Sleep I & II
What is an EEG? What does it measure and how?
Electrodes are placed along the scalp that pick up on electrical activity from neurons. It measures brain activity, but only cortically.
What is a symbiotic relationship?
A relationship between a host and inner organisms that is mutually beneficial
What is the facial feedback hypothesis?
It proposes that facial expressions can impact how you feel emotions
Describe how the larynx is implicated with social intelligence.
The lower down the larynx, the more able the species is to communicate and produce speech. This is only observable in humans.
Persistent, intense fear or anxiety about specific social situations because you believe you may be judged, embarrassed or humiliated.
What are the 3 characteristics of brain waves? Describe each.
Amplitude: Height of a wave
Frequency: how often a wave oscillates in a given time
Synchrony: how well waves line up when stacked on top of one another
How do microbiota effect conscientiousness?
People with low levels of conscientiousness have higher levels of proteobacteria, while people with high levels of conscientiousness have high levels of lachnospiraceae
For the traditional view, the steps are: Event/stimulus > Awareness or perception > Emotional reaction or response > biological reaction. For the James-Lange theory, the psychological and biological reaction are switched.
What is an intentional stance? How does it relate to social development?
The intentional stance is related to imitation and occurs when you show your intentions through a behavior. This relates to theory of mind, which then relates to communication.
What is exposure therapy?
Gradually having the patient see/encounter their specific phobias until their stress levels decrease.
Describe how sleep deprivation can cause weight gain.
When sleep deprived, the body produces too much ghrelin, which is responsible for making you feel hungry. At the same time, the body doesn't produce as much leptin, which is responsible for suppressing appetite.
What is eubiosis? How can a gut go from eubiosis to dysbiosis?
Eubiosis is the ideal balance of the microbiota in the gut. This balance can be impacted negatively by diet, environmental factors, or medications.
What is botox? What were the findings from patients that have had these injections in relation to emotional processing?
Botox is a neurotoxic microbe/bacteria that stops neurons from firing around the localized area of the injection site, causing muscle paralysis and relaxes the skin around it. It was found that people with botox have reduced emotional reactions to stimuli and they are worse at reading emotional expressions from others.
Describe how human toddlers compare to chimpanzee's in terms of both social and general intelligence.
In terms of general intelligence, human toddlers and chimps are comparable to one another. For social intelligence, human toddlers rank substantially higher than chimpanzees.
Describe how the brain malfunctions when somebody encounters their specific phobia.
The ACC, amygdala, insula, and frontal lobe are hyperactive. In the amygdala, there is a below average amount of dopamine and GABA.
List the trend characteristics of NREM sleep.
1.) Higher amplitude, lower frequency.
2.) Increasing parasympathetic response
3.) Decreasing sympathetic response
4.) Decreasing neural activity
5.) Decreasing metabolic rate
6.) Decreasing body temperature
List all parts of the gut-brain axis.
1.) Digestive tract + microbiota
2.) Enteric nervous system
3.) Autonomic nervous system
4.) HPA axis
5.) Spinal cord + brain
How do panic attacks support the James-Lange theory?
Panic attacks have a biological aspect (increased sympathetic response) as well as a psychological aspect (feeling of fear). It was found that the sympathetic activation came before the feeling of fear. Therefore, it supports the argument that biology comes before psychology when processing emotions.
What are the 4 functions of mirror neurons?
They activate when we imitate behavior from others, when we observe actions, when we make or remember the observed action, or when we do a different action with the same goal/intention as the original behavior.
What are all of the functions of the amygdala that were covered in this lecture?
1.) Fear processing 2.) Emotional processing 3.) Learning fears 4.) Storing fear memories 5.) Assigning value to stimuli 6.) Classical/fear conditioning
What are parasomnias? List all 6 and briefly describe each.
1.) Nightmare disorder
2.) Night terrors: sudden deep feeling of fear or dread
3.) Sleep enuresis: bedwetting
4.) Somnambulism: sleepwalking (Stage 4 only)
5.) REM behavior disorder: acting out dreams
6.) Sleep state misperception: mistakenly thinking you're awake when you're asleep.
List the 4 main functions of the microbiota in the gut.
1.) Promoting digestion by facilitating the absorption of nutrients
2.) Helps the digestive tract to function properly
3.) Plays a defensive role in the development of the immune system
4.) Creates a barrier against pathogens and toxins
Describe the Schacter and Singer study.
Participants were split into two groups: informed and uninformed. All participants were given a shot of adrenaline. The informed group was told it was adrenaline and the side effects, while the uninformed group was not. They then were introduced to either a nice or mean confederate. The informed group's emotions were not affected by the confederate, while the uninformed group's emotions matched those of the confederate.
List the 6 pieces of evidence that show why human brains tripled in size/why humans have more social intelligence than other mammals.
1.) Mirror self-recognition: requires self-awareness and higher-order thinking
2.) Descent of larynx: the lower the larynx, the more able a species is to produce speech
3.) Imitation: only humans are able to imitate with intention
4.) Intentional stance: when you show your intentions through a behavior
5.) Theory of mind: being able to view someone's else perspective in a given situation
6.) Mirror neurons: related to intentional stance and imitation (allows it to happen).
What is the "fast pathway?" What is the evidence for it?
The fast pathway theory proposes that the signal for the threat detection bypasses cortex and goes straight to the amygdala from the thalamus, making it subconscious. They had regular people detect different stimuli and are told to push a button when a specific stimuli flash on the screen. They found that people reacted quicker when the stimulus they had to detect was scary. In another study, they did almost the same thing, however the pictures flashed too quickly to consciously recognize. When they subliminally saw snakes and spiders, their sympathetic response activated.