Sleep Prefrontal Theta

The theory of flashbulb memory was suggested by Brown and Kulik. Flashbulb memory is a special kind of emotional memory, which refers to vivid and detailed memories of highly emotional events that paper in the brain as though with the help of a camera’s flash. Flashbulb memory can be defined as a highly accurate and exceptionally vivid memory of a moment. The theory of flashbulb memory therefore distinguished flashbulb memories from the normal memories, as the flashbulb memories are more vivid, detailed, accurate, long-lasting and easily to remember, whereas the normal memories are believed to be mostly unreliable and easily distorted. Brown and Kulik also suggested that, there may be a special neural mechanism in the brain which triggers an emotional arousal because that event is unexpected or extremely important.

The amount of sleep was self-reported by participants using a sleep diary. In the sleep diary participants would note the time they got into bed, how long it took them to fall asleep, the number and duration of awakenings during the night, what time they awoke, and what time they got out of bed. Misinformation or false memory was evaluated in a few different phases. In the first phase the participants took part in a

The sleep assessment conducted on the patient had an interesting dynamic in how we think we sleep opposed to how our partner says we sleep. The patient wakes up every morning at 6 a.m. and takes a nap right after lunchtime approximately at 1 p.m. The daily naps, according to the patient, last about forty-five minutes to an hour. When asked about restlessness when waking up the patient with a stern voice and pointed finger says, "When I'm up I'm up and ready to go." The patient also explained that they have no trouble staying asleep; however going to sleep can be challenging depending on if anything troubling is on her mind.

A greater understanding of these complex and dynamic brain states has helped clarify the ways in which sleep enhances memory processing. An increasing number of sleep studies have behaviourally assessed the facilitative role of REM and NREM sleep on declarative and procedural memory performance in humans. The preliminary results provided initial evidence to the idea that hippocampal-dependent declarative memories, such as memories of personal events and fact-based information, are facilitated by NREM sleep (specifically SWS) and hippocampal-independent procedural memories are facilitated by REM sleep (Plihal & Born, 1997).

This essay focuses on evaluating three functions of sleep. These functions include mental health (Jackowska et al, 2011), cardiovascular disease (Kronholm et al, 2011) and memory (Hu et al, 2006). The key aspects are explained in detail with regards to studies. The findings from the studies will help justify the function and it’s involvement with sleep. Sleep is important for an individual’s well being, survival, brain development, emotional regulation, cognitive function, memory, and in order to protect mental and cardiovascular health. An individual should sleep for 6-8 hours. A recent suggestion by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommended that an individual should sleep for minimum 7 hours. The quality of sleep is significant to maintain healthy brain functions. Evidence, indicating that good sleep quality is essential for mood and health then duration (Chandola et al, 2010). The researches implied will enable the understanding of the functions of sleep and evaluate the evidence of each of the functions, including advantages and limitations. Furthermore ethical issues are discussed, and an overall summary of the essay is briefed.

The brain has to perform calculations on a day to day basis, and not giving it rest causes to accumulate stress. Besides processing calculations in order to carry out daily tasks, the brain also perceives enormous amounts of information, and needs down time to organize all the information. Usually the consolidating of all the information takes place when a person is sleeping, therefore depriving the brain of sleep will cause incognizant brain function and leave one groggy throughout the next day (Sample, 1). Distinct implications of decrease in brain function is displayed when a person experiences drowsiness throughout the day, which causes truncated memory retention rates and loss of

For the two research questions addressed during the second level of the study, Bennion et al. (2013) hypothesized that elevated cortisol at encoding would promote an interaction between attention and consolidation—i.e., that objects viewed for a shorter duration of time would be more likely to be forgotten, and objects viewed for a longer duration would be more likely to be remembered. They also hypothesized that this effect would be greater following the period of sleep, and that neural activity in memory retrieval would be centered on the limbic areas. This hypothesis also makes a reasonable prediction based on prior research suggesting that neural activity for mental retrieval centers on the limbic regions

Psychology 101 has been an eye opening course and has further anchored my reasoning behind why I chose to be a Psychology major this past fall. After being asked to talk about two topics in which apply to my daily life, I chose two topics that are negative in some contexts, but to me, recognizing their existence in my life helps with the process of dealing with them and getting better. The first topic that I see in my own daily life is the concept of “Sleep” in which we talked about in Chapter 3, specifically sleep disorders such as narcolepsy. Narcolepsy as defined in our text, Exploring Psychology by David Myers, is “sudden attacks of overwhelming sleepiness,

Persistence of sleep disturbances, particularly of REM sleep, is predictive of developing symptoms of anxiety disorders (3). These disorders are often reported by patients with regular fear-provoking memories they are unable to get arid of. Exposure therapy produces a new memory, called an extinction memory, to coexist and complete with the fearful memory when the fearful cue/content is re-encountered. The experiment is done to see which brain mechanisms play a role in the success of exposure therapy. They used a laboratory experiment, which used contextual fear extinction training, which works to turn off the conditioned fear. The results showed that the fear extinction training increased REM sleep, however only 57 percent of subjects did not experience the fear after 24 hours. It also resulted in a great increase of P-wave activity in those subjects, however, the wave activity was absent and they re-experienced fear. “The study results provided direct evidence that the activation of phasic P-wave activity within the brainstem, in conjunction with exposure therapy, is critical for development of long-term retention of fear extinction memory,” said Subimal Datta, PH.D., director and principal investigator at the Laboratory of Sleep and Cognitive Neuroscience and the study’s lead author (3). The article involved similar variables

After one experiences a traumatic event, the majority of people develop disturbing dreams or nightmares that may continue on for years after the event. These posttraumatic nightmares can range from frightening features that one associates with their trauma experience to replicative dreams that contain detailed bits of their event. Dreams, as explained in this article, are not just a simple imitation of a person’s memories, but they contain fictitious content from selective experiences. Some research confirmed that dreams play a part in the active processing of emotional experiences. It is believed that withholding unwanted thoughts before sleeping may lead to the increased appearance of these thoughts in one’s dreams. This is shown in a study taken from 30 participants. Recently through neuroimaging studies, which has been made possible by the enhancement of measuring techniques, the mood regulator role of dreams has acquired positive

On the other hand, there is research that has been done on the encoding of long-term memory and the amygdala because some say emotional stimulation is positively correlated with long-term memory recall. A study was done to examine this theory using an emotional film and a neutral film. The participants in the experiment received a positron emission tomography while they watched each film to monitor the involvement of the amygdala in the process of long-term memory development with emotional arousal. The participants we as well directed to give their rating of their emotional reaction to each movie. All participants rated their emotional reactions to the emotional film higher than that of the neutral film. The participants were then asked

Moreover, many of the claims the article makes, as outlined above, have a biological and psychological scientific basis; however, the article fails to mention the sources from which its conclusions was drawn from. That said, in this paper three differing journal articles will be presented that focus on the different processes that take place during sleep. The scientific journal articles will be analyzed and compared to the Cosmopolitan article. as summarized above.

This essay will evaluate two models of theories of memory. Memory can be defined as the persistence of learning over time via the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information. Encoding is the process of categorizing incoming information through conscious effortful processing, rehearsal, or unconscious automatic processing. The storage process involves the retention of encoded information over time. Lastly, retrieval is the process of getting information out of memory. There are various types of memory. Sensory memory is the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system. It also plays a vital role in filtering out useless information, enabling us to focus our

In addition, a recent study, published by Matthew Walker and his colleagues at the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at UC Berkeley, proposed a link between dreaming and emotions. These scientists focused on individuals during REM, rapid eye movement, sleep. REM sleep is one of the many stages the body experiences during sleep, which also stimulates the regions of the brain used for learning. In addition, individuals do the most dreaming during REM sleep. They found that a reduction in REM sleep negatively influences their ability to comprehend and work through complex emotions in day to day life (Scientific

"Memory is the diary we all carry about with us," Oscar Wilde once said. Now for a second imagine a life without any memories! One wouldn't be able to remember his/her name, how to look after themselves or to even recognize their own friends and family. It would be impossible to live happily without ones memories. That is why our memories are such vital points in our lives. They are the building blocks of our current selves. Due to those reasons it is very useful to find as much information regarding it as possible. For that very purpose this research paper has been written. The purpose of this research is to uncover the truth regarding how the human brain stores and retrieve memories. Throughout this research, topics such as definition of