PSYA01H3 Chapter 5: CH.5 note .docx
Document Summary
Consciousness- a person"s subjective awareness, including thoughts, perceptions, experiences of the world, and self-awareness. Circadian rhythms ( yearly cycle)- internally driven daily cycles of approximately 24 hours affecting physiological and behavioural processes. Regulated by daylight interacting with our nervous and endocrine (hormonal) system. Communicates signals about light levels with the pineal gland pineal gland- releases a hormone- melatonin. Which peaks in concentration at nighttime and is reduced during wakefulness. People actually do show higher alertness and cognitive functioning during their preferred time of day. Polysomnography- a set of objective measurements used to examine physiological variables during sleep. Electrical sensors attached to the skin measure muscle activity around the eyes and other parts of the body. => beta waves high frequency, low-amplitude waves => characteristic of wakefulness. Irregular nature- the bursts of activity in different regions of the cortex = sign of alert. => alpha waves- slow frequency, high-amplitude waves=> sign of sleep, daydreaming, meditating.
