PSYCH104 Consciousness and Altered States PDF

Consciousness - consciousness: the moment-to-moment subjective experience of the world, bodies, and mental sensations - Subjective - cannot study it in an empirical way - cannot be verified other than the person that is experiencing it...

Consciousness - consciousness: the moment-to-moment subjective experience of the world, bodies, and mental sensations - Subjective - cannot study it in an empirical way - cannot be verified other than the person that is experiencing it - Dynamic - like a stream of consciousness - Self-reflective - Can be aware of own consciousness - Interdisciplinary: physics, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, etc - How it's measured - Self-reports - describing internal experiences - Physiological measures - Ex: EEG, FMRI - assumption that these processes are related to the actual conscious experiences - Behavioral measures Mirror-Rouge Test - Investigates is child has a concept of self - child looks at reflection - if child touches rouge on forehead, than the child is aware of themselves - purpose is as an explanation of concept of self is a bad test, not a useful scientific discovery - Paramechanical hypothesis Cognitive View of Consciousness Cognitive psychology - Humans are “information processors”. The “mind” is the computer’s software and the brain is the computer’s hardware - unconventional - Ignore term consciousness and refers to it as information processing - computational processes in nature - generate language, recalls from memory, categorized things, interacts with the environment - trying to find a valid way of putting psyche back into psychology - Caveat: this is an oversimplification and not all cognitive psychologist agree with this interpretation - where is the psyche in this computer analogy - no settled opinion Controlled (effortful) processing  - Mental processing that requires some degree of volitional control and attentiveness - voluntary use of attention - Slow but flexible Automatic processing - Mental activities that occur automatically and require no or minimal conscious control or awareness - Minimal conscious processing - Fast but static - highly practiced behaviors (can perform during autopilot) Divided Attention - The ability to perform more than one activity at the same time - Difficult if tasks require similar cognitive resources - Ex: listening to music and studying for an exam, texting and driving Science of Sleep Circadian Rhythm - Cyclical changes that occur on a roughly 24-hour basis in many biological processes - larger subset of biological rhythm - Ex: hormones, menstruation, body temperature - Regulated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) - Located in hypothalamus - Brain’s “biological clock” - Pineal gland releases a hormone called melatonin - Learns day-night cycles through retinal signals through your eyes - located above the optical chasm How much sleep we need - approx 7-10 hours per night - Depends on: age, health, quality of sleep, genetics, species - Babies sleep more - DEC2 gene mutation require 6 hours of sleep without an restlessness occurring the next day - Dolphins sleep one brain hemisphere at a time - Sleep deprivation can result in: difficulties learning, poor attention, lethargy, hallucinations (extreme cases) - Sleep deprivation is associated with various adverse health outcomes like: weight gain, diabetes, heart problems, weakened immune systems - World record of sleep deprivation - 11 days (264 hrs straight) - 2 days in—difficulty during tongue twisters, difficulty perceiving when touching objects - 3 days in—emotional and uncoordinated, strong mood swings - 4 days in—impaired senses, coordination improved - 5 days in–hallucinations - 11 days in—slurred speech, short attention span, memory problems  - After experiment—slept for 14 hrs, totally fine after sleep, did not need extra sleep in the following days, first time sleeping large amount of REM sleep and eventually returned to normal, parts of brian was “catnapping” while others were awake Stages of Sleep - Awake and alert: - beta waves (approx. >13 waves per second - Calm wakefulness - alpha waves (approx. 8-12 waves per second - Stage 1 - Theta waves (4-7 waves per second) - Myoclonic jerks - brief muscle contractions (harmless) - Hypnagogic imagery - dream-like images - Stage 2 - Sleep spindles - short bursts of neural activity - k-complex - a large waveform that occurs intermittently - Every 1-2 minutes when person is sleeping - Stage 3 and 4 - delta waves (1-2 waves per second) - Stage 3 50% of waves are delta - “Deep sleep” required for feeling well rested - Time spend in deep sleep declines with age - children experience 40% - Stage 5 (REM sleep) - Rapid eye movement (REM) - Darting of the eyes underneath closed eyelids during sleep - Non-REM sleep (NREM) - Stages 1 through 4 of the sleep cycle, during which rapid eye movements do not occur and dreaming is less frequent and vivid - REM sleep - stages of sleep during which the brain is most active and during which vivid dreaming most often occurs - Approx. 20% of sleep is REM sleep - Rebounds when REM is lost Purpose of sleep - Energy conservation - Adaptive for avoiding predation - Restorative (body has a chance to heal) Sleep Disorders - Insomnia - Difficulty falling and staying asleep - regularly taking more than 30 minutes to fall asleep - Waking too early in the morning - Waking up during the night and having trouble returning to sleep - Factors such as age, drug use, exercise, mental status, and bedtime routines can contribute to insomnia - difference between brief bouts of insomnia (everyone has) vs. clinical insomnia - Treatment (behavioral) - Foster stimulus control: - Make sure you have a consistent wake schedule - Go to bed only when you are tired - Ex: nodding off - If you are in bed and not sleeping get out of bed - Set a criteria - Only use your bed for the purposes of sleeping - Exercise regularly - Avoid drugs like alcohol and caffeine in the evening - Treatment (pharmacological) - Can be addictive - Has adverse side effects - Ex: amnesia - Can lead to rebound insomnia - Narcolepsy - 0.04% of population - Disorder characterized by a irregular control of sleep-wake cycles - Symptoms: - ”Sleep attacks” - lasts for less than 20 minutes - occurs whenever - Usually manifest during passive activities - Ex: watching TV, reading, driving - Cataplexy - 70% of narcoleptic people - lose voluntary control of muscles - Ex: eyelids drooping, cannot move - Fully awake and conscious - Elicited by by surprise, laughter - Hypnagogic (sleep onset) and hypnopompic (sleep offset) hallucinations - Anyone can experience - not aware they are dreaming - Hypnagogic - occur when you are just beginning to sleep  - Hypnopompic - occurs when you are waking up - Sleep paralysis - 30% of population has it - unable to move - Occurs during transitional period of falling asleep or waking up - Disturbed nighttime sleep - Possible causes - Insufficient hypocretin producing neurons in the hypothalamus - 1% of cases run in the family - In identical twins 25% that other twin has it - Treatment - Stimulants - Behavioral strategies - similar treatment to insomnia - (obstructive) sleep apnea - Disorder caused by blockage of the airway during sleep resulting in daytime fatigue - Buildup of CO2 - Unaware that this happened - 4% of middle age men - 2% of middle age women - Creates health problems: - Night sweats - Weight gain - Hearing loss - Irregular heartbeat - Raises risk of death - snores loudly - Sexual dysfunction - Depression - Can causes early death - Treatment - Weight loss - CPAP air mask - Continuous positive airway passage - Night terrors - Sudden waking episodes characterized by screaming, perspiring and confusion followed by a return to a deep sleep - cannot wake them up during terror or they will become more frightened - rare in adults - usually if they are under large amounts of stress - Lasts a few minutes - Stages 3 and 4 (not REM)  - Harmless - Treatment - Getting older - Sleepwalking (somnambulism) - Walking while fully asleep - Occurs during deep sleep stages - Usually harmless - Person is often not aware they have done it - Occurs more often in children - 15-30% of children occasionally sleepwalk - 3% of children frequently experience - Contrary to popular belief it is perfectly safe to wake-up a sleepwalker Dreams - Most people dream but a large number of people typically can’t recall or forget their dreams after waking from a night’s sleep - Lab studies that wake individuals during REM show that self-reported “non-dreamers” do actually dream - Only 0.38% of people have been found to never experience dreams - Cross-cultural similarities - Dreams are typically more negative (emotionally and thematically) than positive - More likely you get robbed in your dream than win the lottery - Ratio of male to female characters within a dream - 1:1–women - 2:1–men - Dream content is often continuous with past or present pre-occupations of the individual dreamer - Freud’s Dream of Protection Theory - The interpretation of Dreams (Die Traumdeutung) - Published by Sigmund Freaud in 1899 - Dreams reflect “wish-fulfillment if unconscious desires - Prevents unconscious urges from ruining sleep - Dreams are like a pressure valve and are released during dreaming - Primitive (sexual desires) unconscious urges/desires are expressed symbolically with the dream and require “interpretation/translation” - Manifest content: the raw facts and details about the dream - Latent content: the underlying true meaning about details within the dream - Problems: - People with brain damage who can’t dream will sleep soundly - Dreams are often not wish-fulling - mostly negative - Consist of benign people and activities - can be nightmarish  - Most dreams involve no sexual themes - Activation synthesis theory: dreams reflect inputs from brain activation originating in the pons - Cortical region of the brain then attempt to weave into a story - REM is induced by increased Acetylcholine in the pons and reductions in serotonin and norepinephrine Altered State of Consciousness Out of Body Experiences (OBE) - The sensation of our consciousness leaving out body - Occurs in approx. 10% of the general population - People who experience OBE’s often report other strange experiences as well - Ex: hallucinations, perceptual distortions, lucid dreams, etc. - OBE’’s often occur in conjunction with near-death experiences - OBE reported by people who’ve nearly died or thought they were going to die Deja Vu - Feeling of reliving an experience that’s new - Last approx. 10-30 seconds - May be due to - Excess levels of dopamine in temporal lobe - People with small temporal lobe seizures will report Deja Vu prior to the seizure - Resemblance of past events poorly remembered Hypnosis - Set of techniques that provides people with suggestions for alterations in their perceptions, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors - People are chosen to be hypnotized on the basis of their suggestibility. They are not hypnotized to be suggestibles - Myths: - Puts people in a “trance” - People can be made to do things they don’t want to do - People are unaware of their surroundings - People forget what took place - Hypnosis can give you special abilities - Hypnotism enhances memory - Regression Therapy: people are hypnotized to remember events from childhood (where the psych problems originated) - Problems: - Reports of age-regressed individuals often cannot be corroborated by individuals present at the time - Poggendorff Illusion - EEG responses - Past-life regression therapy: people are regressed to remember events from a past life - Problems  - Claims of regressed individuals often prove false when fact-checked - ability to be regressed to a past-life s dependent on a belief in reincarnation Drugs!!! Psychoactive drug: drug that contains chemicals similar to those found naturally in our brains that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons - Alter how we think, feel, and act - Effects depend on dose and type Drug types - Depressants: decreased activity of the central nervous system - Followed by sleepiness, slower thinking, and impaired concentration - Ex: Alcohol, valium - Stimulants: increased activity of the central nervous system - Sense of alertness, well-being, energy - Ex: tobacco, Cochin, amphetamines, meth - Opiates: Sense of euphoria, decreased pain - Ex: heroin, morphine - Psychedelics/hallucinogen: Blood brain Barrier: protective lining of cells that prevents certain substances from entering the brain - Physiological mechanism that alters the permeability of brain capillaries, so that some substances, such as certain drugs, are prevented from entering brain tissue, while other substances are allowed to enter freely Diagnosis of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) - user has significant and recurring impairments in their life as a result of the drug(s) Tolerance: reduction in the effect of a drug as a result of repeated use, requiring users to consume greater quantities to achieve the same effect - Often results of the body's attempt to maintain homeostasis Withdrawal : unpleasant effects of reducing or stopping consumption of a drug that upsets had consumed habitually - body must learn to no longer engage in compensatory response to achieve homeostasis - Ex: heroin—hypoventilation, reduced amount of breathing. Body adjusts to decrease by increasing respiration Depressants - Drugs that create a decrease in nervous system activity - Alcohol - Increases GABA - Decreases Glutamate - At low doses inhibitory control centers in the cortex are “depressed” - Creates a release of inhibitions - “Upper” phase of drinking  - Drunk people are lively because areas of the brain that would normally inhibit those behaviors shut down - At higher does other regions are “depressed” - Loss of motor coordination - Impaired judgment - “downer” phase of drinking - Alcohol myopia - A “short-sightedness” in thinking caused by an inability to pay attention to much information as a sober person - Barbiturates and tranquilizers (sleeping pills and sedatives) - Increase GABA activity - Very addictive - Intolerance develops quickly - At high doses can lead to depression, a loss of motor coordination, and memory impairments - Withdrawal leads to Insomnia, anxiety Stimulants - Drugs that create an increase in nervous system activity - Amphetamines - Usually the most abused type of drug - Ex: caffeine, nicotine - Reduce sleep, fatigue, appetite, and depression - Go-to drug for military and students - Increase dopamine and norepinephrine - Injections can lead to massive spikes in blood pressure causing a stroke (can lead to brain damage) - More potent - Amphetamine psychosis (high doses): schizophrenia-like hallucinations that occur when the brain’s dopamine activity is artificially increased far beyond normal levels by heavy and/or continuous amphetamine - Withdrawal leads to sleep and wake up depressed and irritable - Short life expentancy - Methamphetamine - Inhaled via smoking - Ingredients to produce it are very accessible - More potent than standard amphetamines - Increased probability of OD and dependence - Can cause aggression, paranoia, acne, “meth mouth” - MDMA (Ecstasy) - 3, 4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine - safer recreational drug - sleep problems, intellectual impairments, sexual dysfunction - Cocaine  - Grows from a South American plant Erythroxylum coca - Was a common curative in the 1800s - Can be injected snorted or inhales (smoked) - Has analgesic properties - Creates excitement and euphoria - Blocks the reuptake of dopamine and norepinephrine - increase of these in central nervous system - Has (relatively) milk withdrawal symptoms that are accompanied by strong cravings for the drug - Can be used as a local anesthetic Opiates - Drugs that bind to opioid/endorphin receptors and produce analgesic and euphoric effects - ease pain and promote sleep - Derived from the opium poppy - Can produce increased levels of dopamine leading to euphoria - Can be administered in a variety of methods - Ex: - Morphine (widely used in hospitals), codeine, heroin, fentanyl, oxy-contin Hallucinogens/Psychedelics - Drugs which cause dramatic alterations of perception, mood, and thought - Can enhance, distort, and intensify sensory experience - Effects are often unpredictable leading to paranoia, violence, and anxiety in some people - Cannabis - Usually smoked but can be consumed in a variety of forms - Comes from the leaves of the hemp plant (cannabis sativa) - Primary ingredient THS (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) - Stimulates cannabinoids receptors - Myths - Causes a motivational syndrome - Acts as a “gateway drug”