Consciousness, Mindfulness and Awareness

• Consciousness is the awareness of internal and external stimuli
• Subjective experience
• Dynamic

William James (1842–1910)

• Stream of consciousness

Mindfulness Meditation

• Involves directing awareness to breath, thoughts, and physical sensations
• Observation of feelings and sensations without judgement
• Improves both mental and physical health

Variations in Awareness & Control

• Attention and consciousness are closely related, but not identical
• Selective attention (intentional) vs. mind wandering
• Mind wandering, is the experience of task-unrelated thoughts
• Approximately 50% of waking time is spent mind wandering

Experience Sampling and Mind Wandering (Wammes and Colleagues, 2016)

• Mind wanders most during the 3rd quarter of a lecture
• Mind wanders least in the middle of the week as well as the 3rd quarter of the term.
• During a lecture, focus decreases, then tiredness sets in, followed by focus again at the end
• Focus is low at the beginning and end of the week, peaking in the middle
• Focus is highest at the beginning and 3rd quarter of the term, decreasing in the 2nd quarter
• Mind's network cycles through focus, mind wandering, awareness, and shift

Consciousness Topics of Study

• A spectrum of topics which include the scientific study of sleep, study of everyday awareness, and the study of altered states of consciousness.
• Altered states of consciousness include:
  • Meditation
  • Hypnosis

Biology of Sleep

• Approximately 1/3 or more of one's life is spent asleep
• Sleep is crucial for learning and long-term memory

Sleep and Memory Benefits (Gais and Coworkers, 2006)

• Positive correlation to more hours of sleep with an overall score on tests
• One group studied and had proper sleep and the other group studied longer and got more tried
• The group that got better sleep forgot less

Memory Performance, Sleep, and Expectations (Wilhelm and Coworkers, 2011)

• One group was told they would be tested on a specific task and got enough sleep
• They performed better than the group who were told they would be tested on a different task.
• Both groups trained until 60% accuracy was reached

Why Sleep?

• Circadian Rhythm is cyclical biological changes that occur on a 24 hour basis
• Older adults have less drastic changes in 24 hours than younger adults
• The circadian rhythm is regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN)
• The SCN is the biological clock of the hypothalamus
• SCN interacts with the pineal gland which produces melatonin
• Disturbances of circadian rhythms (jet lag or late shifts) increase risk of health problems

Sleep Needs

• Newborns need approximately 16 hours
• University students require approximately 7 to 9 hours
• DEC2 Mutation (under 1% of the population) allows comfortable operation on under 6 hours
• Elderly individuals' sleep decreases to around 6 hours due to disrupted sleep

Stages of Sleep

• Cycle through 5 stages of sleep in roughly 90-minute cycles
• Stages 1-4 are non-REM (NREM) sleep
• Stage 5 is rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

Sleep Stages vs. Wakefulness

• An electroencephalogram (EEG) measures brain wave patterns

Stage 1: Light Sleep

• Brain goes through "slow down” from beta to theta
• Experience hypnagogic imagery
• Myoclonic jerks

Stage 2: Further Slowing of Brain Waves

• Contains sleep spindles and K-complexes
• Heart rate and temperature decrease
• Muscles relax, eye movements cease
• Accounts for approximately 65% of total sleep
• Theta is light sleep (4-7 cycles per second)

Stages 3 and 4: Deep Sleep

• Delta waves
• Crucial to feel rested
• Suppressed by alcohol
• Children spend more time in deep sleep than adults (40% vs 25%)

Stage 5: REM Sleep

• Brain activity similar to wakefulness
• Exhibiting increased heart rate and rapid breathing
• Becomes longer as night progresses

REM Facts

• REM Rebound
• Paradoxical Sleep when the body is paralyzed while the brain is active
• REM behaviour disorder (RBD); rare and mainly in males over 50 Classic Work by Michel Jouvet (1962)
• Problems with the brain stem structure leads to a neurodegenerative disorder
• Lesioned cats' locus coeruleus
• Cats acted out their dreams

Sleep Disorders

• Most common = insomnia
• Comorbid (i.e. simultaneously occurring) with depression, pain, and other conditions
• Treated with psychotherapy and/or sleeping pills
• Leads to concern about dependency
• Possible rebound insomnia after use
• Narcolepsy is rapid and unexpected onset of sleep
• There can be a loss of muscle tone while alert
• Experience REM sleep immediately
• Linked to low orexin production
• Nasal spray administered to sleep-deprived monkeys improved cognitive tasks
• Sleepwalking occurs in 15 to 30% of children and 4 to 5% of adults
• Not acting out dreams
• Occurs during stages 3 and 4 of sleep
• Hereditary, and more likely if sleep deprived
• Could be caused by stress or anxiety

Dreams

• Universal experience
• Usually a failure to recall rather than a failure to experience
• They help with storing and reviewing/updating information, and stimulating events

Types of Dreams

• NREM dreams are shorter and more thought-like, and concerned with daily tasks
• REM dreams are more emotional, illogical, perceptually vivid, and also consist of nightmares and lucid dreams:

Lucid Dreaming

• You know that a dream is happening
• Brain areas become active related to self-perceptions and evaluating thoughts and feelings
• Hybrid state of consciousness

Frequent dream themes

• Being chased or pursued
• Being lost, late, or trapped
• Falling
• Flying
• Losing valuable possessions
• Sexual dreams
• Experiencing great natural beauty
• Being naked or dressed oddly
• Injury or illness

Freud's Dream Protection Theory

• Freud is associated with Psychoanalysis
• Dreams represent unconscious desires, thoughts, wish fulfillment, and motivations
• Requires interpretation
• Manifest content is what is on the surface while latent content is what dreams really mean

Activation-Synthesis Theory

• During sleep, the brain stem is still active to maintain biological functions
• This activity is relayed to the thalamus and cerebral cortex
• Cortex attempts to make sense of this activity into a meaningful story

Neurocognitive Theory

• Dreams reflect more than random neural impulses activated by the brain stem
• Dreams are a meaningful product of cognitive abilities and experiences, which shape what is dreamt about
• Children's dreams are simple, lacking in movement; however, adult dreams are bizarre and complex

Other Alterations of Consciousness

• Hallucinations are realistic perceptual experiences in the absence of external stimuli
• The brain activates in the same way
• Visual hallucinations can be brought on by: oxygen and sensory deprivation, epilepsy, fever, migraine headaches, and dementia
• Auditory hallucinations can occur when patients mistakenly attribute inner speech to an external source

Hypnosis

• Imaginative suggestions are administered to elicit changes in consciousness
• Hypnosis begins with induction, which is a process to establish the state or conditions required for hypnosis to occur
• How people respond to hypnosis depends on their expectations about it
• Useful as adjunctive therapy but less effective alone

Hypnosis MYTHS

• It produces a trance state in which “amazing” things happen
• This is related to suggestibility
• Pressure to perform
• It is a sleeplike state when it is not biologically similar to sleep
• People are unaware of their surroundings
• It enhances memory by increasing the amount of information recalled but not accuracy

Vegetative State

• A person is awake but showing no signs of awareness
• Caused by severe brain damage due to a head injury or oxygen deprivation
• Consciousness can be assessed via brain imaging by following the command procedure

Drug and Alcohol Induced Conditions

• Psychoactive drugs have chemicals similar to those naturally in the brain
• They alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons
• They affect mental processes and perceptions, thinking, and emotions
• Depressants: Depress the effects of the CNS (central nervous system)

Sedatives / Hypnotics

• Affect mind/behaviour: calming / sleep-inducing
• Affect brain: Increases the effects of GABA (gaba is a type of neurotransmitter)

Alcohol

• Affect mind/behaviour: Stimulating low doses, but depressant effects at higher doses
• Affect brain: Affects dopamine serotonin, glutamate, & GABA

Stimulants

• Action: Rev up the CNS, increasing the heart rate, respiration, and blood pressure
• Nicotine
• Affects mind/behaviour: Highly addictive, feelings of stimulation, relaxation, alertness
• Affects the brain: Activates acetylcholine receptors
• Caffeine
• Affects mind/behaviour: Helps one feel alert, focused, happy, energetic, anxious
• Affects the brain: Blocks activity of adenosine, a sleep inducing neurotransmitter
• Opiates: Heroin, morphine, codeine
• Affects mind/behaviour: Sense of euphoria, relieve pain, and induce sleep
• Affects the brain: Attaches to opioid receptors

Psychedelics

• Action: Produce dramatic alterations in perception, mood, and thought
• Cannabis
• Affects mind/behaviour: Sense of time slowing down, enhanced sensations of touch, hunger, feelings of well-being. Chronic, heavy use can impair attention and memory
• Affects the brain: THC binds to cannabinoid receptors
• LSD
• Affects behaviour: Produces feelings of clear thought and changes in sensation and perception. Report synesthesia and mystical experiences
• Affects the brain: Alters levels of serotonin and dopamine systems
• More “cross talk” among brain networks after taking psilocybin (magic mushrooms)