ch3

Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind: Brain States, Sleep, Drugs, and Addiction

• Dual processing is the principle that information is often processed on separate conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) tracks, affecting perceptions, memory, attitudes, and other cognitions.
• Blindsight awareness is a condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it.
• Selective attention is the ability to focus conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, while inattentional blindness is the failure to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere.
• Multitasking distracts brain resources allocated to driving, decreasing brain activity by an average of 37% when conversation occurs; cell-phone use increases accident risk fourfold.
• Sleep is a periodic, natural loss of consciousness that may have played a protective role in human evolution by keeping people safe during potentially dangerous periods, and helps restore and repair damaged neurons.
• Sleep deprivation causes fatigue, irritability, impaired concentration, productivity, and memory consolidation, and can lead to depression, obesity, joint pain, a suppressed immune system, and slowed performance with a greater vulnerability to accidents.
• Major sleep disorders include insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, night terrors, sleepwalking, and sleeptalking; natural sleep aids include regular exercise, avoiding caffeine and food near bedtime, and relaxing before bedtime.
• Tolerance is the need for larger doses to achieve the desired effect, while addiction is the compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known harmful consequences, and withdrawal is the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior.
• Those with a substance use disorder may exhibit impaired control, social disruption, risky behavior, and the physical effects of tolerance and withdrawal.
• Psychoactive drugs alter perceptions and moods, and may produce tolerance and withdrawal, leading to addiction, which is the compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known adverse consequences.
• Depressants such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates calm neural activity and slow body functions, disrupt memory, reduce self-awareness and self-control, and produce myopia by focusing on arousing situations at the expense of normal inhibitions and future consequences.
• Stimulant drugs such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, Ecstasy, and methamphetamine excite neural activity and speed up body functions, often involve an increase in energy and self-confidence, and may produce acute craving and withdrawal symptoms contributing to relapse.
• Hallucinogens distort perceptions and call up sensory images without any input from the senses, and may produce a visual “trip” with risk of panic, and marijuana may impair learning and memory and increase the risk of psychological disorders and lung damage from smoke.

Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind: Brain States, Sleep, Drugs, and Addiction

• Dual processing is the principle that information is often processed on separate conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) tracks, affecting perceptions, memory, attitudes, and other cognitions.
• Blindsight awareness is a condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it.
• Selective attention is the ability to focus conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, while inattentional blindness is the failure to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere.
• Multitasking distracts brain resources allocated to driving, decreasing brain activity by an average of 37% when conversation occurs; cell-phone use increases accident risk fourfold.
• Sleep is a periodic, natural loss of consciousness that may have played a protective role in human evolution by keeping people safe during potentially dangerous periods, and helps restore and repair damaged neurons.
• Sleep deprivation causes fatigue, irritability, impaired concentration, productivity, and memory consolidation, and can lead to depression, obesity, joint pain, a suppressed immune system, and slowed performance with a greater vulnerability to accidents.
• Major sleep disorders include insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, night terrors, sleepwalking, and sleeptalking; natural sleep aids include regular exercise, avoiding caffeine and food near bedtime, and relaxing before bedtime.
• Tolerance is the need for larger doses to achieve the desired effect, while addiction is the compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known harmful consequences, and withdrawal is the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior.
• Those with a substance use disorder may exhibit impaired control, social disruption, risky behavior, and the physical effects of tolerance and withdrawal.
• Psychoactive drugs alter perceptions and moods, and may produce tolerance and withdrawal, leading to addiction, which is the compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known adverse consequences.
• Depressants such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates calm neural activity and slow body functions, disrupt memory, reduce self-awareness and self-control, and produce myopia by focusing on arousing situations at the expense of normal inhibitions and future consequences.
• Stimulant drugs such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, Ecstasy, and methamphetamine excite neural activity and speed up body functions, often involve an increase in energy and self-confidence, and may produce acute craving and withdrawal symptoms contributing to relapse.
• Hallucinogens distort perceptions and call up sensory images without any input from the senses, and may produce a visual “trip” with risk of panic, and marijuana may impair learning and memory and increase the risk of psychological disorders and lung damage from smoke.

Consciousness and the Two-Track Mind: Brain States, Sleep, Drugs, and Addiction

• Dual processing is the principle that information is often processed on separate conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) tracks, affecting perceptions, memory, attitudes, and other cognitions.
• Blindsight awareness is a condition in which a person can respond to a visual stimulus without consciously experiencing it.
• Selective attention is the ability to focus conscious awareness on a particular stimulus, while inattentional blindness is the failure to see visible objects when attention is directed elsewhere.
• Multitasking distracts brain resources allocated to driving, decreasing brain activity by an average of 37% when conversation occurs; cell-phone use increases accident risk fourfold.
• Sleep is a periodic, natural loss of consciousness that may have played a protective role in human evolution by keeping people safe during potentially dangerous periods, and helps restore and repair damaged neurons.
• Sleep deprivation causes fatigue, irritability, impaired concentration, productivity, and memory consolidation, and can lead to depression, obesity, joint pain, a suppressed immune system, and slowed performance with a greater vulnerability to accidents.
• Major sleep disorders include insomnia, narcolepsy, sleep apnea, night terrors, sleepwalking, and sleeptalking; natural sleep aids include regular exercise, avoiding caffeine and food near bedtime, and relaxing before bedtime.
• Tolerance is the need for larger doses to achieve the desired effect, while addiction is the compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known harmful consequences, and withdrawal is the discomfort and distress that follow discontinuing an addictive drug or behavior.
• Those with a substance use disorder may exhibit impaired control, social disruption, risky behavior, and the physical effects of tolerance and withdrawal.
• Psychoactive drugs alter perceptions and moods, and may produce tolerance and withdrawal, leading to addiction, which is the compulsive craving of drugs or certain behaviors despite known adverse consequences.
• Depressants such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates calm neural activity and slow body functions, disrupt memory, reduce self-awareness and self-control, and produce myopia by focusing on arousing situations at the expense of normal inhibitions and future consequences.
• Stimulant drugs such as caffeine, nicotine, amphetamines, cocaine, Ecstasy, and methamphetamine excite neural activity and speed up body functions, often involve an increase in energy and self-confidence, and may produce acute craving and withdrawal symptoms contributing to relapse.
• Hallucinogens distort perceptions and call up sensory images without any input from the senses, and may produce a visual “trip” with risk of panic, and marijuana may impair learning and memory and increase the risk of psychological disorders and lung damage from smoke.