CONSCIOUSNESS
Chapters 9, 19 (Bernstein), 326-362, 773-776
CONSCIOUSNESS
(def.) awareness of your
thoughts, actions, feelings,
sensations, perceptions,
and other mental processes
an aspect of many mental
processes rather than being
a unique mental process of
its own
possible that other creatures
experience consciousness
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
Some scientists studying consciousness describe their work as cognitive
science or cognitive neuroscience to highlight the connection of their work to
biological psychology, sensation, perception, memory, and human cognition.
Other psychologists study consciousness more directly by addressing three
central questions about it:
1. The first question concerns the mind-body problem.
•
DUALISM--a theory supported by 17th century philosopher René
Descartes in which the mind and the body are considered separate or
different; rarely accepted by modern psychologists
•
MATERIALISM--suggests the mind and the body are one and the same;
validated by studies of individuals whose brain damage causes a
disruption in consciousness
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
2. A second question looks at whether consciousness is a unified phenomenon
or several different ones.
•
According to the theatre view, consciousness is a single phenomenon.
It’s a “stage” on which all the various aspects of awareness converge to
“perform” before the “audience” of your mind.
•
The parallel distributed processing (PDP) models describe the mind as
processing many parallel streams of information which interact to create
the unitary experience of consciousness. Support for this view comes
from research on sensation, perception, memory, cognition, and language
that suggest components of these processes are analyzed in separate
brain regions.
3. A third question about consciousness addresses the relationship between
conscious and unconscious mental activities.
•
Over a century ago, Sigmund Freud theorized that some mental activities
occurred without our awareness.
•
Modern research doesn’t support much of Freud’s theory BUT studies
have shown many important mental activities do occur outside of
awareness.
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
SOME FUNCTIONS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
The conscious brain experiences a representation of the sensory world that is
the result of many complex nonconscious computations.
The conscious brain has access to the RESULTS of these computational
processes but not to the processes themselves as many occur so quickly our
conscious experience cannot keep up with them.
The overall process of consciousness allows access to a vast store of
memories and other information.
Over a century ago, psychologist William James compared consciousness to
a stream, describing it as ever-changing, multilayered, and varying in both
quantity and quality.
Variations in quantity--the degree to which one is aware of mental events-result in levels of consciousness.
Variations in quality--in the nature of the mental processing available to
awareness--are referred to as different states of consciousness.
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
LEVELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Again, variations in quantity (the degree to which you are aware of mental
events) result in different levels of consciousness.
1. Mental activity that you are aware of occurs at the conscious level.
2. At the nonconscious level are physiological processes that you cannot
be directly aware of existing although some use biofeedback training to
learn to alter nonconscious processes. (e.g., lowering your own heart rate)
3. The cognitive unconscious includes:
•
the preconscious level in which mental events are outside of
awareness but can easily be brought to awareness; and
•
the subconscious or unconscious level in which mental activities
can alter thoughts, feelings, and actions but that are more difficult to
bring into awareness.
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
MENTAL PROCESSING WITHOUT AWARENESS
Many important mental operations, such as learning, can occur without
awareness.
blindsight--Some people with blindness caused by damage on top of the
primary visual cortex still have fibers from the eyes connected to other brain
areas that process visual information. Some of these connections may
permit visual processing without awareness (a condition known as
blindsight). Though they report seeing nothing, such patients can still perform
tasks dependent upon vision.
priming--Research on priming finds that people are influenced by stimuli
they are not consciously aware of processing. People tend to respond faster
or more accurately to previously seen stimuli, even when they cannot
consciously recall having seen those stimuli.
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Brain damage can impair consciousness.
People with prosopagnosia are not consciously able to recognize faces.
However, such people show differences in eye movement, brain activity, and
autonomic nervous system responses to faces that should be familiar to
them. They unconsciously or “covertly” respond.
Damage to the hippocampus can result in anterograde amnesia--the inability
to form new memories. Yet people with this condition can learn new skills.
They just cannot consciously recall doing so.
ANALYZING
CONSCIOUSNESS
STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Variations in quality, in the focus, and in the clarity of your experience of
yourself are referred to as different states of consciousness.
States range from deep sleep to alert wakefulness.
States can also be affected by drugs and other influences.
Most people spend most of their time in a waking state of consciousness.
This is considered the baseline state against which other states of
consciousness are measured.
Mental processing in this state varies with changes in attention or arousal.
When changes in mental processes are great enough for you or others to
notice significant differences in how you function, you have entered an
altered state of consciousness.
Value judgments of different states of consciousness, such as
hallucinations (perceptual experiences that occur in the absence of
sensory stimuli), vary from culture to culture.
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Stages of Sleep
Early researchers thought that sleep was a time of mental inactivity, but modern
research shows sleep is actually a very active, complex state.
The brain’s electrical activity is monitored by an electroencephalograph (EEG)
which records changes in brain waves as behavior or mental processes change.
The waves of an awake, alert person are small, closely spaced, and irregular.
These are called beta waves.
A relaxed person with closed eyes (awake but inattentive) shows alpha
waves, which are regular, rhythmic waves occurring at speeds of eight to
twelve cycles per second.
Theta waves follow alpha waves and indicate even slower brain waves.
Delta waves show low brain activity and are associated with deep sleep.
As a person sleeps, he or she experiences four NREM (non-rapid eye movement
stages) of sleep as well as periods of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.
During a normal night’s sleep brain waves show distinctive and systematic
changes as a person passes through various stages of sleep.
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Stages of Sleep
link
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Sequence of Sleep Stages
Most people experience four to six cycles of NREM and REM sleep every night.
Begins with NREM Stage 1 (lasts a few minutes)
Followed by NREM Stage 2 (about 20 minutes)
Next comes NREM Stages 3 and 4 (roughly the next 40 minutes)
Once relaxed and deeply asleep in NREM Stage 4, the sequence reverses.
Goes back through NREM Stage 3 and into NREM Stage 2
After NREM Stage 2, then REM sleep (usually lasting 5-15 minutes)
As sleep continues, the periods of REM sleep get longer and slow-wave NREM Stages 3 and 4
become shorter.
The last few sleep cylces are primarily NREM Stage 2 and REM sleeping lasting up to 40
minutes.
Over a person’s lifetime, NREM Stages 3 and 4 gradually decrease.
Bu late adulthood, most average only about 20 minutes in these stages as compared to a young
child who spends two or more hours in NREM Stages 3 and 4.
SLEEPING & DREAMING
link
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Why Do We Sleep?
Sleep as a Circadian Rhythm
Cyclical patterns of behavior and physiology that repeat about every 24 hours
are called circadian rhythms. They are linked to light and dark
environmental cues.
Disrupting sleep-wake cycles can cause problems. Jet lag is a pattern of
fatigue, irritability, inattention, and sleep problems that can last several days
when a traveler’s body wants to sleep at the wrong time for a new locale.
Circadian rhythms vary among people.
The “biological clock” in the brain that keeps track of time is in a part of the
hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN).
SCN neurons regulate the release of the hormone melatonin which is
important in maintaining circadian rhythms.
video
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Why Do We Sleep?
The Functions of Sleep
Sleep deprivation leads to fatigue, irritability, inattention, and has been
implicated in many accidents.
Sleep helps restore the body and the brain for future activity and helps to
consolidate memories of newly learned facts.
Restorative functions are especially associated with non-REM sleep.
People spend more time compensating for lost REM sleep when they
have been deprived of it. This suggests that REM sleep has special
functions.
REM sleep may improve the functioning of neurons that use
norepinephrine, which affects waking alertness and mood.
REM sleep may may also be a time for creating and solidifying
connections between neurons.
REM sleep may help solidify the day’s experiences, including newly
learned skills.
video
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Sleep Disorders
INSOMNIA
NARCOLEPSY
SLEEP APNEA
SUDDEN INFANT DEATH SYNDROME (SIDS)
NIGHTMARES
NIGHT TERRORS
SLEEPWALKING (SOMNAMBULISM)
BEDWETTING (NOCTURNAL ENURESIS)
REM SLEEP BEHAVIOR DISORDER
SLEEP BRUXISM
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Dreams
What are dreams?
Dreams are story-like sensations and perceptions.
Dreams occur every night of normal sleep.
Most dreams (and the most vivid and bizarre dreams) occur during REM
sleep.
Daytime activities and experiences may influence the content of dreams to
some degree.
During lucid dreaming, the dreamer is aware he/she is dreaming and may
intentionally direct the dream’s storyline.
Some people have difficulty remembering dreams when awakened during
REM sleep:
During REM sleep, the frontal lobe is inactive making it hard to form new
memories.
Neurotransmitters (dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin) needed for
new memory formation are also reduced during sleep.
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Dreams
Dream Theories
1. Some theories suggest dreaming helps mammals process and consolidate
information of personal significance and value.
2. Sigmund Freud in his Intepretation of Dreams called dreams “the royal road
to the knowledge of the unconscious mind.”
He believed dreams are a disguised form of wish fulfillment--a way to
satisfy unconscious urges or resolve unconscious conflicts that are too
upsetting to deal with consciously.
Freud said dreams consisted of two parts:
The manifest content consisted of the remembered meaning of the
dream.
The latent content was the symbolized part of the dream.
These symbols in the latent content were the focus of Freud’s dream
analysis and what he believed represented the deep-seated wishes of
the unconscious.
Jung video
SLEEPING & DREAMING
Dreams
Dream Theories (cont.)
3. The activation-synthesis theory says dreams are meaningless byproducts
of REM sleep.
Dreams represent efforts of the brain to make sense of random signals
sent to the cortex from the hindbrain and activates other areas of the brain
including the amygdala and hippocampus.
As the brain synthesizes these signals, it attempts to provide meaning.
This could include synthesizing fragments of different memories to provide
meaning, which might explain why some dreams make no sense.
4. The expectation fulfillment theory (Joe Griffin) holds that dreams are
nature’s way of dealing with unresolved emotions and give people a chance
to review and address problems from the waking hours.
According to Griffin, “the prime function of dreams is to metaphorically act
out undischarged emotional arousals (expectations) that were not acted
out during the previous day. By dreaming we complete the
arousal/dearousal circuit so as to wake up with an unstressed autonomic
nervous system and our instincts intact.”
HYPNOSIS
Experiencing Hypnosis
HYPNOSIS is an altered state of consciousness brought on by special
techniques, and characterized by responsiveness to suggestions for changes in
experience and behavior.
Hypnotized people are NOT SLEEPING.
Experiencing Hypnosis
Procedures for inducing hypnosis focus on people’s attention on a restricted,
often monotonous, set of stimuli while asking them to ignore everything else
as they imagine certain feelings.
People cannot be hypnotized against their will.
about 10% of adults are difficult or impossible to hypnotize.
People with higher levels of hypnotic susceptibility have differences in
certain brain structures, are more imaginative, tend to fantasize, tend to be
suggestible, have a greater ability to focus attention, are able to process
information quickly and effortlessly, and have more positive attitudes about
hypnosis.
HYPNOSIS
Experiencing Hypnosis
Experiencing Hypnosis (cont.)
Under hypnosis, people respond to suggestions and can display age
regression--apparently recalling or reenacting their childhoods.
Instructions about behavior to take place after hypnosis has ended are called
posthypnotic suggestions and can last for several hours or days.
Some people show hypnotic amnesia, which is an inability to remember
what happened under hypnosis.
Ernest Hilgard described five main changes people display during hypnosis:
1. reduced planfulness (the ability to initiate action on their own)
2. redistributed attention (they ignore all but the hypnotist)
3. increased ability to fantasize
4. increased role taking
5. reduced reality testing
HYPNOSIS
Explaining Hypnosis
Three major theories attempt to explain hypnosis:
STATE THEORY
Hypnotized people experience an altered state of consciousness.
Support comes from the notable changes in brain activity as well as the
dramatic effects hypnosis can produce such as insensitivity to pain
ROLE THEORY
People under hypnosis merely act in accordance with the hypnotized role.
They are NOT in a special state but rather simply complying with the
hypnotist’s directions.
Role theory is supported by the fact that nonhypnotized people sometimes
display behaviors that are usually associated with hypnosis.
HYPNOSIS
Explaining Hypnosis
Three major theories attempt to explain hypnosis (cont.):
Ernest Hilgard’s DISSOCIATION THEORY
This theory blends state and role theories.
Hypnotized people dissociate, or split, various aspects of their behavior
and perceptions from the “self” that normally controls these functions.
Body movements normally under voluntary control can occur on their own,
and normally involuntary processes (such as reactions to pain) can be
controlled voluntarily.
Relaxation of this central control occurs as part of a social agreement to
share control with the hypnotist.
e.g., Hilgard’s Ice water Immersion/Pain Button study and the “hidden
observer” stream of consciousness
HYPNOSIS
Applications of Hypnosis
can be used to eliminate pain from surgery, childbirth, and burns
relieves chronic pain from arthritis, nerve damage, migraine headaches, and
cancer
can help eliminate diarrhea
reduces nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy
limits surgical bleeding
speeds postoperative recovery
has been controversially and unsuccessfully used in attempts to improve
memory
MEDITATION
Meditation is intended to create an altered state of consciousness characterized
by inner peace and tranquility.
Meditators claim it improves physical and mental health and aids in performance
in everything from work to tennis.
In most types of meditation, attention is focused on just one thing until the
person stops thinking about anything and experiences nothing but “pure
awareness.”
Physiological effects include:
decreases in respiration rate, heart rate, muscle tension, blood pressure, and
oxygen consumption
increases blood flow to the thalamus and frontal lobes
increases the level of the neurotransmitter dopamine (which is associated
with the experience of pleasure) and induces relaxed alpha-wave EEG
activity
Much remains unclear about exactly how meditation works.
It should be noted, however, that these changes have also been associated with
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
Psychopharmacology
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS affect the brain, changing consciousness and other
psychological processes.
PYSCHOPHARMACOLOGY is the study of psychoactve drugs and their affect
on the brain and the nervous systems.
Most psychoactive drugs or substances influence the interaction between
neurotransmitters and receptors. These drugs get into the brain through the
blood supply when they pass the blood-brain barrier.
1. AGONISTS drugs that mimic the effects of neurotransmitters
2. ANTAGONISTS drugs that prevent neurotransmitters from binding with
receptors and inhibit neurotransmitter activity
3. Other drugs work by increasing or decreasing the release of a specific
transmitter.
4. Other drugs work by speeding or slowing the removal of a neurotransmitter
from synapses.
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
The Varying Effects of Drugs
Predicting a drug’s effects in complicated because most psychoactive drugs interact
with many neurotransmitter systems.
Drugs have desirable main effects but may also have undesirable side effects.
SUBSTANCE ABUSE is the pattern of use that causes serious social, legal, and/or
interpersonal problems for the user.
Psychological dependence occurs when a person continues to use the drug to gain a sense of
well-being, even when the drug produces adverse consequences. However, the person can still
function without the drug.
Physical dependence or addiction is a physiological state in which continued use of the drug is
required to prevent the onset of an unpleasant withdrawal syndrome.
Tolerance is a condition in which increasingly large drug doses are needed to produce the same
effect. It may develop with prolonged drug use.
By affecting the regulation of dopamine and other neurotransmitters in the brain’s “pleasure
centers,” addictive drugs have the capacity to create tremendously rewarding effects in most
people.
These changes created in the brain by drug addiction can remain long after drug use ends,
increasing the chance for relapse months or even years later.
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
The Varying Effects of Drugs
EXPECTATIONS and DRUG EFFECTS
Drug effects are not determined by biochemistry alone.
Learned expectations also play a role in that people who think they taken a
drug but really haven’t may display the effects of the drug because they
expect to be affected by it.
Learned expectations regarding drug effects vary from culture to culture.
PSYCHOACTIVE DRUGS
Drug Classifications
•
DEPRESSANTS
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STIMULANTS
•
•
OPIATES
HALLUCINOGENS
Create a skit, poem, or song that includes examples of your
group’s drug classification, the drugs’ physical effects on the
body and the brain, and the drugs’ psychological effects.
DISORDERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Chapter 19
Disorders of consciousness occur when problems in the brain impair people’s ability to
be conscious or to be accurately aware of the world around them.
1. Damage to the reticular formation or reticular activating system (RAS) which
normally serves to increase and decrease arousal in the rest of the brain and help
create daily cyles of wakefulness and sleep.
Severe damage to the RAS results in an unconscious state known as a coma.
Lesser amounts of RAS damage may result in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) during which
wake and sleep cycles may be intact and automatic movements occur. In this state, though brain
activity may be evident, patients remain unaware of their environment.
Chances for recovery are poor when there is significant damage to the RAS.
2. Disruptions in the functioning of both sides of the cerebral cortex can affect
consciousness.
The most common cause is drug abuse (alcohol or sleeping pills) but fever, seizures, chemical
imbalances in the blood, hormonal disorders, and infections that have spread to the blood can also
affect the cerebral cortex.
DISORDERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
Chapter 19
3. A key feature of delirium is the rise and fall of consciousness--the alternation
between impaired and abnormally elevated levels of consciousness over time.
These people display impairments in many mental functions, including poor memory, poor
attention, and disorientation. Elevated consciousness may appear as hallucinations and mental
agitation.
Common causes include fever, poisons, infections that have reached the bloodstream, and side
effects of medication.
Delirium is usually not permanent and goes away when the underlying medical cause is corrected.
Neuropsychological testing is difficult as there are great differences among individuals and
differences in the same individual at different times. Often no pattern is apparent--everything may
look impaired.
4. Some disorders of consciousness involve the nature or content of consciousness.
In anosognosia (which means absence of knowledge of disease), a person may have no
awareness that there is anything wrong with him or her. It appears that brain damage causes not
only an impairment in functioning, but an impairment in the ability to know about that impairment.
It is likely after damage to the right side of the brain and occurs in more than 25% of stroke victims.
Anosognosia may fade or persist over time. When it persists, it impairs patients’ cooperation with