What is consciousness?

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What is consciousness?

• Being aware of the immediate environment?
• Listening to me lecture
• Being aware of your inner thoughts, feelings, and
  memories?
• Things to do today
• anger at a slow driver
• smell of lilacs reminding you of Grandmas house

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• Early psychology (early 1880s) was interested in
  consciousness
• Wundt and Titchner
• report contents of consciousness while sitting
  still, working, and while falling asleep.

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Freud was also interested in consciousness

• According to Freud people have different levels
  of consciousness
• conscious thoughts of which we are aware
• unconscious thoughts of which we are unaware

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• Early psychology was dualistic
• Descartes 17th century
• the mind and body are completely separate
• its as if we have a soul that is our
  consciousness that is separate from our bodies
  physiology
• Today psychology is materialistic
• our mind and consciousness are presumed to be
  rooted in the physiology of the brain
• Also there is evidence that some animals may be
  conscious as well.

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Modern View of Consciousness

• Consciousness is considered on a continuum.
• From alert to dreaming, hypnosis, or drug states.
• Driving a familiar route - suddenly arriving home
  without memory of the drive

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Sleep

• Why do we sleep?
• Circadian rhythms.
• The bodies natural cycle from being wakeful, to
  being sleepy.
• Morning people evening people
• jet lag
• factory shift work.
• Day (8 - 4) ? afternoon (4 - 12) ? Night (12-8)

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What good does sleep do?

• The repair and restoration theory
• The purpose of sleep is to enable the body to
  recover form the exertions of the day.
• Do we sleep more after heavy exercise?
• Do we all need the same amount of sleep?
• What happens if we dont get to sleep?
• Randy Gardner
• stayed awake for 11 days
• Peter Tripp (Disc Jockey)
• awake 10 days.

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Sleep Deprivation

• For the most part Randy Gardner and Peter Tripp
  showed little damage from their sleep deprivation
• Didnt sleep that much more
• 14 hours the first night
• Then back to normal
• Didnt get sick

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Peter Tripp

• No longer sure he was himself
• frequently tried to gain proof of his own
  identity
• convinced that there was a conspiracy against him
  to send him to jail
• Demand Characteristics?

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The Evolutionary or Energy-Conservation Theory

• Perhaps we have evolved a regular pattern of
  sleeping and waking to conserve our energy, and
  keep us out of danger.
• We are more inefficient at night
• without light we dont see well
• wasteful of energy resources
• potentially dangerous
• Horse, Human, Cats

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Stages of sleep

• A polysomnograph combines EEG brain waves with
  eye movement data.
• Rapid-eye movement (REM sleep)
• eyes move rapidly back and forth beneath the
  lids. High frequency (desychronized) brain waves.

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REM is also called paradoxical sleep

• Light - because the brain is active and heart
  rate, breathing rate, and temperature fluctuate
  substantially
• Deep - because muscles that control posture and
  locomotion are very relaxed

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EEG activity during sleep

• Stage 1 - quite a bit of brain activity
• Stage 2, 3, and 4 - The brain activity slows and
  becomes more and more synchronized until the
  waves are much slower, larger, and well defined.
• Then the person progresses back up from stage 4,
  to stage 3, to stage 2.
• Instead of having stage 1 repeated they have REM
  sleep.

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Dreams

• People are most likely to report dreams during
  REM sleep.
• People do dream in the non REM states as well
  though.
• Dreams in REM sleep are more coherent and have a
  story line.
• Dreams in non REM sleep are less organized.
• Stage 4 sleep has been associated with dreams
  called night terrors.

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Dream Content What we dream about and why

• Freud
• Dreams reveal a persons unconscious thoughts and
  motivations.
• Often has to do with sexual tensions related to
  repressed desires.
• Freud may be far fetched but do you dream about
  water when thirsty?

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• Activation-Synthesis theory
• spontaneous activity occurs in brain areas -
  especially during REM sleep.
• The brain tries to make sense of this spontaneous
  activity.

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Function of REM sleep

• What if you waken someone every time they go into
  REM?
• Gets harder to do
• Subjects become anxious, and irritable
• REM rebound
• improve memory storage?
• Train an animal on a new task. That night they
  have more REM sleep.

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Hypnosis

• A condition of increased suggestibility that
  occurs in the context of a special
  hypnotist-subject relationship.
• They are not asleep - brain waves like being
  awake - can walk and talk
• Requires wanting to be hypnotized and believing
  that you are hypnotized

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• Hypnosis can be used to inhibit pain.
• Dental work
• surgery
• Post hypnotic suggestions.
• Stop smoking
• lose weight

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Myths of hypnosis

• Becoming stiff as a board
• Enhance memory
• from a witnessed crime
• if told they will remember more they will, but
  the information is often not accurate
• From the deep past
• child hood memories largely inaccurate
• retain vocabulary and writing skills
• previous lives? - kinds of money? - is your
  country at war?

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Age Regression

• Robert True (1949) - regressed hypnotized
  volunteers back to Christmases and birthday
  parties at ages 10, 7, and 4.
• Without hypnosis the odds a person could name
  what day of the week that Christmas fell on are 1
  in 7 (14).
• The subjects were correct 82 of the time.

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Could not be replicated.

• Orne (1982) asked why it could not be replicated.
• True said the journal Science had shortened his
  key question to what day is this.
• Actually he had asked his regressed subjects Is
  it Monday?, Is it Tuesday? and so on until the
  subject stopped him with a yes.

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More of Orne

• Will a hypnotized person do something they would
  not normally do.
• Hand in acid
• grab a poisonous snake
• throw acid on another person.
• Hypnotized - 5 out of 6 did these things
• 6 out of 6 pretending
• 2 out of 6 who just thought it was an experiment.
  WHY?

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Hypnotized or pretending?

• Pretenders can
• tolerate sharp pain
• make body stiff as a board
• experience physiological changes associated with
  being told to be angry or happy
• Differences between pretenders and hypnotized
• subtle things - chair and imaginary person

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Hill side Strangler

• Bianchi - under hypnosis a second personality was
  found - that the defense wanted to claim did the
  killings (insanity defense).
• Orne again.
• Tearing filter from a cigarette
• shaking hands with someone not there
• response to a false statement.

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Is hypnosis real?

• People truly hypnotized are not just faking it -
  there are identifiable differences
• Hypnosis does not give special powers that you do
  not already possess.
• Hypnosis merely enables people to relax,
  concentrate, and follow suggestions better than
  they usually do.

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Drugs

• A psychoactive drug is a chemical substance that
  alters perceptions and mood.
• Anything from coffee or cigarettes, to LSD and
  heroin.

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Depressants

• Drugs that cause calming effects.
• Alcohol
• Valium and Xanax (benzodiazepines)
• Morphine (opiate)
• Heroin (opiate)

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Stimulants

• Drugs that increase energy and alertness
• Caffeine
• Cocaine
• Amphetamine

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Mixed stimulant-depressants

• Drugs that seem to both stimulate and depress.
• Nicotine - stimulates brain activity, but many
  smokers find it relaxing.

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Drugs that distort experience and hallucinogens

• Marijuana (THC)
• LSD
• Mescaline
• mushrooms
• peyote

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Why are these drugs abused?

• One major commonality is that these drugs all
  affect the reward pathway in the brain.
• Any drug that decreases output from the nucleus
  accumbens is rewarding.
• Dopamine - shuts down (inhibits) the nucleus
  accumbens
• most of the drugs I have mentioned increase
  dopamine in the synapse.

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The Reward Pathway
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• Some drugs like Angel Dust (PCP) decrease the
  amount of Glutamate in synapses in the nucleus
  accumbens.
• Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter - so
  the nucleus accumbens will become less active
• This is also rewarding - feels good.

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Drug classes in more detail

• Alcohol (considered a dirty drug)
• Ethanol is the type of alcohol that people
  consume. Rubbing alcohol (isopropyl) is very
  dangerous to consume.
• Ethanol is primarily a relaxant
• can lead to aggressiveness and risky behavior by
  depressing brain areas that would normally
  inhibit those behaviors.

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• Excessive use of alcohol can lead to
• liver damage
• can impair memory and motor control
• A woman that drinks during pregnancy
• can impair brain development in her child.
• Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
• stunted growth of the head and body
• malformation of the face, heart, and ears
• learning disabilities - mental retardation

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Delirium Tremens (DTs)

• Severe Alcoholics are dependent on alcohol.
• They have changed their brain, so that without
  Alcohol they will die.
• Severe trembling of the hands
• Leaving Las Vegas
• Hallucinations
• seeing Pink Elephants

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Tranquilizers

• Help to relax and fall asleep
• decrease muscle tension
• suppress epileptic seizures
• barbiturates - highly habit forming and easily
  fatal in high doses
• Pentobarbital (Nembutal)
• Secobarbital (Seconal)
• Amobarbital (Amytal)
• phenobarbital (Luminal)
• slang names for these barbiturates include yellow
  jackets, reds, blues, Amy's, and rainbows.
• benzodiazepines (Valium and Xanax)
• still habit forming, but less so.

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Tranquilizers and alcohol do not mix.

• Benzodiazepines work by increasing the release of
  the neurotransmitter GABA.
• GABA decreases the activity of the brain.
• Alcohol works on GABA as well

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• If you take tranquilizers and drink alcohol you
  have a good chance of shutting down your medulla.
  
• The medulla is a primitive part of your brain
  that controls the heart beat and breathing
• Alcohol and tranquilizers interact -
• they increase GABA release much more together
  than either would alone.

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Opiates

• Our body produces endorphins.
• Natural chemicals that bind to opiate receptors
  in the brain. They serve to inhibit pain.
• The opiates are drugs derived from the poppy, or
  human-made (synthetic) drugs that have a similar
  chemical structure to opium.

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• Morphine and heroin are opiates.
• Makes people feel happy and content.
• Decreases anxiety and pain.
• Tends to make people feel nauseous
• Having a good sick
• Rat study
• Can become physically dependent
• kicking the habit going cold turkey

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Methadone maintenance

• Methadone maintenance is a program where people
  receive a drink that prevents the withdrawal
  symptoms associated with heroine addiction.
• They are still addicted but they have more
  control.
• No needles and less intense psychological effects.

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Marijuana

• Variety of effects
• drowsiness
• intensification of sensory experience
• illusion that time is passing slowly
• under high doses some report mild hallucinations.
• Can reduce the pressure in the eye associated
  with glaucoma
• Cancer patients - reduce nausea and pain

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Can be detected for a long time

• Marijuana dissolves in the fats of the body, so
  it can be detected weeks after taking the drug.
• It is not physically addictive, but people do
  become psychologically addicted.
• It would be very difficult to overdose on
  marijuana

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Risks?

• Lung Cancer
• impairment of learning and memory
• animal studies have shown that it can temporarily
  shrink dendrite size.
• There are a large number of receptor sites for
  THC (the active ingredient in marijuana) in the
  hippocampus.
• The hippocampus is an important brain structure
  involved in learning and memory