Psychology chapter 3 example #7972

Consciousness refers to our awareness of our own mental processes, such as our thoughts, feelings, and sensations. It is possible that we are the only beings on this planet that have this type of self awareness or level of consciousness and the ability to introspect, or look inward and examine these processes.

Cognitive neuroscience is the scientific field that is concerned with the study of the biological processes and aspects that underlie cognition, with a specific focus on the neural connections in the brain which are involved in mental processes.

Selective attention is a cognitive process in which a person attends to one or a few sensory inputs while ignoring the other ones.

the difficulty of focusing one's attention on a single auditory source within a jumble of noises; the process of selective listening. In a room where several conversations are taking place, one can focus on one of them and ignore the rest: the cocktail party effect.

Inattentional Blindness, also known as perceptual blindness, is an event where the effected person doesn't see new and unexpected things that suddenly appear within their visual field.

Change blindness is a perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it. For example, observers often fail to notice major differences introduced into an image while it flickers off and on again.

In psychology, a dual process theory provides an account of how a phenomenon can occur in two different ways, or as a result of two different processes. Often, the two processes consist of an implicit (automatic), unconscious process and an explicit (controlled), conscious process.

The body's rest cycle. Sleep is triggered by a complex group of hormones that are active in the main, and that respond to cues from the body itself and the environment. About 80 percent of sleep is dreamless, and is known as non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. There are two main types of sleep: Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) Sleep (also known as quiet sleep Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep (also known as active sleep or paradoxical sleep

NREM Stage 1 Stage 1 is the beginning of the sleep cycle, and is a relatively light stage of sleep. Stage 1 can be considered a transition period between wakefulness and sleep. In Stage 1, the brain produces high amplitude theta waves, which are very slow brain waves. This period of sleep lasts only a brief time (around 5-10 minutes). If you awaken someone during this stage, they might report that they were not really asleep.

During stage 2 sleep: People become less aware of their surroundings Body temperature drops Breathing and heart rate become more regular Stage 2 is the second stage of sleep and lasts for approximately 20 minutes. The brain begins to produce bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain wave activity known as sleep spindles. Body temperature starts to decrease and heart rate begins to slow. According to the American Sleep Foundation, people spend approximately 50 percent of their total sleep in this stage.

During stage 3 sleep: Muscles relax Blood pressure and breathing rate drop Deepest sleep occurs This stage was previously divided into stages three and four. Deep, slow brain waves known as delta waves begin to emerge during stage 3 sleep. This stage is also sometimes referred to as delta sleep. During this stage, people become less responsive and noises and activity in the environment may fail to generate a response. It also acts as a transitional period between light sleep and a very deep sleep. Older studies suggested that bed-wetting was most likely to occur during this deep stage of sleep, but some more recent evidence suggests that such bed-wetting can also occur at other stages. Sleepwalking also tends to occur most often during the deep sleep of this stage. REM Sleep During REM sleep:

During REM sleep: The brain becomes more active Body becomes relaxed and immobilized Dreams occur Eyes move rapidly Most dreaming occurs during the fourth stage of sleep, known as rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. REM sleep is characterized by eye movement, increased respiration rate and increased brain activity. The American Sleep Foundation suggests that people spend approximately 20 percent of their total sleep in this stage. REM sleep is also referred to as paradoxical sleep because while the brain and other body systems become more active, muscles become more relaxed. Dreaming occurs due to increased brain activity, but voluntary muscles become immobilized.

Sleep progresses in a series of four or five more or less regular sleep cycles of non-REM and REM sleep throughout the night, sometimes referred to as ultradian rhythms ("ultradian" meaning within a day).

Often referred to as the "body clock", the circadian rhythm is a cycle that tells our bodies when to sleep, rise, eat--regulating many physiological processes. This internal body clock is affected by environmental cues, like sunlight and temperature.

the normal electrical activity of the brain when conscious and relaxed, consisting of oscillations ( alpha waves ) with a frequency of 8 to 13 hertz

Hypnagogic or hypnopompic hallucinations are visual, tactile, auditory, or other sensory events, usually brief but occasionally prolonged, that occur at the transition from wakefulness to sleep (hypnagogic) or from sleep to wakefulness (hypnopompic).

Stage 3 (NREM3 or N3) is also known as deep or delta or slow-wave sleep (SWS), and during this period the sleeper is even less responsive to the outside environment, essentially cut off from the world and unaware of any sounds or other stimuli. Stage 3 sleep occurs in longer periods during the first half of the night, particularly during the first two sleep cycles, and represents around 15%-20% of total adult sleep time. Stage 3 is characterized by delta brain waves with a frequency of around 0.5-4 Hz, along with some sleep spindles, although much fewer than in stage 2.

Rapid eye movement sleep (REM sleep, REMS) is a unique phase of mammalian sleep characterized by random movement of the eyes, low muscle tone throughout the body, and the propensity of the sleeper to dream vividly.

tage 2 (NREM2 or N2) is the first unequivocal stage of sleep, during which muscle activity decreases still further and conscious awareness of the outside world begins to fade completely. If any sounds are heard, the sleeper is not able to understand their content at this point. Brain waves during stage 2 are mainly in the theta wave range (as in stage 1 sleep), but in addition stage 2 is also characterized by two distinguishing phenomena: sleep spindles (short bursts of brain activity in the region of 12-14 Hz, lasting maybe half a second each, also known as sigma waves) and K-complexes (short negative high voltage peaks, followed by a slower positive complex, and then a final negative peak, with each complex lasting 1-2 minutes) - see the diagram at right. Together, these serve to protect sleep and suppress response to outside stimuli, as well as to aid in sleep-based memory consolidation and information processing. Because sleepers pass though this stage several times during the night, more time is spent in stage 2 sleep than in any other single stage, and it typically constitutes about 45%-50% of total sleep time for adults (or even more in young adults).

The suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) is a nucleus in the hypothalamus situated immediately above the optic chiasm, on either side of the third ventricle. The SCN generates a circadian rhythm of neuronal activity, which regulates many different body functions over a 24-hour period.

Repair and Restoration Theory of Sleep, Evolutionary theory, also known as the adaptive theory of sleep, Information Consolidation Theory of Sleep

Insomnia is a type of sleep disorder in which the person has trouble in one of the following areas of sleep: falling asleep, staying asleep throughout the night, or not being able to fall back asleep after a disturbance/awakening.

It is characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations and sleep paralysis. Narcolepsy is associated with the loss of hypothalamic neurons that contain the neuropeptide hypocretin . Narcolepsy is one of a group of sleep disorders known as hypersomnias.

First described in 1965, sleep apnea is a breathing disorder characterized by brief interruptions of breathing during sleep. It owes its name to the Greek word, apnea, meaning, "want of breath." There are two types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive.

Sleepwalking and night terrors are considered to be manifestations of the same nosologic continuum. It has been proposed that a sudden arousal from non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep is the cause of these disorders. Benign forms of NREM arousal parasomnias occur frequently in childhood and attenuate in teen years; however, they can persist into or begin in adulthood. The available literature documents high levels of psychopathology in adult patients. Sleepwalking and night terrors are most likely to manifest during the first episode of slow wave sleep, but may also appear any time during NREM sleep.

A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Usually REM

In his book The Interpretation of Dreams, Sigmund Freud suggested that the content of dreams is related to wish fulfillment. Freud believed that the manifest content of a dream, or the actual imagery and events of the dream, served to disguise the latent content or the unconscious wishes of the dreamer.

According to psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud, the latent content of a dream is the hidden psychological meaning of the dream. Freud believed that the content of dreams is related to wish fulfillment and suggested that dreams have two types of content: manifest content and latent content.

REM rebound is the lengthening and increasing frequency and depth of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep which occurs after periods of sleep deprivation. When people have been prevented from experiencing REM, they take less time than usual to attain the REM state.

A psychoactive drug or psychotropic substance is a chemical substance that acts primarily upon the central nervous system where it alters brain function, resulting in temporary changes in perception, mood, consciousness and behavior.

Depressants are drugs that inhibit the function of the central nervous system (CNS) and are among the most widely used drugs in the world. These drugs operate by affecting neurons in the CNS, which leads to symptoms such as drowsiness, relaxation, decreased inhibition, anesthesia, sleep, coma, and even death.

This is a class of drug derived from barbituric acid that is often used for medical purposes as a sedative and/or hypnotic. The effects barbiturates produce are similar to alcohol, causing feelings of depression, sleepiness, impaired judgment, and reduced inhibitions. Barbiturates fall under the "depressant" drug class and can be very addictive.

Opiate: A medication or an illegal drug that is derived from the opium poppy or that mimics the effect of an opiate (a synthetic opiate). Opiate drugs are narcotic sedatives that depress activity of the central nervous system, reduce pain, and induce sleep.

Stimulants are drugs that speed up the activity of the central nervous system. Stimulants are useful in treating many medical conditions, including ADHD, narcolepsy, asthma, obesity, and depression. There are several types of stimulants, including caffeine, nicotine, cocaine, amphetamines, and methamphetamines.

Amphetamines are a type of stimulant that speeds up bodily processes, and includes caffeine (coffee, tea, soda), nicotene (cigarettes), and cocaine. Some of the effects include increased heart rate, increased respiration, reduced appetite, and increased energy. Many modern-day "energy drinks" contain a lot of caffeine to give you all this energy.

Nicotine is a potent parasympathomimetic alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants (Solanaceae) and is a stimulant drug. ... This stimulant effect is a contributing factor to the addictive properties of tobacco smoking.

Near death experience refers to the sensations reported by people who have come close to dying or were clinically dead for a period of time -- meaning their heart or breathing had stopped but then started again. These people report having feelings of total peace or extreme fear, like being in a tunnel, seeing or going towards a light, having an awareness of being dead, or being in a different time and place. The near death experience needs to be more extensively studied but is either considered proof that there is life after death or just hallucinations. Read more: http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Near%20Death%20Experience#ixzz4XxMuSYIb