PSY 2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Reticular Formation, Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, Prefrontal Cortex
Document Summary
Awareness of external events and internal sensations (fringe of consciousness: metacognition thinking about your thoughts. Involve cerebral cortex association areas & frontal lobes. Movement-to-movement awareness of ourselves and our environment. Arousal: physiological state of being engaged with the environment, determined by reticular activating system. Awareness and arousal, are associated with different parts of the brain. Area of the prefrontal cortex appear to be involved in the ways that awareness goes beyond the input of sensory information. Arousal is determined by the reticular activating system. Individuals" understanding that they and others think, feel, perceive, and have private experiences (deficit in autism) Sleep: a natural state of rest for the body and mind that involves the reversible loss of consciousness. Biological rhythms: periodic physiological fluctuations in body, biological clocks . Circadium rhythms: daily behavioral or physiological cycle, sleep/wake, body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar. Suprachiasmatic nucleus (scn: small brain structure using retinal input to synchronize its rhythm with daily light/dark cycle.
