Test Bank Ch20 Consciousness

Multiple Choice

1. One can think of states of consciousness as falling along two dimensions, physiological arousal and level of awareness. What is the most likely state of someone who is high along the physiological-arousal dimension, but low along the level-of-awareness dimension?
   1. Vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome
   2. Coma
   3. General anesthesia
   4. REM sleep
2. True or false, somebody with locked-in syndrome would not be aware of their surroundings?
   1. True
   2. False
3. All the same neurotransmitters systems are active during REM sleep and wakefulness
   1. True
   2. False
4. Which of the following is a state of unarousable unconsciousness, including a failure to open the eyes?
   1. Coma
   2. Vegetative state
   3. Unresponsive wakefulness syndrome
   4. Sleep
5. Global Workspace Theory allows for graded levels of consciousness?
   1. True
   2. False
6. The idea that visual awareness does not depend on the speed or the spread of the initial feedforward sweep of signalling from retina to V1 to downstream regions of cortex is most strongly associated with which theory of consciousness?
   1. Global Workspace Theory
   2. Integrated Information Theory (IIT)
   3. Recurrent Processing Theory
7. The strength and complexity of connectivity between anatomically distal regions in the brain is most strongly associated with one’s position along which axis of the 2-D depiction of states of consciousness?
   1. Physiological arousal
   2. Level of awareness
8. Dimensional activation (D_a) indexes the complexity of electrical signaling within a region of the brain. In which region is the decline in D_a most closely tied to anaesthesia-induced loss of consciousness?
   1. Cortex
   2. Basal ganglia

Short Answer / Fill-in-the-blank

1. The transition from wakefulness to sleep is associated with a drop-off of power in the ______ and a concurrent increase in power in the _________________ band.
2. Which two neurotransmitters released from the pons and projecting to the thalamus are critical for arousal?
3. True or false: Waking up somebody in REM sleep would be easier than when they are in slow-wave sleep. Why?
   1. REM is associated with a higher state of arousal
   2. Tonic inhibition of descending motor signals at the level of the pons
   3. Re-entrant processing

Essay / Longer Answer

1. What differentiates coma from vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome from locked-in syndrome?
2. Give an example of experimental evidence that people with locked-in syndrome are aware of their surroundings.
3. How has TMS been used to assess different states of consciousness? What are the findings?
4. Describe the stages of sleep, including the brain rhythms and arousability associated with each.
5. Does the level activity in V1 more closely reflect what as actually happened in visual environment or what one thinks has happened in the visual environment? Provide evidence for your answer.
6. What evidence is there that the constructs of consciousness and attention can be dissociated?
7. Describe the similarities and differences between the Global Workspace and Recurrent Processing theories of consciousness.
8. What are two critical physiological signatures of increased conscious awareness? Give examples of how each has been demonstrated.
9. How has backward masking of words been used to study visual awareness?