Download Understanding Consciousness and the Brain: A Journey into the Mind - Prof. Cyterski and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! Chapter 4 the mind and the Consciousness Two main points of this chapter: People can be conscious of their surroundings even when they do not appear to be (even deeply asleep we do not roll of the bed bc we are slightly aware of our surroundings Conscious experiences are associated with brain activity, and understanding this brain activity might help us better understand concisions . How is the conscious Mind experienced? -How does neural activity give rise to the subjective experience of the world?? -Consciousness: the subjective experience of the world and mental activity Study two components: contents (things we are conscious of) and the level of conscious (coma, sleep, wake) -Dualism: Mind physically distinct from the brain -People now reject dualism: brain and mind are the same. Activity of the neurons produces consciousness -Conscious experience differs because of natural variation, natural manipulation, and artificial manipulation Conscious Experience is subjective Each person experiences conscious differently or subjectively There are variations In Conscious Experience -William James: conscious experience is a continuous stream of thoughts that float from one thought to another. -You can only pay attention or be aware of a few things (multitasking!) - You can execute routine or automatic tasks that are so well learned that we do them without much conscious effort -More complex situations require more thinking (driving in the rain, Accounting!) - Consciousness and Coma: a person in a coma has regular sleep patterns, opens and closes eyes, but does not seem to be aware of surroundings. -When it lasts longer than a month then known as a vegetative state -minimally conscious state where people can make deliberate movements -Splitting the brain splits the conscious mind -Corpus Callosum: the major connection between the hemispheres that may readily be cut without damaging the gray matter. Massive fiber bundle When this is severed, the brain’s halves are isolated from each other called split brain If you split the brain do you split the mind? People have not immediate major problems after split brain-normal Just as the brain had split in two, so had the mind Allowed researchers to study each hemisphere one by one -Images from the left side go to the right hemisphere, images from the right go to the left hemisphere. Left hemisphere is better with language, while the right is better with spatial relationships. - For example: Split brain patient: if two pictures are flashed, one on the left another on the right, patient will only report the one on the right since the left hemisphere deals with speech. -Each side of the brain then has it’s own thought, perceptions etc. What is Sleep? -Brain regions are active during sleep (some are more active then when you are awake) -It is possible to work on complex problems while asleep -Brain is still active during sleep -Conscious experience of the world outside is turned off - However, people still remain somewhat aware of their surroundings; that is why you don’t fall of the bed or rollover onto other sleeping with you Sleep is an altered state of Consciousness -when you are asleep you are not conscious but your brain still process information and remains somewhat aware of your surroundings Stages of Sleep Stage 1: Theta waves. Can be awakened easily. Might deny that you were asleep at all. Might see fantastical shapes and images. Stage 2: breathing becomes more regular. Less sensitive to external noise. Now officially asleep. Continues to show theta waves with occasional bursts of activity called sleep spindles and large waves called k-complexes. Stage 3&4: deep sleep with delta waves. Slow wave sleep. Very hard to wake and often disorientated when awakened. Mind continues to scan the environment for danger
