The contents of consciousness during sleep: Some theoretical problems

2000 ◽  
Vol 23 (6) ◽  
pp. 995-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antti Revonsuo
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Memory Functions ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Global States

The approach of Hobson et al. is limited to the description of global states of consciousness, although more detailed analyses of the specific contents of consciousness would also be required. Furthermore, their account of the mind-brain relationship remains obscure. Nielsen's discussion suffers from conceptual and definitional unclarity. Mentation during sleep could be clarified by reconceptualizing it as an issue about the contents of consciousness. Vertes & Eastman do not consider the types of memory (emotional) and learning (implicit) that are relevant during REM sleep, and therefore dismiss on inadequate grounds the possibility of memory functions associated with REM sleep.[Hobson et al.; Nielsen; Vertes & Eastman]

scholarly journals Consciousness: The last 50 years (and the next)

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 239821281881601 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anil K. Seth
Keyword(s):  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Neuronal Mechanisms ◽  
Brain Sciences ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Third Person ◽  
Mind And Brain ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Global States

The mind and brain sciences began with consciousness as a central concern. But for much of the 20th century, ideological and methodological concerns relegated its empirical study to the margins. Since the 1990s, studying consciousness has regained a legitimacy and momentum befitting its status as the primary feature of our mental lives. Nowadays, consciousness science encompasses a rich interdisciplinary mixture drawing together philosophical, theoretical, computational, experimental, and clinical perspectives, with neuroscience its central discipline. Researchers have learned a great deal about the neural mechanisms underlying global states of consciousness, distinctions between conscious and unconscious perception, and self-consciousness. Further progress will depend on specifying closer explanatory mappings between (first-person subjective) phenomenological descriptions and (third-person objective) descriptions of (embodied and embedded) neuronal mechanisms. Such progress will help reframe our understanding of our place in nature and accelerate clinical approaches to a wide range of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Opioids cause dissociated states of consciousness in C57BL/6J mice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher B O'Brien ◽  
Clarence E Locklear ◽  
Zachary T Glovak ◽  
Diana Zebadúa Unzaga ◽  
Helen A Baghdoyan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Neuronal Excitability ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Temporal Organization ◽  
Saline Control ◽  
Organization Of Sleep ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Surgical Recovery ◽  
Eeg Power ◽  
Electroencephalogram Eeg

The electroencephalogram (EEG) provides an objective, neural correlate of consciousness. Opioid receptors modulate mammalian neuronal excitability, and this fact was used to characterize how opioids administered to mice alter EEG power and states of consciousness. The present study tested the hypothesis that antinociceptive doses of fentanyl, morphine, or buprenorphine differentially alter the EEG and states of sleep and wakefulness in adult, male C57BL/6J mice. Mice were anesthetized and implanted with telemeters that enabled wireless recordings of cortical EEG and electromyogram (EMG). After surgical recovery, EEG and EMG were used to objectively score states of consciousness as wakefulness, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, or non-REM (NREM) sleep. Measures of EEG power (dB) were quantified as delta (0.5 to 4 Hz), theta (4 to 8 Hz), alpha (8 to 13 Hz), sigma (12 to 15 Hz), beta (13 to 30 Hz), and gamma (30 to 60 Hz). Compared to saline (control), fentanyl and morphine decreased NREM sleep, morphine eliminated REM sleep, and buprenorphine eliminated NREM sleep and REM sleep. Opioids significantly and differentially disrupted the temporal organization of sleep/wake states, altered specific EEG frequency bands, and caused dissociated states of consciousness. The results are discussed relative to the fact that opioids, pain, and sleep modulate interacting states of consciousness.

Hinduism and Counseling

2019 ◽  
pp. 211-222
Author(s):  
Devi Venashinee Muruges
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Mental Health Practitioners ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Indian Psychology ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
The Mind

Indian psychology lays enormous importance on the research of religious experiences and the expansion of approaches by which to accomplish them. In addition to that, it also provides understanding of the different states of consciousness. Hence, it is undeniable that Indian psychology will be able to make a definite therapeutic contribution to many psychological problems. For mental health practitioners dealing with Hinduism, there are teachings within various texts that directly strengthen counseling and mental services. Some of the examples include perceiving the conscious and the unconsciousness aspects of the mind, utilizing meditation to support people with mental health issues, yoga exercises to curb anxiety and stress, and many others. Therefore, this chapter intends to elucidate the application of Hinduism in therapy.

Hallucinogens: Magic Mushrooms, Ayahuasca, Mescal Buttons, and Dr. Hofmann’s Problem Child

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerrold Winter
Keyword(s):  
Daily Life ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
University Of Berlin ◽  
The One ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The University ◽  
Paranoid Psychosis ◽  
Unusual Problem

There are about 400,000 species of plants in this world. Only a small fraction, perhaps 100 in number, contain hallucinogenic chemicals. Nearly a century ago, Lewis Lewin, professor of pharmacology at the University of Berlin, in speaking of drugs he called phantasticants, said “The passionate desire which . . . leads man to flee from the monotony of daily life . . . has made him discover strange substances (which) have been integral to human evolution both societal and cultural for thousands of years.” An unusual problem presents itself to me in writing about these drugs: They straddle the worlds of science and mysticism. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines mysticism as the practice of religious ecstasies (religious experiences during alternate states of consciousness), together with whatever ideologies, ethics, rites, myths, legends, and magic may be related to them. Science I am comfortable with; mysticism not so much. Yet in our exploration of the agents found in this chapter, we will encounter many persons speaking of drug-induced mystical experiences. I have attempted to get around my unease by first providing the history and the pharmacology of these agents and then touching only lightly on mysticism, allowing readers to draw their own conclusions. What shall we call these chemicals? Hallucinogen, a substance that induces perception of objects with no reality, is the term most commonly encountered and the one that I have settled on for the title of this chapter. However, it comes with a caveat. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD, our prototypic hallucinogen, has pointed out that a true hallucination has the force of reality, but the effects of LSD only rarely include this feature. Two additional terms that we will find useful are psychotomimetic and psychedelic. We have already considered the former, an ability to mimic psychosis, in our discussion of amphetamine-induced paranoid psychosis in chapter 4 and the effects of phencyclidine in chapter 6. A psychedelic was defined in 1957 by Humphrey Osmond, inventor of the word, as a drug like LSD “which enriches the mind and enlarges the vision.”

Negative pressure-induced deformation of the upper airway causes central apnea in awake and sleeping dogs

1996 ◽  
Vol 80 (5) ◽  
pp. 1528-1539 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. A. Harms ◽  
Y. J. Zeng ◽  
C. A. Smith ◽  
E. H. Vidruk ◽  
J. A. Dempsey
Keyword(s):  
Eye Movement ◽  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Negative Pressure ◽  
Upper Airway ◽  
Nrem Sleep ◽  
Electromyographic Activity ◽  
Rapid Eye Movement ◽  
Topical Anesthetic ◽  
Control Value ◽  
States Of Consciousness

We investigated the effects of negative pressure (NP) in the isolated upper airway (UA) in three unanesthetized dogs. The UA was isolated, and the dogs breathed through an endotracheal tube while wearing a fitted fiberglass snout mask. NP (-2 to -32 cmH2O) was applied in a square wave below the larynx or at the snout at end expiration and was held until inspiratory effort during wakefulness, non-rapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep, and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. During all states of consciousness, NP applied to the UA prolonged expiratory time (TE) 1) below a threshold of -8 to -10 cmH2O, which coincided with closure of the oro- and/or velopharynx; and 2) in a progressive fashion at more negative pressures than threshold, up to a mean apneic length of 324% of the control value (or 13.9 s) at -30 cmH2O. TE prolongation was less during REM sleep at a given NP (P < 0.05). Augmented tonic genioglossal electromyographic activity also occurred with the applied NP during wakefulness and NREM sleep but not with REM sleep. NP (-20 to -32 cmH2O) applied as a brief pulse (300-500 ms) during NREM sleep caused transient airway occlusion, terminated the breath during inspiration, and prolonged TE when applied at end expiration. Central apneas always persisted beyond the termination of the UA closure. TE prolongation in response to NP persisted in the presence of a topical anesthetic nebulized through the UA sufficient to abolish the laryngeal gag reflexes. We conclude that UA closure and deformation will cause significant TE prolongation during all states of consciousness and activation of the genioglossus muscle during wakefulness and NREM sleep but not during REM sleep.

Body-Mind Dissociation, Altered States, and Alter Worlds

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (5) ◽  
pp. 769-806
Author(s):  
Peter Goldberg
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
The Body ◽  
Altered States Of Consciousness ◽  
Altered States ◽  
States Of Mind ◽  
Body Experience ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Life Of The Mind ◽  
The Mind

A psychosomatic model of dissociation is proposed that addresses the ever adjusting mind-body relation—the constant titration of the quality and degree of the psyche’s embeddedness in the sensorial and temporal life of the body. The model highlights the function of hypnoid mechanisms (autohypnosis, distraction, somatic autostimulation) and of altered states of consciousness in facilitating and masking the work of mind-body dissociation. Transient altered states, which enable new and creative forms of mind-body experience in everyday life and in the therapy situation, are contrasted with pathological forms of retreat into alter worlds—rigidly organized, timeless, often inescapable trancelike states of mind-body dislocation. These pathological dissociative structures reshape the life of the mind and of the body, requiring new clinical approaches to these phenomena.

Hinduism and Counseling

2021 ◽  
pp. 567-578
Author(s):  
Devi Venashinee Muruges
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Mental Health Practitioners ◽  
Religious Experiences ◽  
Health Issues ◽  
Indian Psychology ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Mental Health Issues ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
The Mind

Indian psychology lays enormous importance on the research of religious experiences and the expansion of approaches by which to accomplish them. In addition to that, it also provides understanding of the different states of consciousness. Hence, it is undeniable that Indian psychology will be able to make a definite therapeutic contribution to many psychological problems. For mental health practitioners dealing with Hinduism, there are teachings within various texts that directly strengthen counseling and mental services. Some of the examples include perceiving the conscious and the unconsciousness aspects of the mind, utilizing meditation to support people with mental health issues, yoga exercises to curb anxiety and stress, and many others. Therefore, this chapter intends to elucidate the application of Hinduism in therapy.

scholarly journals The Mind in REM Sleep: Reports of Emotional Experience

SLEEP ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roar Fosse ◽  
Robert Stickgold ◽  
J. Allan Hobson
Keyword(s):  
Rem Sleep ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
The Mind

scholarly journals Mapping Meditative States and Stages with Electrophysiology: Concepts, Classifications, and Methods

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Poppy Schoenberg ◽  
David R Vago
Keyword(s):  
Structure And Function ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
Biological Structure ◽  
Contemplative Practices ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
Neurobiological Substrates ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Mind ◽  
The Brain

Exploration of human consciousness remains a final frontier within basic neuroscience; that is, how the finite biological structure and function of the brain gives rise to the seemingly infinite expanse that encompasses the terrain of the mind. Contemporary mindfulness and other contemplative practices across historical and post-modern traditions involve systematic forms of mental training that allow the practitioner to develop the mind in very specific and quantifiable ways. Some fundamental questions pertain to this scientific enquiry; (1) how to concisely classify discrete and developmentally-specific “mind states” of consciousness that are in line with the subtle complex phenomenology of experience so to yield ontological quantifications? (2) what measures best represent such classification/quantification systems? (3) can the present electrophysiological purview map developmentally-specified mind states and stages to neurobiological substrates, based on extant contention (i.e. discrete EEG band functionality, phenomenological significance, and underlying mechanisms) regarding the interpretation of EEG physiology?

Samādhi in the Yoga Sūtras

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin F. Bryant
Keyword(s):  
Basic Principle ◽  
Generic Model ◽  
Everyday Experience ◽  
Contemplative Practices ◽  
Yoga Sutras ◽  
States Of Consciousness ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Mind

The Indic Traditions have a rich two and a half millennia long variegated history of meditational and contemplative practices. Patañjali’s systematization of these techniques, as expressed in the Yoga Sūtras, eventually emerged as the recognized and generic model of meditative praxis for the Yoga traditions, and it was accommodated within the theologies and metaphysics of the heterogeneous sects. The basic principle of yoga practice lies in stilling the mind. From there, the yogī goes through various states of consciousness that lie beyond everyday experience. Patañjali presents a highly schematized version of this development, gradually moving from gross to subtle awareness, and eventually to a state in which consciousness is detached from all objects, including the mind itself, and becomes purely self-aware. This essay examines the seven ultimate states of consciousness that culminate from progressive stages of meditative focus outlined in this text.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document