PSYC121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Thalamic Reticular Nucleus, Electroencephalography, Thalamus
Document Summary
Sleep spindles - sudden bursts of oscillatory brain activity generated in the reticular nucleus of the thalamus that occur during stage 2 of light sleep. Consciousness is the awareness of internal and external stimuli. Freud was the first to suggest that consciousness has depth, operating at multiple levels. Measuring consciousness: self-report, behavioural observation (sleep, infants, chimps, mirrors, cognitive experiments, measuring the extent of alteration of consciousness induced by relaxation, hypnosis etc, pharmacological measures, physiological measures. An eeg measures electrical brain activity over time. Different eeg patterns are associated with different states of consciousness. Variations in consciousness are driven in part by biological rhythms. Biological rhythm are periodic fluctuations in physiological functioning. The are classified according to the frequency of occurrence. Ultradian: more than once per day (eg. digestion) Infradian: less than once per day (eg. menstrual cycle) It is our 24-hour biological cycle that regulate bodily processes and levels of alertness/sleep.
