States of ConsciousnessUnit 6

The Puzzle of Consciousness• At age 34, D.F. Lost consciousness and suffered brain damage

from carbon-monoxide exposure. When she regained consciousness, she was unable to recognize the faces of her relatives and friends or identify the visual form of common objects. At the same time, she had no trouble distinguishing people from their voices or identifying objects placed in her hands; her perceptual problems seemed to be exclusively visual. Brain imaging has revealed that her primary visual cortex is largely undamaged.

• Why then, can D.F. Walk across a room while easily avoiding obstacles? And if she can’t consciously perceive the difference in shape and size between, say, a spoon and a glass, how does she know to open her hand to the proper width to grasp the objects? Or insert a rectangular object into a tilted rectangular slot when, just moments before, she could not consciously recognize the slot’s orientation?

Characteristics of Consciousness

Definition: our moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment

• Subjective and PrivateSubjective and Private:: other people cannot know what reality is for you, nor can you enter directly into their experience

• DynamicDynamic: We drift in and out of varying states throughout each day

• Self-reflective and central to our sense of selfSelf-reflective and central to our sense of self: the mind is aware of its own consciousness. No matter what you are focused on, you can reflect on the fact that you are the one who is conscious of it

• Connected to Selective Attention: Connected to Selective Attention: the process that focuses our awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others– ADD: new research suggests that individuals with ADD are

hyper-attentive.

Characteristics of Consciousness

Definition: our moment-to-moment awareness of ourselves and our environment

• Subjective and PrivateSubjective and Private:: other people cannot know what reality is for you, nor can you enter directly into their experience

• DynamicDynamic: We drift in and out of varying states throughout each day

• Self-reflective and central to our sense of selfSelf-reflective and central to our sense of self: the mind is aware of its own consciousness. No matter what you are focused on, you can reflect on the fact that you are the one who is conscious of it

• Connected to Selective Attention: Connected to Selective Attention: the process that focuses our awareness on some stimuli to the exclusion of others– ADD: new research suggests that individuals with ADD are

hyper-attentive.

Levels of ConsciousnessPsychodynamic View: Psychodynamic View:

Conscious- thoughts and perceptions of which we are aware

Preconscious- mental events outside of current awareness that may easily be recalled

Unconscious- mental events that cannot be brought into conscious awareness under normal circumstances (driven by repressed memories and instinctual urges)

Cognitive View:Cognitive View:Conscious and Unconscious

mental lives work together as complementary forms of processing

Controlled processing: conscious use of attention and effort (studying, planning a trip)

Automatic processing: performed without conscious awareness or effort (the brain’s “autopilot”-facilitates divided attention

Unconscious Perception and Influence

• Visual Agnosia- (remember D.F.?) An inability to visually recognize objects- the brain recognizes and responds to stimuli, but the recognition does not reach conscious awareness

• Blindsight-blind in part of the visual field, but can respond to stimuli in that area of their visual field despite reporting inability to see those stimuli

Unconscious Perception and Influence

• What is the first word that comes to mind:

ho_____ho_____

• Priming: exposure to a stimulus influences how you subsequently respond to that same or another stimulus.

Neural Basis of Consciousness

• The fact that your Visual Cortex is in the Occipital lobe does not mean that all processing of visual information happens there.

Vision for Action

Vision for Perception

Neural Basis of Consciousness

• Consciousness does not reside in any one area of the brain.

• From a neuroscience standpoint: the brain is a collection of separate but interacting modules that process information to perform tasks related to sensation, problem solving, etc. Their processing is parallel, i.e. simultaneous, but independent.

Circadian Rhythms

• Most Circadian Rhythms (yes, that’s plural) are regulated by the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei in the hypothalamus. The SNC connects to the pineal glad, which secretes melatonin, raising or lowering body temperature, and heightening alertness.

Sleep and Dreaming

Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleave of careThe death of each day's life, sore labour's bathBalm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,Chief nourisher in life's feast.~William Shakespeare, Macbeth

A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor's

book. ~Irish Proverb

BATS-and-KIDDERB etaA lphaT hetaS leep Spindles

K -complexD eltaD eeper DeltaR EM

BATS-and-KIDDERBeta waves: Awake and AlertAlpha waves: relaxed and drowsy

Theta waves: Stage 1; light sleep from which you can easily be awakened; up to 20 minutes

Sleep Spindles: Stage 2; 1-2 second bursts of rapid brain-wave activity, some dreaming may occur

K-complex: Stage 2; brain-wave activity in stage 2 between sleep spindles

Delta: Stage 3; large and slow delta wavesDeeper Delta: Stage 4; Delta waves dominate the EEG, Spindles

and K-complex not evident

Within 60-90 minutes of going to sleep, you have cycled through all of the above stages (1-2-3-4-3-2)

REM: rapid eye movement sleep; characterized by high arousal, frequent dreaming; as the hours pass, Stages 3 and 4 are replaced by deeper and deeper levels of REM sleep

Why Do We Sleep?

• Bodily restoration model: sleep recharges our run-down bodies and allows us to recover from physical and mental fatigue

• Evolutionary/circadian model: main purpose of sleep is to increase a species’ chances of survival in relation to its environmental demands

• Memory Consolidation: a gradual process by which the brain transfers information into long-term memory (REM sleep)

How much do we sleep?

• Influenced by genetics, age, and culture.– Infants: 16 hours a day (half in REM)– 19-30: 7-8 hours of sleep (20% in REM)– 30-50: 6-7 hours of sleep (22% in REM)– 50+: 5-6 hours of sleep (20% in REM)

Yeah, but what are the extremes?

• Most total-sleep-deprivation studies are less than 5 days. The body simply does not do well without sleep for prolonged periods.

• That said, some people can simply do with less than 6 hours, but are very, very rare.

• In 1964, a high-school student stayed awake for 11 days– Days 1-4: irritation, forgetfulness, nausea– Day 5: disorientation and mild hallucination– Days 7-11: finger tremors and slurred speech,

but still beat a researcher at pinball– Sleep recovery: first night: 15 hours straight,

returned to normal sleep patterns within a week.

Sleep Disorders• Insomnia: chronic difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, or

experiencing restful sleep• Narcolepsy: (1/2000) sudden sleep attacks lasting a few

minutes up to an hour– Cataplexy: sudden loss of muscle tone triggered by excitement

and other strong emotions• REM-sleep behavior disorder (RBD): the normal loss of muscle

tone characteristic of REM sleep paralysis is absent• Sleepwalking: stage-3 or 4, move about the room/house/etc.

usually returning to bed before waking (10-30% of children, but less than 5% of adults)

• Night Terrors: frightening dreams that arouse the sleeper to a near-panic state (up to 6% of children, less than 2% of adults)

• Sleep apnea: sleeper repeatedly stops and restarts breathing during sleep

Dream Analysis• When: (primarily) during REM sleep• About what: (according to Hall and Van de

Castle, 1966)– familiar settings; – 80%: negative emotions; – 50%: aggressive acts; – 33%: misfortune– Women: 50/50 male/female; Men: 65/25

male/female• Themes influenced by: cultural background,

life experiences, current concerns, recent experiences (up to 50% of dreams)

Dream Analysis:Why do we dream?

• Freud: wish fulfillment: gratification of our unconscious desires– Manifest content: surface story reported by

dreamer– Latent content: disguised psychological meaning

• Dream work: the process by which a dream’s latent content is transformed into manifest content in order to fulfill those desires that are too unacceptable to be consciously acknowledged or fulfilled

Dream Analysis:Theories other than Freud’s

• Activation-synthesis theory: – dreams do not serve a special function, and are merely a

by-product of REM neural activity (the brain’s way of staying active during rest)

• Cognitive Theories:– Problem-solving model (Howe’s sewing machine)– Cognitive-process dream theories: dreams are a reflection

of waking mental processes• Neurocognitive models: allow for the possibility

that motivational factors are influencing the way our brain attaches meaning to neural activity during slee

Sleep Disorders

• Ms. A is a college student away from home for the first time. During her first week in her new surroundings, one of her new roommates asked her why she always leaves the room at 2:00 AM. Ms. A thought she was just being teased and played along with the game. The following week, she awakened to find herself in the laundry room of the dormitory. What sleep disorder should be diagnosed? During what stage of sleep does this disorder occur?

Sleep Disorders

• Patient B is an 18 year old college freshman. Her roommate teases her considerably because she snores. One time, her roommate even tape recorded her snoring and played it back to prove to Ms. B that she did snore. One Friday night after a huge part, Ms. B was awakened gasping for breath. She could not recall any “bad” dreams that might have caused such a reaction. What is your diagnosis of Ms. B?

Sleep Disorders• Mr. C was playing cards with his roommates late

one Friday evening. One of his best friends told a particularly funny joke, and Mr. C began laughing intensely. The whole group roared. In the next moment, Mr. C toppled out of his chair, and landed on the floor motionless. His buddies thought he was playing around but soon noticed he was not moving. Mr. C was breathing, but was otherwise motionless. His eyes were open, but he was not communicative. According to what you know about sleep disorders, what has happened, and what diagnosis should apply?

Altered States of Consciousness

Hypnosis

• Involuntary control and behaving against your will: ‘hypnotized’ people subjectively experience their actions to be involuntary– Must be willing to be hypnotized– Even a non-hypnotized person can be

induced to commit out-of-character and dangerous acts

Hypnosis

• Most researchers (social-cognitive theory) agree that the effects of hypnosis (from amazing feats to pain tolerance, to recovering memories) actually result from voluntary attempts to act in accordance with the hypnotist’s suggestions.– They are NOT faking, they are immersing

themselves fully into the role• Others believe (dissociation theory)

acquiescence is caused by an altered state of consciousness that takes advantage of heightened suggestibility to produce the desired result.

Drug-Induced States• Blood-Brain barrier typically screens out foreign substances, but

some drugs can get through• How they work:

– Antagonists: inhibit the activity of a neurotransmitter

• Reduce a neuron’s ability to synthesize, store, or release a neurotransmitter

• Prevent a neurotransmitter from binding with the postsynaptic neuron (antipsychotics blocking dopamine)

– Agonists: increase the activity of a neurotransmitter

• Enhance a neuron’s ability to synthesize, store, or release neurotransmitters

• Bind with and stimulate postsynaptic receptor sites (opiates effecting endorphins)

• Make it more difficult for neurotransmitters to be deactivated, sometimes by inhibiting reuptake (amphetamines effecting dopamine and norepinephrin)

Effects of some Major Drugs• Depressants (alcohol, barbiturates)

– Relaxation, lowered inhibition, impaired physical and psychological functioning

– Disorientation, unconsciousness, shallow breathing, coma• Stimulants (amphetamines, cocaine, ecstasy)

– Increased alertness , pulse and blood pressure; suppressed appetite, agitation, elevated mood, sleeplessness

– Hallucinations, paranoid delusions, convulsions, long-term cognitive impairment, brain damage

• Opiates (opium, morphine, codeine, heroin)– Euphoria, pain relief, drowsiness, impaired motor and psych. Function– Shallow breathing, convulsions, coma

• Hallucinogens (LSD, mescaline, phencyclidine)– Hallucinations and visions, distorted time perception, loss of contact with

reality, nausea– Psychotic reactions (delusion, paranoia), panic

• Marijuana– Mild euphoria, relaxation, enhanced sensory experiences, increased

appetite, impaired memory and reaction time– Fatigue, anxiety, disorientation, sensory distortions, possible psychotic

reactions, exposure to carcinogens