BUT we do not see it because our brain fills in the missing

information in our blindspot for us

-rods: detect black/white/gray and movement; help us see when darker; ~120 million in each eye

-cones: color and fine detail; ~6 million in each eye

-Trichromatic Theory (aka Young-Helmholtz): retina contains 3 types of cones (red, green, blue) which

helps us with perception of all colors

-Color-deficient vision (aka color blind):

-1 in 12 men; 1 in 200 women….it is genetic and a recessive gene

-most common type is red-green deficiency

-not all people who are color blind know it until presented with a test

-monochromatic: very rare; one one type of cone; only see black/white/grey-dichromatic: what most color deficient people have; 2 cones working not 3 leading to trouble

with certain color vibrancy and shade distinction

-prospagnosia: “face blindness”; neurological condition; cannot recognize different faces

Module 1.6C: Sensation: Hearing

-audition: our sense of hearing

-Hearing: outer ear amplifies and funnels sound waves into your ear, your eardrum vibrates, behind

eardrum your middle ear contain 3 small bones which also vibrate, your inner ear (cochlea) contains hairs

which stimulate nerves, the nerves convert vibrations to electrical energy (transduction) which is then

passed to your brain to be interpreted (auditory cortex)

-amplitude is how loud a sound is (decibels)…..frequency is the pitch of a sound (hertz)

-Hearing damage starts around constant exposure to 85 decibels. Physical pain from noise starts around

between 130-140 decibels

-Place Theory: we hear different pitch because different waves trigger different cochlea generating

different pitch sounds

-Frequency Theory: says brain read pitch through nerve impulses and rate they fire

-Place V olley theory: states how we perceive high and low frequency sounds. Place theory states higher

frequencies detected through parts of the inner ear (basilar membrane) vibrating stronger. V olley theory

helps explain low frequency sounds detected by neurons firing more rapidly

-Conductive deafness: obstruction/damage to outer ear or middle ear

-Sensorineural deafness: caused by damage to inner ear or auditory nerve

-We use both of our ears to help us with location of noise; sound will hit one ear before the other helping

with figuring out a direction or location

Module 1.6D: Sensation: Skin, Chemical, and Body Senses and Sensory Interaction

-touch is combo of pressure, hot, cold, and pain

-olfaction= fancy word for sense of smell

-gustation= fancy word for taste

-vestibular sense: sense of movement and position of body enabling balance

-kinesthesia: movement sense: sense position and movement of individual body parts

-pain is good for us to feel, lets us know when something is wrong (what would life be like if you could

not feel pain?)

-gate-control theory: gate in the spinal cord allowing or not allowing pain messages to brain

-pain is in our brains, how can distraction change how we feel pain?

-taste and smell are chemical senses

-5 basic tastes (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, umami)

-Sensory interaction: our senses influence one another (if you do not like the smell of something chances

are you will not like the taste of it either)