BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
Two
Dimensions of Consciousness: Wakefulness and Awareness
Minimal Consciousness
Moderate Consciousness
Full Consciousness
Attention:
Focusing Consciousness
Selective Attention
Sustained
Attention
Psychology in the
Training Consciousness: Meditation
Meditation and Conscious Experience
Mediation Training and the Brain
Sleeping and Dreaming
Sleeping
Sleep and Circadian Rhythms
Sleep and the Brain
The Development of Sleep over the Life Span
The Function of Sleep
Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Debt
Disorders of
Sleep
Dreaming
Psychoanalytic Theory
Biological Theory
Cognitive Theory
Hypnosis
Breaking
Altering Consciousness with Drugs
Depressants
Alcohol
Sedatives
Opioids
Stimulants
Caffeine
Nicotine
Cocaine
Amphetamines
Ecstasy
Hallucinogens
Marijuana
LSD
Making
Connections: Brain Injury Revisited
Chapter Review
EXTENDED CHAPTER OUTLINE
WHAT IS
CONSCIOUSNESS?
Full Consciousness
ATTENTION: FOCUSING CONSCIOUSNESS
Selective Attention
Sustained Attention
Psychology in the Real World:
Hazards of Cell Phone-Induced Driver Distraction
TRAINING
CONSCIOUSNESS: MEDITATION
Meditation and Conscious
Experience
·
Mindfulness meditation training appears to
enhance well-being, decrease depression, and improve physical health (Anderson,
Lau, Segal, & Bishop, 2008; Kabat-Zinn et al., 1998; Teasdale et al.,
2000).
·
Because meditation enhances awareness of the
present moment, it also improves attention.
o It
improves selective attention and orienting by actively (and voluntarily)
applying awareness to detail.
Meditation Training and the
Brain
·
Meditation training has been shown to
significantly increase activity in the left frontal cortex; an area associated with
positive emotions.
o Nature-Nurture Pointer: Meditation
training is correlated with changes in brain function and structure.
o CONNECTION: How does random assignment
work to make groups more equivalent in research? (See Chapter 2.)
·
Meditation practice may alter the physical
structure of the brain.
o Researchers
used
§ Insight meditation emphasizes the development of awareness of the workings of one’s body and mind.
Sleeping
·
The sleeping brain is very active, but it is
only partially processing information from the outside world.
·
The two essential features of sleep are 1) that
there is a “wall” between the outside world and the conscious mind; and, 2) the
“wall” can immediately come down. That
is, the mind filters out important information (e.g., an alarm clock) from
relatively less important information (e.g., a roommate’s phone conversation).
Sleep
and Circadian Rhythms
o Circadian
rhythms are the variations in physiological processes that cycle
within an approximately 24-hour period.
o Three
different bodily activities each fluctuate on a circadian cycle: body
temperature, the hormone melatonin, and alertness.
o Jet lag occurs when a person’s day is shortened
or elongated by travel across time zones, thereby throwing the circadian cycle
off its usual track.
o The
suprachiasmatic nucleus, or SCN (a part of the hypothalamus), acts
as the brain’s clock.
§
Neurons in the SCN connect to the retina and
optic nerve. Exposure to light in the morning stimulates neurons in SCN to
“reset.” These neurons then send
inhibitory signals to the pineal gland, which decreases how much melatonin (a
hormone important in relaxation and drowsiness) is released (Itri, Michel, Waschek, & Colwell, 2004).
§
In the evening, the SCN neurons become less
active, allowing the secretion of melatonin, which increases relaxation.
Sleep
and the Brain
o The
brain is very active during sleep and each
state of wakefulness, and sleep has its own pattern of brain activity.
§
When awake, brain activity shows beta waves – rapid but low-energy waves.
§
When we are relaxed and drowsy our brain
activity switches to alpha waves, which are slower and slightly higher energy
waves.
o The
second major form of sleep is called non-REM,
which has relatively few eye movements, and those that occur are slow rather
than fast.
§
Rapid eye
movements (REM) are the quick movements of the eye that occur during sleep,
thought to mark phases of dreaming.
o There
are four stages of non-REM sleep:
§
Stage 1: Brain waves change to theta waves – slower and lower energy
than alpha waves. This is when we first fall asleep. It is a light sleep and not much stimulation
is needed to awaken us.
§
Stage 2: Starts about 5 to 7 minutes after entering
Stage 1. There are two unique markers of
Stage 2: 1) theta waves now show short periods of extremely fast and somewhat
higher energy wave activity called sleep
spindles; and, 2) there are sudden high energy waves called K-complexes.
§
Stage 3: There are four stages of non-REM
sleep, each marked by unique brain wave patterns. This stage starts with theta
waves with some higher energy delta waves. As this stage progresses, there are more
delta waves and fewer sleep spindles and K-complexes.
§
Stage 4: Occurs when sleep spindles and
K-complexes disappear completely. This
is the deepest stage of sleep.
o Shortly
after entering Stage 4 sleep, sleep spindles and K-complexes of Stage 3 return,
followed by the theta waves of Stages 2 and 1.
o After
returning to Stage 1, the eyes begin to move rapidly underneath the eyelids,
indicating the entry into REM. The
night’s first episode of REM sleep lasts for 8-10 minutes before the process begins
again.
§
With each progressive cycle, the non-REM periods
are shorter and the REM periods longer (Dement, 1999).
§
In sum, each night adults move through about 4
to 6 different cycles of non-REM and REM sleep.
§
Each cycle lasts roughly 90 minutes.
o Full-blown dreams are less common during non-REM than REM sleep, but they do occur regularly during non-REM stages. The dreams are different, though, in that they are less detailed, less active, and are more like regular thinking (Bulkeley, 1997; Foulkes, 1996; Kahan, 2001).
The
Development of Sleep Over the Life Span
o Newborns
spend more time in REM sleep than in non-REM sleep. In humans, REM sleep
declines rapidly over the life span.
§
The percentage of total sleep that is REM stays
close to 50% for the first three months of life.
§
By 8 months it falls to 33%.
§
By age one it drops to about 28%.
o The
amount of REM sleep over the life span corresponds to the degree of brain
plasticity and neural growth (Dement, 1999).
o CONNECTIONS: There are critical periods in sensory, language, and cognitive
development – meaning that if proper stimulation and experience does not occur
during the peak times our brain is most sensitive to learning, our sensory,
language, and cognitive abilities are forever stunted. See Chapters 3 and 5 and
9 for more on critical and sensitive periods and the brain.
The
Function of Sleep
o Sleep
supports three major restorative processes: neural growth, memory
consolidation, and protection against cellular damage.
§
First,
sleep deprivation inhibits the growth of new neurons.
§
Second,
sleep helps us learn and remember things (Karni et al., 1994; Payne &
Nadel, 2004; Stickgold & Walker, 2007). Task learning is replayed in the
brain during sleep, and then this brain practice helps performance the next
day.
§
Third,
sleep appears to fight cell damage. Sleep aids cell function by
triggering the production of enzymes that fight cell damage (Ramanathan,
Gulyani, Nienhuis, & Siegel, 2002) and slows the metabolism itself thereby
slowing the rate of cellular damage (Wouters-Adriaens & Westerterp, 2006).
o Nature-Nurture Pointer: Sleep
increases neuronal growth and helps us remember things.
o CONNECTION: If sleep is a memory aid,
is it possible to learn while we sleep by listening to a recording? Or is this
a myth? Chapter 7 explores ways to increase recall of text and lecture
material.
Sleep Deprivation and Sleep Debt
o Forty percent of
o The
typical adult gets about 6 hours and 40 minutes of sleep on week days and 7
hours and 25 minutes on weekends (National Sleep Foundation, 2008).
o Sleep debt refers to how much sleep our
brains owe our bodies. If you get 2 hours less sleep one night, then you owe
your body 2 hours of additional sleep the next night (or within a few days). If
it is not paid back in sleep then it is paid back in daytime drowsiness, use of
stimulants such as caffeine and nicotine, lack of focused attention, and
impaired learning and memory.
§
Accidents are the most serious type of payback.
As many as 30% of all automobile accidents can be attributed to drowsiness
(Dement, 1999).
Disorders
of Sleep
o
About 20% of people in the
o Insomnia is taking more than 20 minutes to fall asleep, having trouble staying asleep, and/or not feeling rested after a night’s sleep for two or more consecutive weeks (Krystal, 2005).
§
About 15 to 20% of
§ Possible causes of insomnia include restless leg syndrome, erratic hours, medical conditions, iron deficiency, psychiatric disorders such as depression, and excessive use of alcohol (Dement, 1999; Roehrs, Zorick, & Roth, 2000).
§ Drug treatments for insomnia, such as Ambien, work by increasing the effects of GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid), the neurotransmitter that decreases central nervous system activity.
§ CONNECTION: The functions of GABA, glutamate, and other neurotransmitters are discussed in Chapter 3.
o A person with sleep apnea literally stops breathing for a short amount of time.
§ This is commonly masked as loud snoring. It is most common in men and obese people.
§ These people seldom fall into deep and REM sleep, and as such are consistently sleep-deprived and often suffer from insomnia.
§ The condition can be fatal, as its sufferers are at increased risk for automobile accidents, diabetes, and heart disease.
§ Treatments for apnea aim to reduce throat blockage, by weight loss, surgery, or devices that keep the throat open.
· The most effective treatment is use of a device during sleep that pushes air into the throat at high enough pressure to keep the throat open (American Sleep Apnea Association, 2006).
o Sleepwalking occurs when a person gets out of bed during sleep, usually during the first third of the sleep cycle, and engages in activities that normally occur during wakefulness.
§ People who sleepwalk are difficult to rouse and do not remember having been up after waking in the morning.
§ Because sleepwalking occurs during non-REM sleep, the sleepwalker is not likely to be acting out a dream.
o Hypersomnia exists when a person sleeps more than 10 hours a day for two weeks or more.
§ It involves strong urges to nap throughout the day, often in inappropriate times like during meals or in the middle of conversations.
§
It can be caused by other sleep disorders, brain
injury, or depression.
·
Dreams are the succession of images, thoughts, and feelings we experience
while asleep. The succession of images is loosely connected by unusual
associations and not well recalled afterward.
· Most people dream numerous times each night.
Psychoanalytic Theory
o Freud argued that impulses, thoughts, feelings, and drives that threaten the waking mind are released in distorted and disguised form by the sleeping mind.
o Dreams operate on two distinct levels of consciousness:
§ Manifest level: This is the dream that is consciously recalled after waking up.
§
Latent
level: This is the deeper,
unconscious level, where the true meaning of a dream lies.
o CONNECTION: Free association is another therapeutic technique used in Freudian psychoanalysis (see Chapter 17).
Biological Theory
o
§ Activation is the dimension that involves the amount of neural activation and ranges from low to high activation.
§ Input is the extent to which stimulation is internal or external. It ranges from the inside to the outside world.
§ Mode consists of a dimension that ranges from logical (wakeful) to loose-illogical (dreaming) states.
§ REM sleep is highly active, internal, and loose, and therefore occupies the lower front right portion of the cube.
Cognitive Theory
o Dreams are not that different from everyday thinking.
o Lucid dreaming is the ability to know when you are dreaming and therefore being in control of the events and outcomes of the dreams.
o Some can reflect on and evaluate their experiences while dreaming.
o Non-REM dreaming is closer to waking thought than REM sleep dreaming.
· Hypnosis is a state of mind that occurs in compliance with instructions and is characterized by focused attention, suggestibility, absorption, lack of voluntary control over behavior, and suspension of critical faculties of mind (Raz & Shapiro, 2002; Stewart, 2005).
· People vary considerably in the degree to which they can be hypnotized, largely because we are not equally suggestible.
· Clinical hypnosis should not be confused with stage techniques.
· Numerous studies support the effectiveness of hypnosis for pain relief during childbirth, dental procedures, wart removal, and surgery.
· Hypnosis may help treat smoking, nausea, and vomiting related to chemotherapy, and anxiety associated with certain medical procedures (Lang et al., 2006; Montgomery, DuHamel, & Redd, 2000; Patterson, 2004; Stewart, 2005).
Breaking
·
See separate section for detailed explanation.
ALTERNG CONSCIOUSNESS WITH DRUGS
·
Psychoactive
drugs are naturally occurring or synthesized substances that reliably produce
qualitative changes in conscious experience.
·
Psychoactive drug use is universal among humans.
Drugs are used to to aid in spiritual practice, to improve health, to explore
the self, to regulate mood, to escape boredom and despair, to enhance sensory
experience, to stimulate artistic creativity and performance, and to promote
social interaction (Weil & Rosen, 1998).
·
Problems arise when people develop a physical dependence on the drug to
maintain normal function and to cope with the challenges of daily life.
o If
you develop a tolerance to a drug
then you need more and more of the drug to get the effect that you desire from
it.
o Withdrawal symptoms are the adverse
effects people experience if they stop using it.
·
Psychological
dependence occurs when people compulsively use a substance for various
reasons, such as to alleviate boredom, to regulate mood, or to cope with the
challenges of everyday life.
·
Addiction
results from sustained use and physical or psychological dependence on a
substance (
Depressants
·
Depressants
decrease or slow down central nervous system activity.
·
In low doses, these drugs generally calm the
body and mind.
· In high doses, they can slow down heart rate and brain activity to dangerously low levels.
Alcohol
o Alcohol is the most widely used depressant.
o The amount of alcohol in the bloodstream is the common measure of inebriation known as Blood Alcohol Level (BAL). BAL is measured in milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood (milligrams %), so a BAL of .10 means that one tenth of 1%, or 1/1000th of one’s blood content, is alcohol (0.08 BAL is currently the legal limit for driving in all states in the U.S.).
o The more alcohol a person consumes, the more obvious the depressant effects become, sometimes leading to blackouts.
§ Alcohol has “stimulating” effects at first (you feel loose and relaxed) because alcohol suppresses the higher social regulatory functions of the cerebral cortex, thereby lowering inhibitions.
§ Over time, heavy drinking (more than 5 drinks per day) leads to fat accumulation and blocked blood flow in the liver.
§ Chronic alcoholism is one of the most common causes of cirrhosis, the accumulation of nonfunctional scar tissue in the liver.
§ Nature-Nurture Pointer: Excessive drinking can shrink the brain.
· With long periods of heavy drinking, the brain actually shrinks. With abstinence, the brain recovers much of its lost volume, especially in the first month of abstinence (Gazdzinski, Durazzo, & Meyerhoff, 2005; Kubota et al., 2001).
·
This risk is greater for adolescents than
adults.
o
CONNECTIONS: What is special about the adolescent brain? (See
Chapter 5.)
o Binge drinking is usually defined as at least 5 drinks in a row for men and 4 for women (Jackson, 2008; Wechsler et al., 2002).
§ About 40% of college students binge drink.
§ One of the more serious risks of binge drinking is blacking out – loss of memory of specific events.
o Mild to moderate alcohol intake (no more than 2 drinks a day) provides protective effects for cardiovascular health.
Sedatives
o Sedatives (such as barbituates and benzodiazepines) create a feeling of stupor similar to that of alcohol intoxication. They slow the heart rate, relax skeletal muscles, and tranquilize the mind.
o Medically, barbiturates (e.g., secobarbital [Seconalâ], pentobarbital [Nembutalâ], diazepam [Valiumâ], and chlordiazepoxide [Libriumâ]) are used in anesthesia to calm people down during certain medical procedures and as a temporary sleeping aid.
o All these drugs have the potential for both physical and psychological dependence, can be lethal at high doses, and should be used only under strict medical supervision.
Opioids
o Opioids (also called narcotics) are all drugs derived from opium or chemicals similar to opium.
o Such drugs may be derived from natural sources (like morphine), partially synthetic (like heroin), or entirely synthetic (such as codeine).
§ Modern synthetic opioids include oxycodone (Percosetâ or Percodanâ), which is prescribed for moderate to severe pain, and hydrocodone (Vicodinâ), which is prescribed for milder pain.
o Opioids depress central nervous system activity, slowing heart rate, respiration, digestion, and suppressing the cough center.
o Opioids have been used for centuries as pain relievers because they make use of the body’s own naturally occurring opioid systems.
§ Endorphins are opioid-like proteins that bind to opioid receptors in the brain and act as natural painkillers.
o Stronger opioids (opium, morphine, and heroin) produce feelings of overwhelming bliss, euphoria, and bodily relaxation. This is why opioids have a high potential for abuse.
o Many people inadvertently develop an addiction to opioids while being treated for chronic pain. Some newer therapeutic opioids, such as buprenorphine, can be taken at higher doses with less risk of overdose (Johnson, Fudala, & Payne, 2005).
Stimulants
· Stimulants activate the nervous system.
Caffeine
o Coffee, tea, cocoa, energy drinks, and certain other soft drinks have caffeine. In fact, it is the world’s most commonly consumed psychoactive drug.
o The effects of mild to moderate caffeine intake are increased alertness, increased heart rate, loss of motor coordination, insomnia, and nervousness.
o Too much caffeine can make people jittery and anxious.
o If regular caffeine users stop consuming caffeine, they can experience significant withdrawal symptoms, the most common of which is headache. Other withdrawal symptoms are fatigue and decreased energy, depressed mood, and difficulty concentrating (Juliano & Griffiths, 2004).
Nicotine
o Nicotine is the active drug in tobacco.
o Smoking tobacco puts nicotine in the bloodstream immediately, and within 8 seconds of inhalation it reaches the brain.
o Nicotine increases heart rate and rate of respiration, and it creates a feeling of arousal, although many users report that cigarettes calm them down.
o Over time, the cardiovascular arousal associated with nicotine use increases the risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.
o Nicotine is extremely addictive. It creates high tolerance, physical dependence, and unpleasant withdrawal symptoms. In fact, it is harder to kick a nicotine addiction than a heroin addiction.
o There are many known health risks of smoking: it reduces life expectancy on average by 10 years, increases the risk for lung cancer more than ten fold, and triples the risk of death from heart disease in both men and women (CDC, 2001; Doll, Peto, Boreham, & Sutherland, 2004). It is also linked to leukemia, cataracts, pneumonia, and cancers of the cervix, kidney, pancreas, and stomach.
o Tobacco smoke contains many cancer-causing agents that trigger severe damage to DNA and can inhibit DNA repair in lung cells.
o Tobacco smoke also contains carbon monoxide, a toxic substance that displaces oxygen in the bloodstream, so tissues get less oxygen than they need. Carbon monoxide from smoking also makes people look older than they are.
Cocaine
o South American Indians chew coca leaves for their stimulant and digestion-aiding properties, and the most notable component in the coca plant is cocaine.
o When snorted, cocaine increases heart rate and produces a short-lived, but intense, rush of euphoria. It also can lead to a sense of invulnerability and power.
o Physiologically, cocaine induces a sense of exhilaration by increasing the availability of the neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin (Mateo, Budygin, John, & Jones, 2004).
o The high cocaine brings on is very short, which explains why people abuse it.
o If someone is free-basing, he or she is injecting cocaine.
o Crack is a form of cocaine that is sold on the streets in pellets.
o Cocaine increases heart rate and causes irregular heart beat, increases risk of heart attack, and, occasionally, leads to death (Weil & Rosen, 1998).
Amphetamines
o Amphetamines are synthetically produced compounds that produce long-lasting excitation of the sympathetic nervous system.
o Three main forms (all of which are pills): methamphetamine (Meth), dextroamphetamine (Dexedrine), and amphetamine sulphate (Benzedrine or “speed”).
o Most people who abuse amphetamines get them from health care providers.
§ They are prescribed as appetite suppressants and treat symptoms of ADHD.
o Amphetamines cause increased heart rate, increased motivation, and excited mood.
§ Short-term effects may include insomnia, stomach distress, headaches, decreased libido, and difficulty concentrating.
§ Long-term use can lead to severe depression, paranoia, loss of control over one’s behavior, and, in some cases, amphetamine psychosis, a condition marked by hallucinations.
o Symptoms of withdrawal from chronic amphetamine use include fatigue, anxiety and depression, hunger, overeating, and disordered thought and behavior.
Ecstasy
o The psychoactive drug MDMA, also known as ecstasy, is both a stimulant and mild hallucinogen.
§ It is chemically similar to methamphetamines and the active ingredient in hallucinogenic mushrooms.
o It is sometimes called “the love drug” because it produces feelings of euphoria, warmth, and connectedness with others.
o The dangers of MDMA include increased risk of depression with repeated use, slower processing times on cognitive tasks, and greater impulsivity (Halpern et al., 2004).
o Long-term effects include persistent mental deficits, low mood, and serotonin deficiencies in certain areas of the brain (Thomasius et al., 2006).
Hallucinogens
· Hallucinogens create distorted perceptions of reality, ranging from mild to extreme. They can also alter thought and mood.
Marijuana
o Marijuana comes from the blossoms and leaves of the Cannabis sativa plant. The active ingredient in cannabis is tetrahydrocannibinol (THC).
o Marijuana alters mood to create euphoria and changes perception, especially one’s perception of time and food. Hallucinations are rare but are more common when it is eaten.
o Marijuana is not addictive but, with habitual use, people do develop cravings. People can become psychologically dependent on marijuana, too.
o Regular marijuana smoking increases the likelihood of a variety of respiratory illnesses, can cause immune system impairment, and appears to lead to memory problems (Kanayama et al., 2004; Tashkin et al., 2002).
o Regular marijuana use is common in adolescents who later develop schizophrenia.
o Marijuana can prevent and treat nausea so it has been prescribed for those suffering from chemotherapy-related nausea or the wasting syndrome of AIDS.
o Marijuana and its derivatives can also be helpful in treating pain.
LSD: lysergic acid
diethylamide-25
o LSD (or “acid”) is a synthesized form of lysergic acid which is derived from ergot (grain fungus).
o Ingesting LSD causes dramatic changes in conscious experience, including altered visual perceptions, enhanced color perception, hallucinations, and synesthesia (“seeing” sounds or “hearing” visual images).
o LSD increases the levels of dopamine and serotonin. Serotonin activity, in turn, increases the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate.
o Side effects include increased body temperature, increased blood pressure, insomnia, and psychosis-like symptoms in some people.
§ For some people LSD use leads to bad trips (panic and negative experiences).
§ For other people, however, it can have an opposite effect and lead to very profound, life-altering experiences (Strassman, 1984; Weil & Rosen, 1998).
Making Connections: Brain Injury and Consciousness
·
See separate section for detailed explanation.
KEY TERMS
AIM: three biologically based dimensions of consciousness – Activation, Input, and Mode.
alpha waves: pattern of brain activity when one is relaxed and drowsy; slower, higher-energy waves than beta waves.
attention: the limited capacity to process information that is under conscious control.
awareness: aspect of consciousness that is the monitoring of information from the environment and from one’s own thoughts.
beta waves: pattern of brain activity when one is awake; a rapid, low-energy wave.
circadian rhythms: the variations in physiological processes that cycle within an approximately 24-hour period, including the sleep-wake cycle.
coma: a state of consciousness in which the eyes are closed and the person is unresponsive and unarousable; a much more severe and longer-lasting loss of consciousness than fainting.
consciousness: an awareness of one’s surroundings and of what’s in one’s mind at a given moment; includes aspects of being awake and aware.
delta waves: type of brain activity that dominates Stage 2 sleep; higher energy than theta waves.
depressants: substances that decrease or slow down central nervous system activity.
dreams: images, thoughts, and feelings experienced during sleep.
endocannabinoids: natural, marijuana-like substances produced by the body.
hallucinogens: substances that create distorted perceptions of reality, ranging from mild to extreme.
hypersomnia: sleep difficulty characterized by sleeping more than 10 hours a day for 2 weeks or more; includes urge to nap during inappropriate times.
hypnosis: a state characterized by focused attention, suggestibility, absorption, lack of voluntary control over behavior, and suspension of critical faculties; occurs when instructed by someone trained in hypnosis; may be therapeutic.
insomnia: a sleep difficulty characterized by difficulty falling and staying asleep, as well as not feeling rested.
latent level: Freud’s unconscious level of dreams; their meaning is found at this level.
manifest level: Freud’s surface level of dreams, recalled upon waking.
meditation: practices that people use to calm the mind, stabilize concentration, focus attention, and enhance awareness of the present moment.
mindfulness: a heightened awareness of the present moment, whether of events in one’s environment or in one’s own mind.
minimal consciousness: states or phases of consciousness when people are barely awake or aware.
narcolepsy: sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness and weakness in facial and limb muscles.
non-REM: form of sleep with few eye movements, which are slow rather than fast.
psychoactive drugs: naturally occurring or synthesized substances that, when ingested or otherwise taken into the body, reliably produce qualitative changes in conscious experience.
rapid eye movements (REM): quick movements of the eye that occur during sleep, thought to mark phases of dreaming.
selective attention: the ability to focus awareness on specific features in the environment while ignoring others.
sleep apnea: a sleep difficulty that results from temporary blockage of the air passage.
sleepwalking: a sleep difficulty characterized by activities occurring during non-REM sleep that usually occur when one is awake, such as walking and eating.
stimulants: substances that activate the nervous system.
Stroop effect: delay in reaction time when color of words on a test and their meaning differ.
sustained attention: the ability to maintain focused awareness on a target or idea.
theta waves: pattern of brain activity during Stage 1 sleep; slower, lower-energy waves than alpha waves.
vegetative state: a state of minimal consciousness in which the eyes might be open, but the person is otherwise unresponsive.
wakefulness: aspect of consciousness that is the degree of alertness, resulting from whether a person is awake or asleep.
MAKING
THE CONNECTIONS
What is Consciousness?
CONNECTION: How much information can we hold in consciousness briefly before it is processed further, stored, or forgotten? (See Chapter 7.)
Attention: Focusing
Consciousness
Training
Consciousness: Meditation
CONNECTIONS: Every time
you make a memory or learn something new, you change your brain by
strengthening synaptic connections or growing new neurons (see Chapter 8).
Sleeping
CONNECTIONS: There are critical periods in sensory, language, and cognitive development – meaning that if proper stimulation and experience does not occur during the peak times our brain is most sensitive to learning, our sensory, language, and cognitive abilities are forever stunted. See Chapters 3 and 5 and 9 for more on critical and sensitive periods and the brain.
CONNECTION: The functions of GABA, glutamate, and other neurotransmitters are discussed in Chapter 3.
CONNECTION: Free association is another therapeutic technique used in Freudian psychoanalysis (see Chapter 17).
Altering Consciousness with Drugs
CONNECTIONS: What is special about the adolescent brain? (See
Chapter 5.)
MAKING CONNECTIONS: Brain
Injury and Consciousness
NATURE-NURTURE
POINTERS
Training
Consciousness: Meditation
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Meditation training is correlated with
changes in brain function and structure.
Sleeping
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Sleep increases neuronal growth and helps us remember things.
MAKING CONNECTIONS: Brain
Injury and Consciousness
Nature-Nurture Pointer: Brain injury can affect many different aspects of consciousness.
Breaking
Then: The Hidden Observer
Effect
Now: How Hypnosis Affects the
Brain
INNOVATIVE INSTRUCTION
Additional Discussion Topics
Activities
Suggested Films
Suggested Websites
Suggested
Agrawal, A. & Lynskey, M.T. (2008). Are there genetic influences on addiction: Evidence from
family, adoption
and twin studies. British Journal of Addiction, 103(7), 1069-1081.
Erlacher,
D. & Schredl, M. (2008). Cardiovascular
responses to dreamed physical exercise during REM lucid dreaming. Dreaming, 18(2), 112-121.
Freud, S. (1900/1953). The interpretation of dreams.
In J. Strachey (Ed. & Trans.), The Standard Edition of the Complete Works
of Sigmund Freud (Vols. 4 & 5).
Golden, C., Golden, C. J., & Schneider, B. (2003). Cell phone use and visual attention. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 97(2), 385-389.
Hilgard, E. (1977). Divided
consciousness: Multiple Controls in Human Thought and Action.
Juliano, L.M., &
Griffiths, R.R. (2004). A critical review of caffeine withdrawal: Empirical
validation of symptoms and signs, incidence, severity, and associated features.
Psychopharmacology, 176, 1-29.
Lucidi, F., Devoto, A., Bertini, M., Braibanti, P., &
Violani, C. (2002). The effects of sleep debt on
vigilance in young drivers: An education/research project in high schools. Journal of Adolescence, 25(4), 405-414.
Lynn, S.J. & Rhue, J.W.
(1991). Theories of Hypnosis: Current Models and Perspectives.
Most, S. B.
& Astur, R. S. (2007). Feature-based
attentional set as a cause of traffic accidents. Visual
Cognition, 15(2), 125-132.
Taber, K.H.
& Hurley, R.A. (2006). Functional
neuroanatomy of sleep and sleep deprivation.
Journal of Neuropsychiatry and
Clinical Neurosciences, 18(1), 1-5.