Consciousness

Partly includes sensory awareness.

Partly includes selective attention.

    "cocktail party effect"

    humans are designed to pay attention to specific aspects of the environment

sudden changes, novel stimuli, intense stimuli, repetitive stimuli

Partly includes inner awareness

    conscious, preconscious, unconscious

    repression, suppression

    nonconscious (firing of neurons)

Partly means having a sense of self, who you are

Partly means wakefulness - different types, including altered states

Sleep and Dreams

Film - Stages of sleep

most adults in U.S. don't get enough

Circadian rhythm

EEG - measures cortical activity - different frequencies and amplitudes (similar to sound)

"waves" of electrical activity, with different frequency (how often) and amplitude (how strong)

4 stages of non-REM sleep - higher number = deeper sleep

dozing, alpha waves

followed by theta waves - slow, rolling waves
    may include hypnagogic dreams

stages 3-4 - delta waves - deepest sleep - most difficult to be awakened

back "up" into REM sleep- brain waves resemble waking state - also difficult to awaken someone during REM sleep

    report dreams 80% of time when REM period is interrupted
    only 20% of time from non-REM (probably memory of latest REM content)

    tend to go through this cycle five times per night

    REM periods are longest toward the morning

    alcohol suppresses REM sleep - affects personality

Functions of Sleep

    restore body tissue and nutrients
    evolutionary explanation
    need REM sleep for dreaming - autostimulation - mental processing

Deprivation - disrupts learning and memory; affects mood; REM rebound (adds to the notion that we need it)

Dreams

    movement is suppressed, so one can't act out dreams

    sleepwalking happens in non-REM sleep

    everyone dreams in color

    Dreams happen in real time, in the actual senses a person has while awake

    Content - Freud - The Royal Road to the Unconscious
        wish fulfillment

activation-synthesis hypothesis - bursts of information processing starting in the brain stem - also stimulates cortical areas responsible for long-term memory

Nightmares occur during REM sleep

Hypnosis: passivity, narrowed attention, pseudomemories, suggestibility, role-playing (age regression), perceptual distortions, posthypnotic amnesia, posthypnotic suggestion

Theories of hypnosis

- regression, suspend ego functioning (rational control of thoughts)

people allow themselves to "lose control" of thoughts and actions

dissociation - "splitting" of consciousness

Biofeedback - rats and the "pleasure center" - nucleus accumbens - same area that is stimulated in addicts

    EMG - electromyograph - measures muscle activity

Drugs and Consciousness
    Substance abuse and dependence
        tolerance, withdrawal

    causes - psychodynamic (pushes away unwanted thoughts)
                - social-cognitive (learn from others, rewarding feelings)
                - biological (genes, nucleus accumbens)

Depressants - slow the activity of the CNS - at low doses it feels like a stimulant, because is deactivates suppression of limbic system functioning - but at higher doses it suppresses all functioning of the brain

        Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome - "wet brain"

        treatment - AA, cognitive-behavioral therapy, motivational-enhancement

Opiates - narcotics - morphine, heroin, methadone

Barbituates - "downers" - qualludes

Stimulants  - "uppers" - amphetamines
        ritalin

Cocaine - stimulant - acts on nucleus accumbens

Nicotine - stimulates dopamine and acetylcholine, and adrenaline

Hallucinogens - marijuana, LSD, mescaline (peyote), PCP, MDMA (ecstacy)

(Did not get to "The Hijacked Brain")

Regarding research about marijuana being addictive, like cocaine, heroine, alcohol, and methamphetamine:  new research shows there are actually Cannabinoid receptors in the brain, suggesting that there must be a natural chemical in the brain that THC is mimicking. Also, THC may or may not be acting on the nucleus accumbens, but we know there are Cannabinoid receptors in the hippocampus (responsible for memory, which is why people forget things like their own name when high), in the cerebellum (which is why people are so uncoordinated when high), and in the hypothalamus (which controls hunger, which is why people get the munchies!). Marijuana acts differently than LSD etc. with regard to alertness; "pot" makes one sleepy, which is distinctly different than the effect caused by LSD.

The figure below shows the destruction of neurons in monkeys after the use of MDMA, or "Ecstasy".  (Source: McCann, U. D., Lowe, K. A., & Ricaurte, G.
A. (1997). Long-lasting effects of recreational drugs of abuse on the central nervous system. The Neuroscientist, 3, 399-411.)