People in waking states {awakeness} are conscious and experience sense qualities. Awake includes automatism, pain, pleasure, sense qualities, thinking, and threat. Just before or after sleeping, consciousness has low alertness and arousal.
cause
Awakeness results when brainstem nuclei excite cortex and thalamus non-specifically. Medial column receives, along pyramidal tract, from cortex, cerebellum, and senses and sends, in ascending reticular activating system, to intralaminar thalamic nuclei, which send to striatum and cortex to activate cortex and control waking and sleeping.
control
Pons reticular activating system controls awakeness. It has norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and acetylcholine secreting neurons with pathways to brainstem neurons. Reticular activating system neurons can inhibit afferent axons from senses and efferent axons to muscles.
sleep
Hypothalamus superchiasmatic nucleus starts NREM sleep and controls progress through NREM sleep. REM sleep activation goes from pons to lateral geniculate to occipital lobe.
Consciousness>Consciousness>States
Outline of Knowledge Database Home Page
Description of Outline of Knowledge Database
Date Modified: 2022.0224