psycology midterm 3
sleep paralysis and why it happens
-state of being unable to move just after falling asleep or just before waking up
-due to anxiety/ terror
-vibrations or feeling like there is a menacing precence in the room
incubus phenomenom
-sleeping person feels awake yet hallucinates a human, animal or being that is on their chest
- being carries out aggressive acts that can be so horrifying the person fears death
consciousness and unconsciousness
-consciousness -> our subjective experience of the world, our bodies, and our mental perspective
- not always sharp distinctions between the 2
- often a continuum
locked in syndrom
-voluntary muscles are paralyzed and unable to speak or move
-person is awake and alert
alterations of normal consciousness
-sleep paralysis and sleepwalking
-out of body experiences
-near death experiences
-mystical experiences
why do we need sleep
- Memory consolidation -> learn long term memory formation and remembering emotional information
-critical for immune system
-promoting insight and and problem solving
-neural development and connectivity
why do we need sleep - survival
- evolutionary theorists
- conserving energy
-reducing time to forage food
- taking us out of harms way in most vonurable times to predetors
- restoring strength to fight off predetors
circadian rhythm and effects
- the cyclical biological changes that occur on a 24 hour basis
- includes hormone release and body temperature
-disruption of the circadian rythems like jet lag and late shifts cause cause health issues
- injuries, obesity, diabetes and heart disease
melatonin
sleepiness is triggered by increase of melatonin that increases after dark
how much sleep is recommended
-new borns, 16 hours
-uni students, 9 hours
- most people, 7-10 hours
-DEC2 people, 6 hours
-elderly people, 6 hours due to disrupted sleep not reduced
keline-levin syndrome or sleeping beauty disorder
-neurological condition that causes people to sleep for a long time
- 20 hours per day
sleep deprivation and the effects
-one night, irritation or lack of concentration
- 2-3 nights, depression, cant learn or concentrate and cant react as fast
- 4+ nights, hullucinations
-weight gain, high blood pressure, diabetes, heart issues
stages of sleep
- 5 stages that we cycle through every 90 min
- 1-4 are non REM (NREM), no eye movement and fever dreams
- 5 rapid eye movement (REM), vivid dreams and quick eye movement
stages of sleep- 1
- 5-10 minutes
- brain waves slow from beta-theta
sleep stage 1 - hypnagogic imagery
-scrambled, bizarre and dream like images that go in and out of consciousness
sleep stage 1 -myoclonic jerks
- jerking movement of limbs as if being startled or falling
- confused state
sleep stage 2
- further slowing of the brain
- 65% of our total sleep
- relaxation
- brain activity decelerates
- heart rate slows
- body temp slows
- muscles relax
- eye movement stops
sleep stage 2 - sleep spindles
- sudden burts of electrical activity
sleep stage 2 - k-complexes
- sharply raising and falling waves
sleep stage 3/ 4 - delta waves
- delta waves that slow brain waves and put you in even deeper sleep
- crucual to feel rested
- 40% of sleep for kids, 25% of sleep for adults
-alchol suppresses delta wave sleep
stage 5 - REM
- 20-25% of total sleep
- paradoxical, brain activity simular to being awake but our bodies are parlayzed
- longer periods, as the night goes on hence longer dreams closer to waking up
dreams during NREM
- less dreams
- shorter
- more thought like
- reptitive
- concerned with daily tasks
dreams during REM
- emotional
- more dreams
- illogical
- prone to plot shifts
- biologically crucial
- often nightmares
REM and the brain stem
- muscle in middle ear are active during REM (trying to help us hear in dreams)
- REM behaviour disorder, when REM doesnt paralyze the body
- may cause you to act out and harm others
- brain stem prevents us from moving in REM sleep
- lesion to locus coeruleus in brain step causes acting out too
lucid dreaming
- you know a dream is a dream
- 20% of people report lucid dreams
- increased parts in the cortex associated with self perceptions and evaluating thoughts and feelingd
sleep disorders
- can interfere with our ability to function at work and school
- associated with other health problems
- $63 billion/ year cost in health and lost of productivity in USA
- 400 canadians killed yearly for falling asleep while driving
insomnia treatments
- psychotherapy and or hypnotic drugs (sleeping pills, lunesta and ambien)
- psychotherapy more effective
- both combined is the most effective
insomnia sleeping pills and its effects
- can create dependancy, makes it harder to sleep once off the pills
- strange behaviours during sleep like making and eating food, sleep walking, phone calls and even driving
- can cause amnesia, loss of memory for event after taking the pill
insomnia
- most common sleeping disorder, 9-20% of people
- difficulty falling asleep, staying alseep or waking up early
- co-morbid with depression and pain
- due to
- stress, relationship issues
- medications
- illness
- working late and different shifts
- jet lag
- caffine
- naps
narcolepsy and caraplexy
- rapid and unexpected onset of sleep
- cataplexy, when you loss muscle tone and become limp
- last from seconds to minutes to hours
- co-morbid with depression and social anxiety disorder
- due to low orexin production ( type of neuropeptide)
sleep apnea
- blockage of airways while asleep
- lack of oxygen and to much carbon dioxide
- loud snoring, gasping and stopping of breathing
- could wake up to 100s of times per night without realization, - causing fatigue, weight gain, night sweats, hearing loss, irregular heart beat, risk of dementia and even death
- 9-38% of population
sleep apnea treatment
- wearing of a facemask that blows air into the nasal passage
- forces airway to remain open
- difficult to adjust the machine
night terrors
- sudden waking causing screaming and perspiring and confusion, right back to a deep sleep
- usually only a few minutes
- most commmon in children
- or adults in extreme stress
- usually harmless some are scary
- not usually recollection of what occured
sleep walking (somnambulism)
- walking while fully asleep
- 15-30% of children
- 3-5% adults
- little activity but can involve more extreme cases of turning on computers or driving cars
- more common after sleep deprivation
- happens during NREM
- not related to dreams
sleep walking - sexsomnia
- participating in sexual acts while asleep
- no memory of it happening
sleep walking - psychology myth
- its not actually dangerous to wake a sleep walker
theories on dreaming
- processing emotional memories
- integrating new experiences with established memories
- learning new strategies and ways of doing things
- simulating threatening events so we can better cope with them in everyday life
- reorganizing and consolidating memories
most frequent dreams
- being chased or pursued
- being lost, late or trapped
- falling
- flying
- losing valuable possessions
- experiencing great natural beauty
- being naked or dressed weird
- injury or illness
fruads dream protection theory
- dreams transform our sexual and aggressive instincts into symbols
- the symbols require interpretation to reveal their true meaning
- manifest content (what they are on the surface) vs latent content (what they really mean)
- walking naked through the street (manifest content) might signify fear of exposure, fear of other people, or insecurity (latent content)
- wish fulfilment - how we wish things could be
freuds dream protection theory
- rejected by most due to lack of evidence
- difficult to falsify
- very few sexual dreams
- a lot of dreams are straightfoward and not symbolic
- most dreams are negatice
- post truama nightmares, repetitive nightmares, that do not involve wish fulfillment
activation- synthesis theory
- dreams reflect the brains attempt to make sense of random and internallt generated neural signals during REM
- pons sends incomplete signals to the thalumus witch then relay to the fore brain to try and turn signals into a story
- random and meaningless to everyday life
effects of dreaming when damage to the forebrain
- damage to forebrain and parential lobes can eliminate dreams completly even when pons are intact
- dreams are consistant over time and not as random as activation synthesis theory would predict
neurocognitive theory- what are dreams
- dreams are meaingful product of our cognitive capacities, that shape what we dream about
-dreams are
- ordinary
- relate to waking concerns
- stable over time
- reflect lived experiences and cognitive capapbilities
- realistic
- dont recognize bizarre events while dreaming
neurocognitive theory - children vs adults
- children have simple dreams
- adults have complex and bizarre dreams
neurocognitive theory - complex dreams
- cognitive achievements that occur with developmental visual imagination and other advaced cognitive abilities
- different situations where we put ourselves mental scenarios and explore outcomes
neurocognitive theory - dream continuity hypothesis
- dreams strongly reflect our life experiences
- but people with disability have simular dreams to those who dont have disabilities so its unknown
hallucinations and the causes
- realistic perceptual experiences in the absense of external stimuli
- when the brain activates in the same was as when its a real sensory experiences
- relitively normal experience
- 10-39% of people report having hillucinations
- can be caused due to oxygen and sensory deprivation, epilepsy, fever, dementia and migraine headaches
auditory hallucinations
- when people attribute their inner thoughts to an external source
hallucinations - psychotic
- partial loss of touch with reality
- more negative oices and less controllable
- train psychotic people that hallucinations that are passing mental events
out of-body experience (OBE)
- sense that our consiosness has left our body
- 25% of uni kids and 10% of public report an OBE
- inside the brain rather than outside of the body
- people dont see what is actually there
out of-body experience - reasoning
- medications
- psychedelic drugs
- migraine headaches
- seizures
- extreme relaxation or stress
near death experiences
- differ cross culturally in response to expectations about the after life with some consistant themes
- out of body and near death experiences go together
near death experiences - themes
- Difficulty describing the experience in words
- Hearing ourselves pronounced dead
- Feelings of peace and quiet
- Hearing unusual noises
- Meeting “spiritual beings”
- Experiencing a bright light as a “being of light”
- Seeing our life flash before our eyes
- Experiencing a realm in which all knowledge exists
- Experiencing cities of light
- Experiencing a realm of ghosts and spirits
- Sensing a border or limit
- Coming back “into the body”
near death experiences - what happens
- may be caused by changes in brain chemistry
- a feeling of peace - realease of endorphins
- high frequency gamma wave activity (fast brain activity, cognitive, memory, learning)
- neurotransmitters that ramp up before death are accociated with
- norepinephrine, alertness, attention, and arousal
- dopamine, cognition and emotion
- serotonin, vivid hallucinations and mystical experiences
- also linked to drugs
déjà vu
- the feeling of reliving something that is actually new ("already seen" in french)
- 10-30 second period
- 2/3 of people experience it
déjà vu - how
- excess dopamine or small seisures inf the temporal lobes that generate familiarity
- familiarity between a new and past experience
- previous scene doesnt come to mind but the new and past scene both come to mind
mystical experiences
- involve a sense of unity or oneness with the world
- involve a sense of transcendence of time, space, feelings of wonder and awe
- religous in nature
mystical experiences - how
- induced by fasting, seizures in the temporal lobe, prayer, meditation and drugs
- studied with hallucinogenic drugs
mystical experiences - psilocybin
- hallucinogenic drug that affects serotonin receptors (found in magic mushrooms)
- 58% who injested it reported mystical experiences that was the most meaning event of their lives
- 51% experiences negative reactions like paranoia
hypnosis
- interpersonal situation in which imaginative suggestions are administered for changes in consciousness
- useful in combination with other thearapys
- unsure if the improvments are hypnosis or relaxation
hypnosis - past life regression therapy
- contraversal
- approach that hypnotizes and supposedly age-regresses patients to a previous life to identify the source of a present-day problem
hypnosis myths
- trance state, amazing things happen, doesnt turn people into mindless robots, doesnt have a great impact on suggestibility
- no biological difference between hypnosis and wakefulness
- sleeplike state but not biologically simular
- people are fully aware of their surroundings
- people dont forget what happens unless they expect to foget everything
- increases memory but most of it is not accurate
drugs and behavior - psychoactive drugs
- substance that contains chemicals similar ro those found naturally in our brains that alter consciousness by changing chemical processes in neurons
drugs and behavior -depressants
- alcohol (most common in women), barbiturates, quaalude, valium
- decreased activity in the central nervous system
- high - sleepiness - slower thinking - impared concentration
- sedatives are calming, hypnotics are sleep inducing
- stimulating effect at low dose
- depressant effect at high dose due to inhibit emotion and behaviour
drugs and behavior - stimulants
- tobacco, cocaine, amphetamines, meth, caffine
- increased activity in the central nervous system
- sense of alertness, well being and energy
drugs and behavior - opiates
- herion, morphine and codeine
- sense of euphoria and decreased pain
drugs and behavior - psychedelics
- weed, LSD, ecstacy
- altered perception, mood and thoughts
substance abuse
- abuse causes recurrent problems with use of the drug at home/ work/ school/ police/ substance dependence
substance dependance, physical and psycological
- dependance leads to clinically significant impairment or distress
- withdrawl may occur and distressing symptoms can occur
- tolerance is higher the more you use the substance
- physical, related to withdrawals
- psychological, intense cravings
why use and abuse happens
-sociocultural and acceptance, low rates of alcohol consumption where its prohibited (muslims and mormons)
- addictive personality, impulse, sociability, proneness to negative emotions
- tension reduction hypothesis, drink/ do drugs due to anxiety and treat it as a "self medication" cycle
use and abuse - genetic infulence
- genetic fsctors link to vulnerability to alcoholism
- genes can determine drug metabolism and experiences
- ALDH2 gene causes an unpleasant response to alcohol, asian flush (facial flushing, heart palpitations and nausea), lower risk of alcholism
social and cultural influences
- balanced placebo design (punnet square sitch)
- what we expect to happen while drinking plays a role in our social behaviour (aggressions)
- alcohol is more importnant in non social behaviours like reaction time and motor control
- setting is also important as you are more likley to drink more in a bar rather than alone
non-alcoholic drinks
- healthier
- not nutritionally but better than alcohol
- not recommended for recovering alcohoclics due to simular smell and taste
- sometimes contains lower rates of alcohol
sedative hynotics - barbiturates, nonbarbiturates, benzodiazepines
- sedative, calming
- hypnotic, sleep inducing
- assist with anxiety and insomnia
- barbiturates, abuse potential, can produce feelings of being intoxicated
- benzodiazepines (like valium), highly addictive, widespread use
stimulants
- increase activity in the central nervous system, increasing heart rate, respiration and blood pressure
stimulants - nicotine
- highly addictive
- activates acetylcholine receptors, arousal, selective attention, memory and sleep
- found in tobacco
- adjustive value, enhances positive and minimizes negative emotional reactiond
- positive imagies associated with smoking enhances its appeal
stimulants - cocaine
- most powerful natural stimulant
- causes euphoria (extreme happiness), enhanced mental and physical activity, decrease in hunger
- strong reinforcer
- increases dopamine and serotonin activity
- affects monitoring behaviour, insight and emotional self awareness
- fuels addictive effects
stimulants - amphetamines
- 3 patterns
1. occasional use in extreme cases
2. dependancy following medical use
3. street use with repeated doses
- includes meth, rising usage
- exhileration - euphoria, for 12-16 hours
- high risk of overdose and dependance
- distroys tissues and blood vessels
- causes acne
- leads to weight lose, tremors and dental problems
narcotics - herion, morphine and codeine
- opiates from opium poppy to relive pain and induce sleep
- herion is 90% of opiate users
- used medically leading to abuse
- dangerous interaction with other drugs
- taking oxycotin (powerful opiate pain reliever) with alcohol or other depressant can be lethal
psychedelics (hallucinogens)
- produce dramatic alterations in perception, mood and thought
- heart rate increase, red eyes, dry mouth
- chronic use can impair cognitive functions
psychedelics - marijuana
- most used hallucinogenic drug in canada
- legal since 2018
- effects due to THC
- THC binds the same receptors as neurotransmitter anandamine that plays a role in eating, motivation, memory and sleep
- increases heart rate, red eyes and dry mouth
- chronic use can impair cognitive function
LSD
- changes perception, consciousness, sensation (synesthesia)
- produces feelings of clear thought
- some mystical experiences
-effects could be due to interference with serotonin system (affects consciousness, arousal, movements, and our readiness to respond to stimuli)
LSD and psilocybin
- increases communication amung brain networks that dont usually work together
- multisensory experiences and synesthesia
- decreases self esteem
- mystical experiences (sense of unity or oneness with the world)
ecstacy (MDMA)
- stimulant and hallucinogenic
- realeases serotonin promoting a sense of well-being, self confidence and empathy for others
- long term use causes high blood pressure, depression, damage to neurons that rely on serotonin
treatments for hallucinogens
- potential treatment for depression, drug addiction, PTSD , OCD, anxiety with late cancers
- tend to disappeasr after a few days
risks of hallucinogens
- short lived panic, paranoid delusions, confusion, depression and bodily discomfort
- flashbacks, recurrences of elements of a psychedelic experiences and can be disturbing
learning habituation and sensation
- change in organisms behaviour or thought as a result of experience
- different kinds
- habituation, decrease in response to stimuli over time and our behavioural response
- sensation, increase in response to stimuli over time
-sensory adaptation is more involuntary whereas habituation can involve deliberate control
learning via association
- when we associate 2 stimuli together
- simple associations provide mental building blokcs for more complex ideas
- classical (pavlovian) conditioning, -> a form of learning in which animals come to respond to a previously neutral stimulus which has been paired with another stimulus that elicits an automatic response
classical conditioning steps - neutral stimulus
- a stimulus that does not elicit a particular response
- metronome
classical conditioning steps - unconditional stimulus (UCS)
- a stimulus that elicits a unconditional response (UCR)
- meat powder (UCS) and salvation (UCR)
- in classical confitioning we pair the neural stimuli with UCS (metronome woth meat powder)
classical conditioning steps - conditioned ststimulus
- neural stimulus (NS) becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS) eliciting a conditioned response (CR)
- after training the metronome elicits salvation
- the organism reacts the same way to the conditioned stimulus as it did to the unconditioned stimulus
classical condition principles - extinction and acuisition
- acuisition, phase during which a conditioned response is established
- extinction, reduction of the conditional response after the conditioned stimulus is presented repeatedlt without unconditional stimulus
classical condition principles- spontaneous recovery and renewal
- after extinction, spontaneous recovery and renewal may be evident
- spontaneous reconvery, the conditional response after time passed ( no UCS-CS repairing required)
- renewal, the conditional response retuns in a novel setting different from the one in which the response was aquired (or extinquished)
classical condition principles - stimulus generalization
- when simular conditional stimulus elicit the same conditional response
- response to tunging forks that makes the same sound
classical condition principles - stimulus discrimination
- when we exhibit a conditional response only to certain stimulius
- response to tornandos is different in movies rather than real life
- pigeons can be trained to discriminate paintings by Monet vs. Picasso
- someone scared of stinging insects (wasps/bees) may not show fear response to other insects (house fly)
higher order conditioning
- developing a conditional response that is accosuated with another conditional stimulus
- the conditional response becomes weaker farther away from the orginal conditional stimulus
- CR1 strongest C3 weakest
- flashlight (CS2)- metronome (CS1) - meat poweder (USC)- salvation (CR/UCR)
applications of classical conditioning
- advertisers repeatedly paur their products woth the stimuli that elicit positive emotions
applications of classical conditioning- latent inhabition
- a stimulus often experienced alone may be resisitant to conditioning
- familiar stimulus more difficult to condition that an unfamiliar stimulus
applications of classical conditioning - john b watson and rosalie rayner study negative
- helps to explain how and why we acquire some fears and fobias (extreme, irrational fear or aversion)
- Little albert
- not afraid of animals and rats
- paired loud noises (UCS) with rats (CS)
- developed intense fear of rats
- fear response transfered to other stimuli (rabbits, dogs, furry coat, santa mask)
applications of classical conditioning - john b watson and rosalie rayner study - positive
- treat phobias
- little peter phobia of rabbits
- paired candy (UCS) with rabbit
- eventuallt rabbit (CS) started to elicit feelings of pleasure (CR)
- treatments of phobias often pair feared stimulus with relaxation