Consciousness
I. What is Consciousness?
A. Consciousness
a. Awareness of ourselves and our environment (Myers 9e)
b. Brain processes used to create a model of internal and external experience
i. Allows assembling of information
ii. Focuses our attention
c.
One of the first topics studied by psychologists
i. Who studied consciousness?
ii. Why did psychologists move away from the study of consciousness?
iii. How did psychology regain its interest in consciousness?
d.
B.
Cognitive Neuroscience and Consciousness
‘Levels’ of Consciousness
a. Conscious- Top Level
i. Brain process of which we are aware (awareness of ourselves, our mental processes and our
environment and of being responsive to stimuli)
ii. Controlled processes that require attention
–Hearing, seeing, reasoning, decision making, remembering, concentrating, daydreams*
*Daydreaming – Mild form of consciousness alteration in which attention shifts to
memories, expectations, desires, or fantasies, and away from the immediate
situation
iii. Restricts attention
iv. Takes place serially
v. Slow
vi. Limited capacity
vii. Skilled at novel problem solving
b. Nonconscious –
Brain process (related to physiological processes) that does not involve conscious processing (e.g. heart
rate, breathing, control of internal organs)
c.
Preconscious – Middle Level
i.
Information that is not currently in consciousness, but can be brought into consciousness if
attention is called to it.
ii. Automatic processes requiring minimal attention (such as riding your bike)
iii. parallel information processing
d. Unconscious – Lowest Level
i. Includes many forms of processing that occur with minimal or no awareness
ii. Altered mental processes that effect thoughts, feelings, actions and are difficult to bring into
awareness
C. What is meant by “Dual Processing”?
a. We each have two “minds”, each supported by its own neural equipment
i. The conscious deliberate “high road”
1. Example: Visual ACTION tasks guides conscious visual processing
ii. The unconscious automatic “low road”
1. Example: Visual PERCEPTION task enables quick recognition of objects
iii. Other examples b. Separate conscious and unconscious tracks process information simultaneously.
D. How much information do we consciously attend to at once? (not much!)
a. SELECTIVE attention (very important concept)
i. We are unable to consciously process all the sensory information available to us at any single
point in time.
ii. Out of 11, 000,000 bits of information per second, we consciously process about 40 bits
iii. Selective attention shifts
iv. Examples of ‘selective attention’ v. Cocktail Party effect – Ability to attend to only one voice among many
vi. Unconscious “Cognitive Radars” bring important information to your awareness
vii. Pop out phenomenon
b. Examples of Selective INATTENTION
i. Inattentional Blindness
ii. Change Blindness
iii. Choice Blindness
E. What Other States Can Consciousness Take?
II. What Cycles Occur in Everyday Consciousness?
A. Biological Rhythms: Periodic fluctuations in physiological functioning (metabolism, heart rate, alertness,*
temperature*, hormones, alertness).
B. Circadian rhythms
a. Patterns of biological functioning occurring on a roughly 24 hr. cycle.
b. Influenced by light sensitive retinal proteins which trigger signals to the suprachiasmatic nucleus.
c.
Light exposure cause pineal gland to decrease the production of melatonin.
d. Morning people and night people (different peaks in daily rhythm)
e. Upset rhythms can have negative effects on how you feel and behave
i. Changing shift work
ii. Poor sleep patterns
iii. Jet lag (esp. traveling east and losing hours in day)
C. Sleeping cycles: 90 minute patterns repeating 4 – 6 times a night
III. Sleep
A. Understanding Sleep
a. Sleep is a behavior AND an altered state of consciousness
b. “a periodic, natural, reversible loss of consciousness”
c.
We spend about a third of our lives in sleep
d. A basic issue in science is to understand the function of sleep
F. Studying Sleep using EEG recordings
a.
Electroencephalogram recordings are a rough index of psychological states.
b. Sleep activity identified based on type of electrical wave
i. EEG ‘Waves’ indicate 4 successive stages of sleep collectively referred to as non-REM sleep
plus another stage referred to as REM sleep
c.
Stages of non-REM Sleep (Each stage of sleep has a distinctive EEG)
Stage 1: transition between awake and asleep that lasts only a few minutes (1 –7)

Thoughts may not make much sense.

May experience hallucinations (false sensory experiences that occur in the absence of
appropriate sensory stimulation)

May have sensation of falling—body may suddenly jerk, or feel as if it is floating
weightlessly (hypnogogic sensations)

Both alpha and theta waves are produced by the brain during this stage
Stage 2: Slightly deeper stage of sleep, relaxing more deeply.

Continuing of theta waves with occasional sleep spindles on EEG - brief bursts of rapid,
rhythmic, higher-frequency waves. Also occurring are ‘K’ complex waves.
Stage 3: A transitional sleep stage, last a few minutes.

Brain begins producing large delta (slow) waves (20 to 50% of EEG pattern)
Stage 4; Slow wave sleep is the deepest stage of sleep .
Brain increases production of delta waves

Lasts about 30 minutes

Hard to awake, a deep sleep (but auditory cortex responds to some sounds such as
baby’s cry, your name)

Children may wet bed, sleepwalk 2 to 10 minutes (20% 2 – 12 yr.olds.)

Growth hormone released

Less time in deep sleep at advanced age

Upon reaching stage 4 and after about 80 to 100 minutes of total sleep time, sleep
lightens, returns through stages 3 and 2
d. REM (rapid eye movement) Sleep
i. Characteristics
1. Ascends from stage 2 and is characterized by EEG patterns that resemble
____________________________________.
2. Rapid eye movements occur
3. Breathing is rapid and irregular
4. Muscles most relaxed (sleep or muscle paralysis)
a.
Paradoxical sleep
i.
internally active (nervous system)
ii. externally calm (lack of voluntary muscles movement)
1. muscle paralysis (brainstem blocks messages from motor cortex
5. Not easily awaken
6. Genitals may be aroused
7. Dreams occur
a.
narrative-type, bizarre, illogical, emotional
b.
80% recall dream if awaken during this stage
ii. REM periods of sleep
1. The first REM period is only about 5 to 10 minutes long, but the duration increases with
each REM period with the fourth or fifth period lasting up to an hour.
iii. Other REM notes
1. Alcohol robs people of deep sleep and REM sleep and keeps them in the lighter stages
of sleep.
2. REM sleep is also inhibited by some sleeping pills!
3. REM sleep increases after stressful periods
4. Increases after learning
5. Facilitates memory
6. REM rebound is the tendency for REM sleep to increase following REM sleep
deprivation
e. Summary and Visuals of Sleep Cycles
i. EEG Changes During Sleep
ii. The First 90 Minutes of Sleep
iii. The Changing Rhythms of Sleep
f.
The Need for Sleep
i. How much sleep do we need?
ii. Sleep Debt
1. Deficiency caused by not getting the amount of sleep that one requires for optimal
functioning
2. Sleep Deprivation
a.
Complete deprivation -3 or 4 days max
b.
Partial deprivation or sleep restriction
i. impaired attention, reaction time, coordination, and decision making
ii. at-risk for on the job accidents, car accidents and more
Interesting note; Traffic accident rates have been shown to
increase after the spring change to daylight savings time and to decrease
after the fall change back to standard time
c.
Selective deprivation
i. REM and slow-wave sleep: rebound effect
d.
Results of Sleep Deprivation (list here)
g. The Neural Bases of Sleep
h. The Function of Sleep – Theories
i. Theories as to why we sleep
1. Conservation and Preservation theory – To conserve energy
a.
Sleep is evolution based
b.
Sleep prevents animals from wasting their energy and harming themselves
during the parts of the day/night to which they have not adapted
2. Cognitive Theory
a. Aids mental functioning such as memory and problem solving
3. Restoration and Repair theory
a.
Restore, replenish, and rebuild our brains and body (neurotransmitters, neuron
sensitivity) that are somehow worn out by the day’s waking activities
b.
Flush out unwanted and useless information from the brain
c.
“reformat”
4. Growth theory
a.
Growth hormone released by the pituitary gland during deep slow wave sleep
i. less of this hormone released as we age
ii. less time in REM sleep as we age
i.
Sleep Disorders
i. Sleep apnea: an individual repeatedly stops breathing during sleep. Snorting and gasping may
occur several hundred times per night.
1. Types
a.
Obstructive apnea-The sleeper stops breathing because the windpipe fails to
open
i. Air pump may be prescribed to keep airway open
b.
Central apnea - brain processes involved in respiration fail to work properly
(forget to breath)
2. Symptoms, Triggers, Risks, and Prevalence
Feel drowsy and irritable during day
May suffer oxygen deprivation while asleep
More often afflicts overweight men over 40
1 in 25 suffer from sleep apnea
May also be associated with alcohol consumption
Increased risk of accidents
Relationship with snoring and high blood pressure
ii. Narcolepsy: periodic uncontrollable attacks of overwhelming sleepiness.
1. Symptoms, Triggers, Risks, and Prevalence
-May occur while talking or standing up or at other undesirable times such as
while driving.
–Different types of narcolepsy can be triggered by arguments, laughter
–Usually lasts less than 5 minutes
–May be linked to genetics
–Linked to absence of hypothalamic neural center that produces orexin
–Drug available to relieve symptoms
–Affects 1 in 2000 people
-.
iii. Night (sleep) terrors: A disorder affecting 1-6% of children
between 4 and 12 years old.
-Sudden screaming arousal from sleep with intense fear accompanied by
physiological reactions (e.g., rapid heart rate, perspiration) that occur during
slow-wave sleep (stage 4)
–Children are difficult to comfort and once awaken
– have no memory of what mental events might have caused the fear
.Contrast to: Nightmare: A frightening dream that awakens the sleeper from
REM sleep
iv. Somnambulism (Sleepwalking)
v. Insomnia
1. Defining- Insufficient sleep, the inability to fall asleep quickly, frequent arousals, or early
awakenings
2. Combating insomnia
IV. Dreams
A. What is a Dream?
a. Descriptions
b. REM Dreams
c. The Dreaming Brain
B.. Who Dreams?
C. What do we Dream?
a. Dream Content
i. Common dreams
ii. Content by age
iii. Content by gender
iv. Content by culture
b. What do you dream?
D. Why do we Dream?
a. Psychoanalytic View - “The royal road to the unconscious”.
i. Wish Fulfillment
ii. Manifest
iii.Latent Content
iv. Dreamwork
b. Information Processing View
i. Memory consolidation
c. Brain Stimulation (Physiological function)
d, Activation-Synthesis – Making sense out of random brain activity
e. Cognitive Development