By the end of this section, you will be able to:Understand what is meant by consciousnessExplain how circadian rhythms are involved in regulating the sleep-wake cycle, and how circadian cycles can be disruptedDiscuss the concept of sleep debt
Students learn about psychology, beginning with a brief history of psychologists and their experimental methods. They then examine psychological concepts, such as personality theories, human development, and consciousness, including sleep, dreams, and psychoactive substances. Students also investigate social psychology and psychological disorders. They demonstrate their understanding by completing projects in which they play roles like teacher, parent, and psychologist.
This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:
"How humans lose consciousness under anesthesia is a bit of a mystery, but that’s especially true in the case of young infants. Scientists have known that in adults, fast alpha-wave frequencies in the electroencephalogram, or EEG, appear when someone undergoes anesthesia and loses consciousness. But that doesn’t happen in infants younger than about 4 months. So, how do young infants lose consciousness? Because awake infants do show slow delta-wave frequencies, a team at the University of Cambridge and Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital decided to investigate those waves. Now, in a new article in the journal Anesthesiology, the researchers report that infants lost slow-wave synchronization—or “functional connectivity”—between the frontal and parietal regions of their brains when they underwent anesthesia. There is evidence that during anesthesia, the adult brain reorganizes itself into a less complex configuration with more segregation between functional systems..."
The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.
No matter what you’re doing--solving homework, playing a video game, simply picking out a shirt--all of your actions and decisions relate to your consciousness. But as frequently as we use it, have you ever stopped to ask yourself: What really is consciousness? In this module, we discuss the different levels of consciousness and how they can affect your behavior in a variety of situations. As well, we explore the role of consciousness in other, “altered” states like hypnosis and sleep.