PSY-1 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Circadian Rhythm, Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, Chronobiology
Document Summary
Consciousness is the basic awareness of both internal and external stimuli. Internal awareness can range from feelings of hunger or pain to even thoughts and emotions. External stimuli are generally more physical and include detection of light, the feeling of temperature, or even listening during a conversation. As humans, we experience various states of consciousness and our levels of awareness differ in many case. To demonstrate these differences, you can imagine times of being sleepy in comparison to being fully alert and awake. Throughout these changes, homeostasis, or the tendency towards equilibrium within our biological system, is maintained. A sense of time is maintained i the part of the hypothalamus known as the suprachiasmatic nucleus and acts as a clock of a sorts within the brain. Despite continued maintaining of equilibrium between states; various instances, like sleep deprivation, can throw off our circadian rhythms.
