- Exam will be 65 multiple choice questions- Sleep and dreamingo Altered state of consciousness: forms of experience that depart from the normal subjective experience of the world and the mind Hypnagogic (pre-sleep state) Hypnopompic (waking) stateo Sleep cycle Circadian rhythm : naturally occurring 24-hour cycle (actually 25 hours) Brain wave patterns change (EEG): beta, alpha, theta, and delta waves 5 stages of sleep: 1-4 and REM- REM: rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activityo Dreams occur most often during REMo Electrooculograph (EOG) : an instrument that measures eye movementso The body is immobilizedo (see textbook figure 5.11 for brain waves during sleep cycle)o Note that REM waves are similar to beta waveso REM is a really important stage in consolidating information andfeeling restedo A lack of sleep cuts off the amount of REM sleep you geto Video: sleep and sleeplessness Hypertension and diabetes are linked to a lack of sleep Humans average 7 hours of sleep at night (less than in the past) Modafinil is a drug invented to treat narcolepsy; it targets localized parts of the brain, allowing humans to still function wello Sleep needs & deprivation We get about 1 hour of sleep for every 2 we are awake Memories and learning deteriorate unless sleep occurs REM sleep deprivation has the most detrimental effects, followed by slow-wave sleep (stages 3 & 4)o Sleep is an adaptive behavior Restoration & sleep deprivation- Microsleeps: if you are extremely tired you may fall into a very light sleep for a short amount of time (e.g. when driving for too long)o Dreams What do dreams mean?- We don’t really know but there are hypotheses The activation-synthesis hypothesis : neurons randomly fire while sleeping and our brain is consolidating information; a dream is an attempt to make sense of this- Dreams are illogical b/c the prefrontal cortex is inactive- The visual association cortex is active, which is associated with imagining and remembering (as opposed to the part of the brain assigned to actual vision)- The motor cortex is active only to repress movement Evolved threat-rehearsal strategies : dreams evolved for higher order mammals to practice avoiding threats- Hypnosis : an altered state of consciousness characterized by suggestibility and the feeling that one’s actions are occurring involuntarilyo The essence of hypnosis is in leading people to expect that certain things will happen that are outside their conscious willo Susceptibility varies greatly, subject to agreeablenesso It is used as entertainment but it can also help w/pain relief & relaxationo There is some conscious control involved; it is just a deep state of relaxationo (Video on hypnosis)o Brain activity Unique patterns of brain activation PET scan of subjects performing 3 tasks:- 1: perception (heard a sentence)- 2: imagination (imagined hearing a sentence)- 3: hallucination (listened as a hypnotists suggested the sentence was said again)- Results: o The right anterior cingulate cortex was activated (area involved in attention)o This area was just as active in participants hallucinating & those actually hearing the sentenceo (This is not found in people not highly hypnotizable)- Sensation & perceptiono They are related but separateo Sensation : simple stimulation of a sense organo Perception : the organization, identification, and interpretation of a sensation in order toform a mental representation; making sense of the sensation What we expect to see/hear affects what we actually see/hear (e.g. stereotypes,etc.)o Basic process of sensation Modification via accessory structures - e.g. lens of an eye is an accessory structure that changes the light by focusing it- e.g. outer part of the ear is an accessory structure that collects sound Transduction - Process of converting energy into neural activity- Occurs at sensory receptors- Sensory receptors respond especially to changes in stimulus intensity Encoding - Encoding is the translation of physical stimulus properties into patterns of neural activity that specifically identify those physical properties- Final output is action potentials firing down sensory neurons Representation in cortex- The thalamus is the relay station for all sensory information except smell- Contralateral to the part of world sensedo E.g. vision: for each eye the right visual field is processed by the left hemisphere and the left visual field by the right hemisphere The human eye- Light passes through the cornea, to the pupil (iris surrounds it), to the lens (accommodation), and to the retina (phototransduction)o Accommodation : the process by which the eye maintains a clearimage on the retina (adjusting the amount of light)o Retina : the light sensitive tissue lining the back of the eyeball- Myopia : nearsightedness, due to improper accommodation- Hyperopia : farsightedness, due to improper accommodation- Blind spot : where the optic nerve is; there are no light receptors- Fovea : the point of central focus on the retina- Phototransduction in the retinao 2 types of photoreceptor cells in the retina contain light-sensitive pigments that transduce light into neural impulses Cones : detect color (red, green, blue), operate under normal daylight conditions & allow us to focus on fine detail Rods : become active under low-light conditions for night visiono The retina has layers of cells including the bipolar cells & the retinal ganglion cells (in addition to the rod and cone layers) Large concentration of cones in the center (at the fovea) Rods are distributed more evenly  Information is transferred from rods and cones to bipolar cells Then to ganglion cells Then to the optic nerve and to the occipital lobe (Explained in the Blue Man Group video)- Distal stimulus: from the outside environment (e.g. seeing a skier)- Proximal stimulus: in the braino Perceptual process Involves “construction” of the world Involves: - Selection of sensory output: our brain ignores some stimuli- Organization of sensory output- Interpretation of sensory output: based on our experiences, attitudes, preferences & social-situational contexts we interpret things differently “change blindness video”- We aren’t watching for changes in color, so we don’t notice when the people’s shirts, the tablecloth and the backdrop change Context effects: change in