Zusammenfassung der Ressource
VARIATIONS IN CONSCIOUSNESS
- The Nature of Consciousness
- Consciousness is the
awareness of internal
and external stimuli
- The contents of consciousness are
continually changing
- It moves
- It flows
- It fluctates
- It wanders
- When you are asleep your consciousness
moves through a series of transitions
- Constant change and shifting seem to be apart of the essential nature of consciousness
- The most commonly used indicator
of variations in consciousness has
been the EEG
- (the EEG records activity
from broad swaths of
the cortex)
- EEG also summarizes
the rhythm of cortical
activity in the brain in
terms of line tracings
called brain waves
- Biological Rhythms
- Periodic fluctuations in
physiological functioning
- Circadian rhythms are particularly
influential in the regulation of
sleep
- Daily exposure to light readjusts
people's biological clocks
- When exposed, some receptors in the retina send direct inputs to a
small structure in the hypothalamus called the suprachiasmatic
nucleus
- Getting out of sync with your circadian
rhythms also causes "jet leg"
- A promising line of research has focused on
giving small doses of the hormone
melatonin, which appears to regulate the
human biological clock
- Sleep
- EEG pattern in sleep and wakefulness
- Awake
- Low voltage, high frequency beta waves
- Drowsy
- Alpha waves prominent
- Stage 1 Sleep
- Theta waves prominent
- Stage 2 Sleep
- Sleep spindles and mixed EEG activity
- Slow-Wave Sleep (stage 4 and 4 sleep)
- Progressively more delta waves
- REM sleep
- Low-voltage, high-frequency waves
- REM sleep is a relatively
deep stage of sleep marked
by rapid eye movements;
high-frequency,
low-amplitude brain waves;
and vivid dreaming
- It is such a special stage of sleep that the
other four stages are often characterized
simply as non- REM sleep
- Non-REM sleep consists of sleep stages 1 through 4, which are marked by an
absence of REM's, relatively little dreaming, and varied EEG activity
- Insomnia
- Most common sleep disorder
- Refers to chronic problems
in getting adequate sleep
- Three basic
patterns:
- 1) difficulty in falling asleep
- 2) difficulty in remaining asleep
- 3) persistent early-morning
awakening
- Causes:
- excessive
anxiety
- tension
- emotional
problems
- health problems
- significant
stress
- Treatment:
- benzodiazepine sedatives
- Dalmane Halcion
- Restoril
- non benzodiazepine sedatives
- Ambeian
- Sonata
- Lunesta
- (sedatives can be a poor long term solution for insomnia because it can
lead to drug overdose etc)
- Sleep
deprivation
- Occurs when people make do with
substanitially less sleep than
normal people over a period of
time
- Can impair
- Individuals attention
- Reaction time
- Cognitive speed and accuracy
- motor coordination
- decision making
- Selective deprivation of slow wave sleep makes
subjects want to have longer periods of REM sleep
- Studies suggest that REM and slow wave sleep contribute to firming up learning that
takes place during the day
- Other
Sleep
Problems
- Narcolepsy
- A disease marked by sudden and
irresistible onsets of sleep during normal
waking periods
- Night terrors
(sleep terrors)
- Abrupt awakenings from NREM sleep, accompanied
by intense automatic arousal and feelings of panic
- Sleep
Apnea
- Involves frequent, reflexive
gasping for air that awakens a
person and disrupts sleep
- Nightmares
- Anxiety-arousing dreams that lead to
awakening, usually from REM sleep
- Somnambulism
(sleep
walking)
- Occurs when a person
arises and wanders about
while remaining asleep
- REM sleep
behaviour
disorder
- By marked potentially troublesome dream
enactments during REM periods
- Dreams
- What people dream
about is affected by
what is going on in
their lives
- Freud noticed long ago that the contents of waking life often tented to spill into dreams
- The content of dreams can also be affected by stimuli
experience while one is dreaming
- Sometimes people may realize they are
dreaming while still in the dream state (lucid
dreaming)
- Lucid dreams are dreams in which
people can think clearly about the
circumstances of waking life and the
fact that they are dreaming, yet they
remain asleep in the midst of a vivid
dream
- Theories of Dreaming
- Sigmund
Freud
- Believed that the
principle of
dreams is wish
fulfillment
- Catwright
and
Lamberg
- Proposed that dreams
provide an opportunity to
work through everyday
problems
- Hobson
and
McCarley
- Argue that dreams are simply the
by-product of bursts of activity
emanating from subcortical areas in
the brain
- J. Allan Hobson
- Proposes that dreams are
side effects of the neural
activity that produces
"wide-awake" brain waves
during REM sleep
- Hypnosis
- Systematic procedure
that typically produces a
heightened state of
suggestibility
- May also lead to
passive relaxation,
narrowed attention,
and enhanced fantasy
- Hypnotic
Phenomena
- 1) Anesthesia
- hypnosis can be a surprisingly
effective anesthetic in the
treatment of both acute and
chronic pain
- 2) Sensory Distortions and Halluctions
- May be led to
experience
auditory or visual
hallucinations
- May also
have their
sensations
distorted
- 3) Disinhibition
- Can sometimes reduce inhibititions
that would normally prevent subjects
from acting in ways that they would
normally see as socially undesirable
- 4) Posthypnotic Suggestions and Amnesia
- May influence a
subjects later
behaviour
- May or not may not
forget what had
happened during the
processe
- Meditation
- Refers to a family of practices that train
attention to heighten awareness and bring
mental processes under greater voluntary
control
- Practiced
throughout
history as an
element of all
religious and
spiritual
traditions
- Approaches to meditation cna be classified into
two main styles that reflect how attention is
directed
- 1) Focused Attention
- Attention is concentrated on a
specific object, sound or
bodily sensation
- 2) Open Monitering
- Attention is directed to the contents of
one's clear moment-to-moment experience
in a nonjudgmental and nonreactive way
- Some Long Term Benefits
- Lower levels of "stress hormones"
- Enhanced
immune
response
- Improves
mental health
- Reduces
anxiety
and drug
abuse
- Beneficial effects on
blood pressure
- Reduced
rumination
- Working memory
and focus
- Improves self esteem
- Cognitive flexibility
and relationship
satisfaction
- Improves mood and one's sense of control
- Altering Consciousness with Drugs
- The drugs that people use
recreationally are
psychoactive.
- Psychoactive drugs are chemical
substances that modify mental,
emotional, or behavioural functioning
- Generally, people prefer drugs that elevate their mood or produce other pleasurable alterations in conciousness
- Primary Abused Drugs
- Narcotics (or opiates) : drugs
derived from opium that are
capable of relieving pain
- Sedatives : Sleep inducing
drugs that tend to decrease
the central nervous system
activation and behavioural
activity
- Stimulants :
Drugs that tend
to increase
central nervous
system
activation and
behavioural
activity
- Hallucinogens : Diverse group of
drugs that have powerful effects
on mental and emotional
functioning
- Cannabis : A hemp plant from which
marijuana, hash, and THC are derived
- Alcohol : Variety of
beverages containing
ethyl alcohol
- MDMA (ecstasy) : Compound
drug related to both
amphetamines and
hallucinations, especially
mescaline
- The impact on any drug depends in
part on the users age, mood,
motivation, personality, previous
experience, body weight, and
physiology
- The dose and potency of the drug, the method of
administration, and the setting in which a drug is taken also
influence its effects
- Risks with Drug Abuse
- Overdose
- Addiction
- Damage tissue directly
- Cocaine can
damage nasal
membranes
- Risks of heart
attack and
stroke
- Serious
health
problems
- Cancer
- Neurological disorders
- Mental
health
issues
- Liver damage
- Damage to brain cells
- Respiratory problems