PSYC100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 19: Pineal Gland, Long-Term Memory, Melatonin
Document Summary
Consciousness-awareness of ourselves and our environment (one part of dual processing in our two-track minds)->>>light, temperature, etc. Circadian rhythm-biological clock programmed for 24-hours in a day (many young people are programmed on 25-hours a day) Suprachiasmaic nucleus-pair of grain-of-rice sized 20,000 cell clusters in the hypothalamus by causing the brain"s pineal gland to decrease producion of the sleep-inducing hormone, melatonin. Rem sleep-rapid eye movement sleep where your brain does most of the transfer of short term memory to long term memory. Body is essenially paralyzed, paradoxical sleep, body is internally aroused and externally calm. Lead to sleep stage 1: slowed breathing & irregular brain waves. Hallucinaions-sensory experiences that occur without a sensory simulus. Hypnagogic sensaions may later be converted to memories. Sleep spindles-show up in stage 2 of sleep; bursts of rapid, rhythmic brain-wave acivity. Delta waves-large, slow brain waves associated with deep sleep in stages 3 & 4.
