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104 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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consciousness |
• A state of awareness of internal events and the external environment
• Wundt and Titchener used introspection to explore the contents of the conscious mind, and William James observed his own stream of consciousness • On the first page of James's 1892 text, Psychology, James endorsed as a definition of psychology "the description and explanation of states of consciousness as such" • Ordinary waking conscious includes perception, thoughts, feelings, images, and desires at a given moment -- all of the things on which one is focusing their attention |
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sense of self
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• Arises from the consciousness of the realization that others are observing, evaluating, and reacting to what you are doing
• Comes out of the experience of watching yourself from this privileged "insider" position |
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nonconscious
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• Not typically available to consciousness or memory
• The regulation of blood pressure as an example |
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preconscious memory
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• Memory that is not currently conscious but that can easily be called into consciousness when necessary
• For example, when one is asked to recall a past event |
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inattentional blindness
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• People's failure to perceive objects when their attention is focused elsewhere
• For instance, in the study in which participants watched a video of two teams of students passing basketballs and were told to count the number of time one team passed the ball, 50% of participants did not notice someone dressed as a gorilla passing through the scene |
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unconscious information and Freudian theory
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• One realizes existence of this when one cannot explain some behavior by virtue of forces that were conscious at the time of the behavior
• Freud argued that people's psychological well-being is sufficiently threatened by certain life experiences that memories of those experiences are permanently banished from consciousness • Freud believed that when the content of unacceptable ideas or motives is repressed, the strong feelings associated with the thoughts still remain and influence behavior |
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think-aloud protocols
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• Methodology devised by researchers to make deeply private experiences overtly measurable
• Participants report, in as much detail as possible, the sequence of thoughts they experience while they complete tasks • Used to document the mental strategies and representations of knowledge that the participants employ to do the task |
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experience-sampling method
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• Methodology devised by researchers to make deeply private experiences overtly measurable
• Participants provide information about their thoughts and feelings in the normal course of their daily lives • Participants often carry devices that signal them when they should provide reports about the contents of their consciousness |
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types of comparisons in people's thoughts
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Social: "I'm a better basketball player than Tom"
Counterfactual: "If I'd left earlier, I could have gotten here on time" Temporal-past: "I got more sleep when I was in high school" Temporal-future: "My sister is going to start making new friends" |
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consciousness study on the focus of thoughts
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• Researchers set out to determine how often people's thoughts focused on comparisons between their current reality and other possibilities
• 34 participants were signaled at seven random times daily for two weeks by handheld computers to report what they were thinking at the moment • Found that 12% of the participants' thoughts were comparisons • When participants' thoughts turned to changing the past (counterfactual comparisons) or contemplating the future (temporal-future comparisons), they were most often thoughts about how circumstances might have been or still could be better |
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uses of consciousness
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• The human mind may have evolved as a consequence of the extreme sociability of human ancestors, which was originally a group defense against predators and a means to exploit resources more efficiently
• Natural selection favored those who could think, plan, and imagine alternative realities that could promote both bonding with kin and victory over adversaries |
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consciousness in aiding survival
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• Conscious probably evolved because it helped individuals make sense of environmental information and use that information in planning the most appropriate and effective actions
• Consciousness reduces the flow of stimulus input by restricting what you notice and what you focus on • Consciousness helps you tune out much of the information that is not relevant to your immediate goals and purposes |
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selective storage
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• Not all of the information to which we constantly attend has continuing relevance to our ongoing concerns
• Consciousness allows you to selectively store and commit to memory information that you want to analyze, interpret, and act on in the future • Allows classification of events and experiences as relevant or irrelevant to personal needs by selecting some and ignoring others |
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consciousness in planning
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• Consciousness allows us to stop, think, and consider alternatives based on past knowledge and imagine various consequences
• This planning function enables us to suppress strong desires when they conflict with moral, ethical, or practical concerns |
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personal construction of reality
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• Your unique interpretation of a current situation based on your general knowledge, memories of past experiences, current needs, values, beliefs, and future goals
• Each person attends to certain features of the stimulus environment than others precisely because of this • If this remains relatively stable, your sense of self has continuity over time |
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cultural construction of reality
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Ways of thinking about the world that are shared by most members of a particular group of people
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conscious and unconscious processes in behavior and decision making
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• When participants were asked to decide whether to smother one's own baby in order to prevent enemy soldiers from finding and killing oneself, one's baby, and several others, their gut response (the product of unconscious processes) was that they could never smother their own child
• However, after deliberation, they often conclude that they must make the sacrifice to save the large number of individuals |
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conscious processes when unconscious processes are malfunctional
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• In a study, participants were asked to consider dilemmas in two different circumstances
• Participants read the dilemmas on a computer screen and indicated a "yes" or "no" judgement to a possible response • In the second condition, they simulataneously had to monitor a stream of numbers scrolling across the computer screen and press a button every time they saw the number 5 • It took them much longer to give the "yes" responses to the moral dilemmas that represented the use of conscious reasoning |
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circadian rhythm
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• A consistent pattern of cyclical body activities, usually lasting 24 to 25 hours and determined by an internal biological clock
• The human internal "pacemaker" establishes a 24.18 hour cycle but the exposure to sunlight each day helps make the small adjustment to a 24-hour cycle |
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circadian rhythm function in night shift workers
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• Individuals who work night shifts often experience both physical and cognitive difficulties because their circadian rhythms are disrupted
• Even after long periods of working this shift, individuals are often unable to adjust their circadian rhythms to overcome these negative effects • In a study of night shift workers, participants experienced several hours of bright light to help them make the transition to a night shift; the light treatment helped to reduce the negative impact of their attentional performance |
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jet lag
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• A condition that occurs when a person flies across time zones, with symptoms including fatigue, irresistible sleepiness, and subsequent unusual sleep-wake cycles
• Occurs because internal circadian rhythms are out of phase with the normal temporal environment • Traveling eastbound creates greater jet lag than traveling westbound because your biological clock can be more readily extended that shortened, as required on eastbound trips |
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melatonin
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• A hormone that acts in the brain to help regulate your cycles of waking and sleep
• Research suggests that people who take melatonin after long flights experience fewer sleep disruptions • Advice from various studies suggests that travelers should take melatonin at bedtime in their new time zone both on the day of the flight and for four or five subsequent days • Little evidence exists to suggest that melatonin helps with jet lag for short stopovers |
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rapid eye movements (REM)
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• A behavioral sign of the phase of sleep during which the sleeper is likely to be experiencing dreamlike mental activity
• EEG pattern during REM sleep resembles that of an awake person |
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electroencephalogram (EEG)
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• Study of sleep came about in 1937 with the application of this technology
• Provided an objective, ongoing measure of the way brain activity varies when people are awake or asleep • Researchers discovered that brain waves change in form at the onset of sleep and show further systematic, predictable changes during the entire sleep period |
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non-REM (NREM) sleep
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The period during which a sleeper does not show rapid eye movement; characterized by less dream activity than during REM sleep
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sleep spindles
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Minute bursts of electrical activity of 12 to 16 cycles per second, which show up during stage 2 of sleep
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EEG patterns reflecting the stages of a regular night's sleep
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• During the awake stage, brain waves appear to be irregular and fast, and brain activity is low voltage
• During the drowsy stage preceding sleep, alpha waves are seen, with 8 to 12 cps • During stage 1 of sleep, theta waves are seen at 3 to 7 cps • During stage two of sleep, sleep spindles and K complexes can be seen, at 12 to 14 cps • During stages 3 and 4 of sleep, delta waves of over 75 mV can be seen, at 1/2 to 2 cps • During REM sleep, brain activity is once again low voltage, and brain waves are random, and fast in a sawtooth formation |
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the stages of sleep
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• The first four stages of sleep after NREM sleep, and require about 90 minutes
• REM sleep lasts for about 10 minutes • Over a night, one passes through this 100-minute cycle four to six times • With each cycle, the amount of type spent in deep sleep (stages 3 and 4) decreases, and the amount of time spent in REM sleep increases • NREM sleep accounts for 75 to 80 percent of total sleep time, and REM sleep makes up about 20 to 25 percent of sleep time |
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patterns of human sleep with age
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• Start out sleeping for about 16 hours a day, with nearly half of the time spent in REM sleep
• By age 50, one may only sleep for 6 hours with about 15% of the time spent in REM sleep • Young adults typically sleep 7 to 8 hours, with about 20% REM sleep |
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sleep behaviors and life expectancy
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• One study followed healthy older adults from ages 60s to 80s to see if there was a relationship between these two factors
• It was found that people who had higher sleep efficiency (a measure based on the amount of time they were asleep divided by the amount of time they spent in bed) were likely to live longer |
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sleep for conservation
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• A general function of sleep may be conservation
• May have evolved because it enabled animals to conserve energy at times when there was no need to forage for food, search for mates, or work • Cycles of brain activity across a period of sleep may have evolved to help animals minimize the risk of predation -- some patterns of brain activity might allow animals to retain relatively greater awareness of activity in the environment even while they were asleep |
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sleep for consolidation
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• Sleep assists with the consolidation of new memories
• Consolidation is the physical process through which new, fragile memories become more permanently encoded in the brain |
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sleep effects in word test study
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• Participants' main task was to learn pairs of words
• Some participants were told that they would be given another test of the words nine hours later • For the rest of the participants, the memory test was unexpected • Some of the participants then when to sleep, while the rest stayed awake for nine hours • Participants did best when they both expected a memory test and when they went to sleep right after they had learned the word pairs • Without the warming, performance was inferior and roughly the same for participants who slept and those who stayed away • Without sleep, performance was inferior and roughly the same whether the test was expect or unexpected |
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sleep deprivation
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Has a range of negative effects on cognitive performance, including difficultly with attention and working memory as it impairs people's ability to perform motor skills
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insomnia
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• The chronic inability to sleep normally; symptoms include difficulty in falling asleep, frequent waking, inability to return to sleep, and early-morning awakening
• In one sample of 3,643 adults in the U.S., 52.5% reported that they had experienced insomnia at least once a month; 7% reported that they experienced insomnia almost every night • People with insomnia may be less able to banish intrusive thoughts and feelings from consciousness while they are trying to sleep |
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paradoxical insomnia
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• Some insomniacs who complain of lack of sleep actually show completely normal physiological patterns of sleep, in which it this condition is suspected
• 20 patients diagnosed with this condition and 20 individuals without any sleep disorders spent a night at a lab • The actual sleep of the two groups was similar: 447 minutes for the patients verses 464 minutes for the controls • Groups' subjective estimates of their amounts of sleep were vastly different: 285 minutes for the patients versus 461 minutes for the controls • Unusual patterns of sleep brain activity may explain discrepancy between reality and perceptions of patients |
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narcolepsy
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• A sleep disorder characterized by an irresistible compulsion to sleep during the daytime
• Often combined with cataplexy, muscle weakness or a loss of muscle control brought on by emotional excitement that causes the afflicted person to fall down suddenly • Sufferers enter REM almost immediately, which causes vivid dream images or sometimes terrifying hallucinations • Affects 1 in every 2,000 individuals; runs in families |
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sleep apnea
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• A sleep disorder of the upper respiratory system that causes the person to stop breathing while asleep
• Blood's oxygen level drops and emergency hormones are secreted, causing the sleeper to awaken and begin breathing again • Sleep apnea affects roughly 2% of women and 4% of men • Occurs frequently among premature infants |
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somnambulism
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• A disorder that causes sleepers to leave their beds and wander while still remaining asleep; also known as sleepwalking
• About 7% of children sleepwalk but only about 2% of adults do so • Associated with NREM sleep • When tested in a sleep laboratory, adult sleepwalkers demonstrated abrupt arousal involving movement or speech during stage 3 and stage 4 sleep in the first third of their night's sleep |
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nightmare
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• A frightening dream that usually wakes up the sleeper
• Most people report between 6 and 10 nightmares each year • Between childhood and older adulthood, women experience somewhat more nightmares than do men • Difference may be because women are more likely to recall their dreams • The peak time for nightmares is between the ages of 3 and 6 |
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sleep terrors (or night terrors)
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• Episodes in which sleepers wake up suddenly in an extreme state of arousal and panic
• Typically occur during NREM sleep in the first third of the night's sleep • Most people who experience them have no memory of the episodes • Greatest number occurring between ages 5 and 7 • Between the ages of 4 and 12, about 3% of children experience them • They occur in less than 1% of adults |
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dreams and the association with NREM & REM sleep
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• Individuals report more dreams when they are awakened from REM periods -- on about 82% of their awakenings
• Dreaming also takes place during NREM periods -- on about 54% of awakenings it is reported • Dreaming associated with NREM states is less likely to contain story content that is emotionally involving; it is more akin to daytime thought, with less sensory imagery |
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Freudian dream analysis
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• Freud called dreams "transient psychoses" and models of "everynight madness" as well as the "road to the unconscious"
• In his classical book The Interpretation of Dreams (1900/1965), suggested that all dreams are instances of wish-fullfillment • People's dreams allow them to express powerful unconscious wishes in disguised symbolic form • Appear in this form because they harbor forbidden desires, such as sexual yearning for the parent of the opposite sex • The two dynamic forces in dreams are the wish and the censorship, a defense against the wish • The censor transforms the hidden meaning (latent content) into the manifest content, which appears to the dream after a distortion process that Freud referred to as dream work • Dreams reveal the patient's unconscious wishes, the fears attached to those wishes, and the characteristic defenses the patient employs to handle the resulting psychic conflict between the wishes and the fears • Believed in both idiosyncratic (special to particular individuals) and universal meanings, many of a sexual nature • Hollow objects represented female genitalia, while complicated machinery represented male genitals |
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non-Western approaches to dream interpretation
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• Archur Indians of Ecuador: men share their dreams from the previous night, and it is their belief that dreams are for the community (individual experience serves collective action)
• Mayan Indians of Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras: shamans function as dream interpretors • People of Ingessana Hills, along the border of Ethiopia and Sudan: the timing of festivals is determined by dream visions, and the keepers of religious shrines are visited in their dreams by their fathers and other ancestors who instruct them to announce the festival • Kalapalo Indians of central Brazil: dream of being burnt by fire symbolizes future bite by wild creature, dream of making love to a woman symbolizes success with fishing, dream of boy in seclusion who wants to climb a tall tree symbolizes long life |
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activation-synthesis model
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• Suggests that signals emerged from the brain stem that produce random memories and connections with the dreamer's past experiences
• There are no logical connections, no intrinsic meaning, and no coherent patterns to these random bursts of electrical signals |
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research on dreams
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• Evidence suggests that dreams emerge from the same basic processes that are at work during waking experiences of daydreaming and mind wandering
• The hippocampus (critical to acquisition of memory) is active during REM sleep • Amygdala is also active during REM sleep and plays a role in emotional memories • One of the functions of sleep is to draw together "an individual's recent experiences of the past few days along with their goals, desires, and problems" • Dreams reflect the brain's attempt to weave a narrative around the recent fragments of a person's life |
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dream-lag effect
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The phenomenon that dreams are more likely to include memory elements from the period five to seven days before the dream rather than two to four days before the dream
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lucid dreaming
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• The theory that conscious awareness of dreaming is a learnable skill that enables dreamers to control the direction and content of their dreams
• In some research, sleepers wear special goggles that flash a red light when they detect REM sleep; participants have learned that red light is a cue for being aware that they are dreaming, and then sleepers move into a state of lucid dreaming in which they can take control of their dreams, directing them according to personal goals and making the dreams' outcomes fit their current needs |
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morning and evening chronotypes
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• Research suggests that people can be sorted into chronotypes according to their preferred patterns of sleep and wakefulness
• In one study, thousands of European adults asked what sleep pattern they followed when not required to go to work; average bedtime was just after midnight and average wake time was at about 8:20AM • Across adulthood, people's preferences tend to switch toward morning, but those originally preferring evening will rise later than their peers |
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peak times with chronotypes
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• People with different chronotypes often peak at different times of day
• One study involving 40 adolescents from 11 to 14 asked participants to complete items from a standard intelligent tests at either their optimal or nonoptimal time of day • People who were tested at their preferred time scored an average of 6 points higher on the intelligence measure |
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sociability with chronotypes
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• Morning-type students emerged in studies as more socially competent with fewer reports of attention problems and aggressive behaviors than their evening-type peers
• Evening-type students may suffer from a "social jet-lag" • Evening-types are routinely made to perform at times of day that are out of sync with their personal rhythms, and so the lack of synchrony has a negative impact on achievement and behavior |
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hypnosis
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• An altered state of awareness characterized by deep relaxation, susceptibility to suggestions, and changes in perception, memory, motivation, and self-control
• Research has ruled out that hypnosis involves a special trancelike state |
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hypnotic induction
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A preliminary act set of activities that minimizes external distractions and encourages participants to concentrate only on suggested stimuli and believe that they are about to enter a special state of consciousness; involves suggestions to imagine certain experiences or visualize events and reactions
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hypnotizability
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• The degree to which an individual is responsive to standardized hypnotic suggestion
• A relatively stable attribute; wen 50 men and 25 women were retested 25 years after their college hypnotizability assessment, the results indicated a correlation coefficient of 0.71 • Hypnotic responsiveness peaks just before adolescence and declines thereafter • Highly hypnotizable people are not more likely to be gullible or conformist • Hypnotizability scores of identical twims more similar than are those of fraternal twins |
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absorption
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A personality trait described as an individual's "predisposition to become highly involved in imaginative or sensory experiences;" personality train with the highest positive correlation with hypnotizability
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COMT
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A gene that influences the brain's use of the neurotransmitter dopamine; variations in the gene related to differences in hypnotizability
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effects of hypnosis
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Individuals respond to suggestions about motor abilities (ex. their arms becoming unbendable) and perceptual experiences (ex. hallucination of a fly)
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effectiveness of hypnosis versus relaxation training
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• Researchers recruited a group of women who were suffering from temporomandibular disorders that affect the jaw
• Half of the women assigned to hypnosis group; they experienced four one-hour hypnosis sessions in which they engaged in a series of activities including the post-hypnotic suggestion to forget about the pain • The control group women experienced four one-hour sessions as well, with a focus on relaxation techniques, and were told that their treatment was a type of hypnotic intervention • Participants provided self reports of pain three times a day for seven days before and seven days after the treatments • The hypnosis group reported consistent reduction in pain after the treatment; the control group showed no changes |
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pain control with hypnosis
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Accomplished through a number of techniques including imagining the part of the body in pain as nonorganic (made of wood or plastic) or as separate from the rest of the body
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relationship between hypnotizability levels and pain relief
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• People who are high in hypnotizability are able to obtain greater pain relief through hypnosis
• Brain-imaging study demonstrated that people who were higher in hypnotizability also had larger regions at the front of the corpus callosum which plays a role in attention and the inhibition of unwanted stimuli • Suggests that people who are highly hypnotizable may have more brain tissue that allows them to use hypnosis to inhibit pain |
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the role of the hypnotist
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• Hypnotist does not have any special ability or skill
• The experience of being hypnotized allows an individual to learn new ways to exercise control that the hypnotist as a coach can train the subject as a performer to enact |
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meditation
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A form of consciousness alteration designed to enhance self-knowledge and well being through reduced self awareness
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concentrative meditation
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In this form of meditation, a person focuses on and regulates breathing, assumes certain body positions (yogic positions), minimizes external stimulation, generates specific mental images, or frees the mind of all thought
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mindfullness meditation
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In this form of meditation, a person learns to let thoughts and memories pass freely through the mind without reacting to them
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mindfulness-based stress reduction
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• In one study, women suffering from heart disease were given eight weeks of training on mindfulness meditation
• At the end of the intervention, the women reported lower feelings of anxiety than they did before the study • Women in the control group did not experience improvement in their anxiety reports • Evidence that the mind can help to heal the body because feelings of anxiety play a role in the development of heart disease |
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the impact of meditation on the brain
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• Researchers provided eight weeks of mindfullness-based stress reduction training (MBSR) to 17 women
• Connections among brain regions examined using functional connectivity MRI (fcMRI) which accesses networks of brain activity • Brains of MBSR group were compared to those of 15 women who had not yet undergone the training but later received it • fcMRI scans revealed enhanced connectivity in the brains of the women who experienced the MBSR training • Speculated that the short course of the MBSR training produced "enhanced sensory processing, better attentional resource allocation, and a more consistent attentional focus" |
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the impact of medidation with age
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• Meditation training might slow the loss of neurons that often accompanies aging
• One study compared 13 individuals with three or more years of experience at Zen meditation with 13 control participants who were matched for age, sex, and educational level • Negative correlation existed among the control participants, such that older participants had the least brain volume • Participants who meditated regularly had no such decline with age` |
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the history of mind-altering drugs
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• Uninterrupted use of sophora seed (mescal bean) for over 10,000 years occurred in southwestern United State and Mexico
• Ancient Aztects fermented mescal beans into a beer • From ancient times, people of N. & S. America also ingested teonanacatl, the Psilocybe mushroom known as "the flesh of the gods," as parts of rituals; these mushrooms in small doses produce vivid hallucinations |
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William James's experience with mind-altering drugs
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• Over 100 years ago, reported on experiments with mind-altering drugs
• After inhaling nitrous oxide, James explained that "the keynote of the experience is the tremendously exciting sense of intense metaphysical illumination...mind sees all the logical relations of being with an apparent subtlety and instantaneity to which its normal consciousness offer no parallel..." |
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psychoactive drug
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• Chemical that affects mental processes and behavior by temporarily changing conscious awareness of reality
• Once in the brain, they attach themselves to synaptic receptors, blocking or stimulating certain reactions |
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recreational use of psychoactive drugs
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• In a 2009 survey of U.S. citizens, with nearly 68,700 respondents age 12 and older, 8.7% reported using one or more illicit drugs during the past month
• The rate was much higher for people in their late teen years -- 16.7% of 16- to 17-year-olds and 22.2% of 18- to 20-year-olds reported some type of illicit drug use • 51.9% of individuals in the sample consumed alcohol sometime in the month before the survey, and 27.7% smoked cigarettes |
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tolerance
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• A situation that occurs with continued use of a drug in which an individual requires greater dosages to achieve the same effect
• Repeated episodes of drug use conditions the brain to produce responses that push back against the drug's effects • Because the body pushes back, people require increasingly greater dosages for the drug to have the same impact |
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physiological dependence
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• The process by which the body becomes adjusted to or dependent on a drug
• Occurs in part because neurotransmitters are depleted by the frequent presence of the drug |
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psychological dependence
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The psychological need or craving for a drug
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addiction
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A condition in which the body requires a drug in order to function without physical and psychological reactions to its absence; often the outcome of tolerance and dependence
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hallucinogens
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• Drugs that alter cognitions and perceptions and cause hallucinations
• Includes LSD with no medical uses • Includes PCP (phencyclidine) used as a veterinary anesthetic • Includes cannabis (marijuana) used for nausea associated with chemotherapy • Typically act in the brain by affecting the use of the chemical neurotransmitter serotonin (ex. LSD binds very tightly to serotonin receptors so that neurons produce prolonged activation) |
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cannabis
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• Active ingredient is TCH, found in both hashish (solidified resin of the plant) and marijuana (the dried leaves and flowers of the plant)
• Regular uses report euphoria, feelings of well-being, distortions of space and time, and occasionally, out-of-body experiences • Effects may also be negative: fear, anxiety, and confusion |
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cannabinoids
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Active chemicals in marijuana which bind to specific receptors in the brain -- these cannabinoid receptors are common in the hippocampus
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endogenous cannabinoids
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• First to be discovered was anandamide
• Endocannabinoids function as neuromodulators (ex. they control the release of the neurotransmitter GABA in the hippocampus) |
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opiates (narcotics)
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• Includes morphine which is used as a painkiller medically
• Includes heroin which has no medical uses • Suppress physical sensation and response to stimulation • Drugs like opium and morphine bind to the same receptor sites in the brain as endorphines |
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depressants
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• Drugs that depress or slow down the activity of the central nervous system by inhibiting or decreasing transmission of nerve impulses
• Facilitate neural communication at synapses that use the neurotransmitter GABA • Includes barbiturates which are used as sedatives, sleeping pills, anesthetics, and anticonvulsants in medicine • Includes benzodiazepines which are used as antianxiety medications, sedatives, sleeping pills, and convulsants in medicine • Includes rohypnol which is used as a sleeping pill in medicine • Includes GHB which is used as a treatment for narcolepsy medically • Includes alcohol which is used as an antiseptic medically • Rohypnol and GHB commonly used as date rape drugs and can be manufactured as colorless liquids so that they go undetected in drinks; rohypnol causes amnesia so that occurrence of the rape is not recalled |
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stimulants
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• Effects include increased self-confidence, greater energy and hyperaltertness, and mood alterations approaching euphoria
• Achieve their effects by increasing the brain levels of neurotransmitters such as norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine (ex. act in the brain to prevent the action of molecules that ordinarily remove dopamine from synapses) • Serious addiction arises because of long-term changes in the neurotransmitter systems • Includes amphetamines which are used for hyperkinesis, narcolepsy, and weight control in medicine • Includes methamphetamines for which these is no medical use • Includes MDMA (ecstasy) which is used as a potential aid to psychotherapy medically • Includes cocaine which is a local anesthetic • Includes nicotine which is found in nicotine gum for cessation or smoking habits • Includes caffeine which is used for weight control, as a stimulant in acute respiratory failure, and as an analgesic |
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alcohol
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• One of the first psychoactive substances (depressant) used extensively by early humans
• Appears to stimulate the release of dopamine, and affects GABA activity • At small dosages, alcohol can induce relaxation and slightly improve an adult's speed of reaction • However, the body can break down alcohol only at a slow rate, and large dosages may overtax the central nervous system • As the concentration of alcohol increases to 0.05 to 0.10 percent, cognitive, perceptual, and motor processes begin to rapidly deteriorate • When the level of alcohol in the blood reaches 0.15 percent, there are gross negative effects on thinking, memory, and judgement along with emotion instability and loss of motor coordination |
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excess alcohol consumption in the United States
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• 13.7% of 18- to 25-year-olds reported heavy drinking (drinking five or more drivkings ont he same occasion on each of five or more days in a one month period)
• Among 18- to 22-year-olds attending college, the rate of heavy drinking is 16.0% • For those not attending college, the comparable rate is 11.7% |
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effects of alcohol consumption on driving ability
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• Alcohol-related automobile accidents are a leading cause of death among people between the ages of 15 and 25
• In one study, people under the influence of alcohol were found to drive particularly poorly in which there existed a conflict between good and bad impulses • Participants' driving was considerably worse after alcohol consumption on measures such as failures to stop at red lights and abrupt steering maneuvers • Researchers offered participants cash rewards for reaching their destinations quickly, but they lost money if they drove poorly; their bad impulses dramatically won out |
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weed and "the munchies"
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• Observations about marijuana's effects on hunger go back at least to 300 A.D. when texts in India recommended that it be used to stimulate the appetite
• Endocannabinoids play a role in reward systems in the brain so they have the particular effect of making people seek foods that are tasty or sweet • Researchers believe that drugs targeting the endocannabinoid system may provide successful treatments for both pain and addiction |
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rimonobant
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• Blocks the brain's cannabinoid receptors from carrying out their normal functions
• In one double-blind study, 1,036 overweight and obese individuals were given either a low or high dose of the drug or a place • Participants in the placebo group lost about 5 pounds over the year long study, with low-dose participants losing about 9 pounds, and high-dose participants losing about 19 pounds • High-dose participants took 3.6 inches off their waists, lose-dose participants took 1.9 inches off their waists, and placebo participants took 1.5 inches off their waists |
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methamphetamine
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• From 1993 to 2003, admissions to facilities for the treatment of addiction to this drug increase by 400%
• Rate of use has varied between 0.1 and 0.3% of the U.S. population for the time period between 2006 and 2009 • Effects of the drug include euphoria, decreased anxiety, and intense sexual craving as a result of the drug's impact on the brain's use of dopamine • After only days or weeks of continuous use, users develop frightening hallucinations and the beliefs that others are out to harm them • Chronic use causes damage in the brain, including the loss of nerve terminals in the dopamine system • Damage to the brain regions involved in decision making and planning may explain why users become overly aggressive and antisocial |
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MDMA (ecstacy)
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• A stimulant that also produces hallucinogen-like distortions of time and perception
• Gives users feelings of boundless energy; the hallucinogenic properties make sounds, colors, and emotions more intense • Alters the functioning of neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotinin, and norepinephrine |
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nicotine
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• A sufficiently strong stimulant to have been used in high concentrations by Native American shamans to attain mystical states or trances
• Mimics natural chemicals released by the brain • Have their effect on brain circuits that make you feel good whenever you have achieved a rewarding goal; ordinarily these brain circuits help to aid survival |
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weed for medical & recreational use legal in states of (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Colorado
• Washington |
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Dravet syndrome (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Also known as Severe Myoclonic Epilepsy of Infancy (SMEI)
• A rare and catastrophic form of intractable epilepsy that begins in infancy. Initial seizures are most often prolonged events and in the second year of life other seizure types begin to emerge • The first seizures usually start before the age of 1 • In the second year, other seizures take hold: myoclonus, or involuntary, muscle spasms and status epilepticus, seizures that last more than 30 minutes or come in clusters, one after the other |
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"Mexican" marijuana in the 1930's (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• In the early 1900s, the western states developed significant tensions regarding the influx of Mexican-Americans
• The revolution in Mexico in 1910 spilled over the border, with General Pershing’s army clashing with bandit Pancho Villa • Later in that decade, bad feelings developed between the small farmer and the large farms that used cheaper Mexican labor • Then, the depression came and increased tensions, as jobs and welfare resources became scarce • One of the "differences" seized upon during this time was the fact that many Mexicans smoked marijuana and had brought the plant with them, and it was through this that California apparently passed the first state marijuana law, outlawing "preparations of hemp, or loco weed" |
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Reefer Madness (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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A 1936-1939 American propaganda exploitation film revolving around the melodramatic events that ensue when high school students are lured by pushers to try marijuana -- from a hit and run accident, to manslaughter, suicide, attempted rape, and descent into madness
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marijuana in the 1970's (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Congress passes the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) as part of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970
• This law establishes a "singles system of control for both narcotic and psychotropic drugs for the first time in US history" • The CSA creates five schedules to classify substances • Marijuana is placed in Schedule I, which are drugs "classified as having a high potential for abuse, no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, and a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision" |
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Charlotte Figi (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Daughter of Matt and Paige Figi, and sister to a twin (born on October 18, 2006)
• First time seizing, doctors "did a million-dollar work-up -- the MRI, EEG, spinal tap -- they did the whole work-up and found nothing" • Came to a point where she was experiencing 300 seizures a week • Later diagnosed with worst case scenario, Dravet Syndrome |
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cannabidiol (CBD) in marijuana and its effects (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• The main component of the glandular hairs (up to 15%), a non-psychoactive cannabinoid
• Exerts a plethora of pharmacological effects, including anti-convulsive, sedative, hypnotic, anti-psychotic, anti-nausea and anti-inflammatory actions • A potent antioxidant compound that has been recently proposed to have a neuroprotective role |
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"Garden of Eden" (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Owned by Stanley Brothers of Teller County, some of Colorado’s biggest growers and dispensary owners
• Located at an undisclosed mountain location • Gupta tells us the Stanleys grow 600 lbs a year for dispensaries • Place in which cannabis with 21% CBD and less than 1% TCH was grown, taking years to complete • Named CBD-rich strain "Charlotte’s Web" -- more than 41 children using this strain for serizure reduction |
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the Figis' story (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Dad, deployed to Afghanistan, researched epilepsy treatments on the web and came across the
"WeedWars" segment in which a father reports to Andrew DeAngelo of Harborside Health Center that the CBD-rich herbal extract is working -- his son’s seizures have been dramatically reduced • The Figis buy $800 worth of CBD-rich Cannabis at a dispensary and a friend helps them extract the medicine for under-the-tongue application to Charlotte • Her seizures go down to one-a-week and she begins recovering • As the parents are running out of medicine they are introduced to the Stanley Brothers, six clean-cut young men, who own marijuana dispenseries |
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Chaz Moore (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Uses many different strains of marijuana, many of them high in CBD to treat his rare disorder of the diaphragm known as myoclonus diaphragmatic flutter
• Condition becomes painful if it lasts for 15 minutes or more; relief (with marijuana) comes in less than a minute, and the muscle that had been fluttering is relaxed and normal • Driving appears to be completely normal, showing that heavy users tend to be unimpaired by their daily dose |
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a view of weed by Dr. Carl Hart of Columbia University (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Says the effects he has observed include "disruption in memory, disruptions in inhibitory control...slower at cognitive functioning...effects are temporary, but they’re pretty pronounced"
• Effect on driving: "may prematurely hit your brakes...may prematurely hit the gas pedal...may make a turn without looking more carefully" • Deems it very important for planning, thinking, coordinating your behaviors • Feels that marijuana, particularly in the novice, can disrupt all of those behaviors • Says that when you test people who have a lot of experience with cannabis, you don’t see many disruptions, but if you test people who have sort of limited history with cannabis, you can see some clear pronounced disruptions |
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Mahmoud ElSohly (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Has named one of his several business operations "the Marijuana Potency Project"
• Has a lucrative contract from the DEA to test samples of confiscated weed and another from NIDA to grow marijuana for those few U.S, researchers whose proposals for clinical trials get approved |
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Harry Anslinger (1892 - 1975) (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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Held office as the assistant prohibition commissioner in the Bureau of Prohibition, before being appointed as the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotic in 1930 (a position he held until 1962)
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Israel's Ministry of Health (Dr. Sanjay Gupta's CNN Special "WEED")
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• Pioneered marijuana research
• Were the first to isolate THC and CBD decades ago • Licensed 10,000 patients to use marijuana medicinally and has approved more than a dozen studies to treat illnesses like PTSD, pain, Crohn’s Disease, even cancer |
