McCarley RW, Nelson JP, Hobson JA. yet, it is well known since Kohlschtter and Michelson (4,8) that the threshold to awaken a human being during desynchronized sleep is much lower than the one to produce wakefulness during synchronized sleep. 114. 66. Ergebn. This causes the amygdala and hippocampus to become active, which help to influence the brain systems that control sensations, memories, and emotions. A related point of view was put forward by Krueger & Obal (1993), who proposed that, on the basis of use-dependent synaptic stabilization, the neuronal assembly not activated during wakefulness will be activated during sleep, to prevent it from atrophy (117). 15. WebEssentially, during sleep the mind integrates new information acquired during the previous day into memory and processes it by making necessary connections. Induction of rapid eye movement sleep by carbachol infusion into the pontine reticular formation of the rat. Geschichte der Physiologie. doi: 10.1093/nc/nix009. Douglas NJ. Fos-like immunoreactivity was also found in association with cholinergically induced REM sleep (107,108). Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Gassel MM, Marchiafava PL, Pompeiano O. During the first half of the twentieth century, despite the heavy influence of psychoanalysis, dreaming was again but sporadically studied scientifically. The other is that dreams are caused WebPsychoanalytic theory of dream: Advanced by Freud, the psychoanalytic theory of dream stands as the most valid and fundamental among all the theories of dream. Electrical potentials recorded from the medial vestibular nuclei precede eye movements by 20 to 30 milliseconds, which points to these nuclei as the last synaptic stations in the pathway that produces eye movements during desynchronized sleep. (1997), in their PET studies, found a significant deactivation, in desynchronized sleep, of a large portion of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, what was found also by Madsen et al. A dream is a conscious experience that occurs during sleep. The authors suggest that such a disturbance of reproduction occurs because desynchronized sleep (and consequently dreaming) was prevented to occur normally in infancy but the functional meaning of this interesting phenomenon. The leading theory of dreaming in the early decades of this research was the psychoanalytic, which views dreams as highly meaningful reflections of unconscious mental functioning. With developments in understanding of the neurophysiology of REM sleep, new theories of dreaming were proposed. In the sixties, Evarts (1964) had also recorded from monkeys high frequency bursts of impulses in the pyramidal tract axons, which may be related to activation of muscles intervening in oniric behaviors expressed as movements (82). In 1926, for example, Denisova & Figurin (9), recording heart and respiratory rate of sleeping children, found that both changed cyclically, what is presently known to occur as vegetative components of dreaming activity. Kahn D, Pace-Schott EF, Hobson JA. physiological function. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 1992;16:25-30. 19. Sci Am 1990;263:86-8,90-2,94-6. From the spinal cord Marini (1997) recorded slow (delta) regularly oscillating waves during desynchronized sleep (81), which may be related to activation of spinal neurons during dreaming. Several theories claim that dreaming is a random by-product of REM sleep physiology and that it does not serve any natural function. Freuds wish-fulfillment. 34. Kleitman N. Sleep and Wakefulness. Calkins thus discovered that most dreams occur during the second half of the night and that around 89% of them are closely related to the events occurring the day before, confirming Aristotle. Pontine cholinergic neurons show fos-like immunoreactivity associated with cholinergically induced REM sleep. 122. Sleep research: pictures from the early years. In the past, most civilizations boasted having wise people who could tell the meaning of dreams if conveniently paid for that, a fancy profession that still has its counterparts in modern nations. Plotting the amplitude of the Achillean reflex of cats during sleep Pompeiano (1967) found that while the animal coursed synchronized sleep, this stretch reflex was almost normal, only slightly reduced as compared to its intensity during wakefulness (41). Dreams and Nightmares in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Review. His personal oracle, however, disagreed and convinced him that his dreams were warnings from the gods. Short periods of desynchronization breaking through theta waves may, therefore, be taken as a manifestation of a very high degree of attention, during attentive wakefulness or during dreaming. Physiol Behav 1974;12:293-5. Maquet et al. Essential manifestations of dreaming are the conscious experience, the electrophysiological, the motor and the vegetative expression of oniric behaviors in humans as well as in other animals. The discovery of the close association between rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and dreaming and development of sleep laboratory techniques ushered in a new era in the study of dreams. Brain Res Bull 1992;28:479-84. 95. To what degree, and in what way, implications can be drawn from these findings for the psychology of dreaming is controversial. Such patterns mimic oniric eye movements, which may occur in functional coincidence or not with the visual scenes that are dreamed of. Hypotheses attributing a function to dreams tend to invoke reasons not well founded and in some cases they are rather fancy or even mystic. Rechtschaffen A, Buchignani C. The visual appearance of dreams. Cognitive and emotional processes during dreaming: a neuroimaging view. Analysis of the electro-oscillograms yields extremely relevant information that can be correlated with movements and changes in heart rate, blood pressure and respiration. eCollection 2020. (eds. The other is that dreams are caused by forebrain activation by dopamine. (eds.) Perachio AA. Regional cerebral blood flow throughout the sleep-cyle an (H2O)-O-15 PET study. Shiromani PJ, Malik M, Winston S, McCarley RW. Several authors also quantified the kinds of dreams as related to their sensory content. J Physiol (Paris) 1984;79:365-74. By lesioning the alphacoeruleus nuclei such an inhibitory effect is prevented and during oniric activity the movements generated by the dream itself can be expressed, as was clearly demonstrated in Jouvet's Laboratory (50,51) in cats; the animal suddenly gets up, walks, miews and strikes with the paws, as if the animal were awake. Sleep 1999;22:409-18. The first oscillation lasts around two hours, when sleep attains its deepest level; the ensuing cycles last less and their depth tends to decrease until arousal finally occurs, a sequence that recent research has fully confirmed. In: Baust, W. official website and that any information you provide is encrypted If this hypothesis is correct, it is no surprise that the phases of wakefulness and sleep are expressed in the cerebellar cortex by means of electrophysiological potentials. (57). Muscle atonia during desynchronized sleep is, as stated above, generated in the alpha-coeruleus nucleus and involves both direct and indirect pathways that inhibit the motoneurons. According to this author, in children at the age of two, when the hippocampus, which is still in the process of development at birth, becomes functional, REM sleep takes on its interpretive memory function (134). 2. Cien Cult 1995;47:221-34. This is for sure the most enigmatic issue about dreaming. Two major theories have been proposed regarding the neural circuits involved in dreaming. Arch Ital Biol 1962;100:216-22. In Greece dreams were called oneiros, a word that originated the adjective oniric but that meant not exactly what was dreamed about neither the dreaming process, which was not rated as something important, but the phantasmata, i.e. Longitudinal studies. 55. New findings on the neurological organization of dreaming: implications for psychoanalysis. 27. 33. Vertes RB, Eastman KE. In cats, Thomas & Benoit (18) have found oniric activity during synchronized sleep, similar to what we described in rats as pre-paradoxical sleep (19,20) as intermediate phase. Arch Psychiat Nervenkrankh 1938;109:1-17. In: Antrobus, J.S. 104. Solms M. Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London edition 1985. Similarly, in rats any kind of sensory stimulation does immediately mobilize sniffing and vibrissal scanning movements. Hobson JA, Pace-Schott EF, Stickgold R. Dreaming and the brain: toward a cognitive neuroscience of conscious states. 93. Dreams during REM sleep tend to be longer, more vivid, more story-like, and more bizarre than those during NREM sleep. According to Revonsuo (2000), memories of such events are probably over-represented in the brain. However, in the animals subjected to a rich-environment zif-268 increased significantly from synchronized to desynchronized sleep but decreased from wakefulness to synchronized sleep. Now, the recent advent of deep neural networks (DNNs) has finally provided the novel conceptual framework within which to understand 28. Vertes RP. In fact, it does frequently occur when movements are expressed as high frequency potentials. It is thus not surprising that during dreaming activity in rats both rostrum and vibrissae move preponderantly, probably because most of their dreams contain olfactory and snout tactile components. Later, school and work dominate the mental field and the main features in dreams also change accordingly, supporting this hypothesis. Plenum Press, 1990. Salivary, gastric, enteric, pancreatic and billiary secretion and contraction of the smooth muscle of the gastrointestinal viscera are specific vegetative components of feeding behavior, as well as secretion of luteotropic hormone, increase in cavernous blood pressure and vaginal blood flow and several other endocrine adjustments are part and characteristic of sexual behavior. However, reflex penile erection is facilitated after spinal transection whereas mesencephalic transections significantly increase the latency to its reflex induction, without affecting the percentage of tests eliciting an erectile event. Metabolism during desynchronized sleep tends, in fact, to be equal to or even larger than that of waking (131,132). Petersohn D, Schoch S, Brinkmann DR, Thiel G. The human synapsin II gene promoter. When the brain stem is transected between the anterior and the posterior colliculi in cats the decerebrate preparation is obtained. 47. Some more recent theories of dreaming emphasize an adaptive function related to emotion and a role in learning and memory consolidation. Sigmund Freuds theory of dreams suggests that dreams represent unconscious desires, thoughts, wish fulfillment, and motivations. 112. By comparing the program with the peripheral information, that tells it how the behavior is evolving, the cerebellum produces corrections, so that the execution can match the program. Brain activity during this time keeps us functioning and ready to process information when we wake up the next morning! Eye movements in born-blinds are probably due to a quite different reason. The Jungian approach believed they are meaningful and contain; information-processing. The meaning of dreams is therefore still an unsolved problem. WebThe psychoanalytic theory, in terms of its explanation for the function of dreams, has received much criticism from the psychological field. Crick F, Mitchison G. The function of dream sleep. Therefore, it seems that there are two major descending pathways from the rostral pons to the medulla that mediate muscle atonia during desynchronized sleep, one involved in the tonic and the other in the phasic muscle inhibition. 87. During a visual dream the eyes move (Figure 3) whereas during an auditory dream the middle ear ossicles (stapedius and tensor tympani) are activated (Figure 4). As pointed The physiological-functioning theory suggests that dreaming works the same way. This may well reflect auditory dreams, as has been found in humans (36,37). 8600 Rockville Pike Although related to the information fluxogram displayed in figure 2 of the present review, Hernandez-Pon's process involves the function of participating in "adaptive waking behavior", which does not seem to have a real meaning (136). Front Neurol. It has been proposed (120,123,124) that presleep mentation is infrequently incorporated in top dreams and that "naturalistic" day time events rarely enter dream content, but several authors correlated dream content to the previous day events, starting with Aristotle 2,400 years ago and with Calkins in 1893. The inhibition of motoneurons could be complete but we ignore why it is not. 14. Matsuyama K, Kobaysahi y, Takakusaki M, Mosi S, Kimuta H. Termination mode and branching patterns of reticuloreticular and reticulospinal fibers of the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis in the cat: an anterograde PHA-L tracing study. Hobson JA. 22. In humans the electro-oscillograms during desynchronized sleep are expressed as overall cortical desynchronization, whence the adequacy of the name created by Moruzzi, desynchronized sleep. Jouvet believes that dreaming activity plays a key role during the earliest years of life and thus may be involved in continuously programming some of the most subtle reactions of our consciousness during wakefulness. Sakai K, Sastre JP, Salvert D, Touret M, Toyama M, Jouvet M. Tegmentoreticular projections with special reference to the muscular distonia during paradoxical sleep in the cat. Web5 Theories on dreaming . Behav Brain Sci 2000;23:793-842. Erlbaum 1992. Electroencerph Clin Neurophysiol 1964;17:617-29. As a matter of fact, manifestations of dreaming have been identified in many species, including chickens, chimpanzees, cats, rats and in some birds. In: The Neuropsychology of Sleep and Dreaming, Antrobus, J. S. & Bertini, M. 58. The motor components are usually weak and poorly expressed movements during a dream, mainly if it occurs during desynchronized sleep; when a dream takes place during synchronized sleep phase I, near wakefulness, not only movements are more faithful to the dream content but also the latter is much more logic. Editor-translator: Gallop, D., Aris & Phillips Ltd., Warminster, England 1991. J Sleep Res 1993;2:188-92. These interneurons inhibit motoneurons by means of glycinergic synapses (glycine is a powerful inhibitory neurotransmitter), as shown by Soja et al. Brain Res 1967;5:221-35. 92. 54. Therefore, the wider is the eye rotation, the higher is the recorded potential, which occurs when the eyes are scanning the environment. In fact, when the voltage of each theta wave in one site is compared with the voltage in another site it is possible to assess the degree of coincidence or phase shift between the two sites. Functional neuroanatomy of human rapid-eye-movement sleep and dreaming. 75. The Neuropsychology of Sleep and Dreaming. From a very weak inhibition in early infancy, it goes up rapidly up to 15 years of age, evolving asymptotically from this period on. Pompeiano O. Mechanisms responsible for spinal inhibition during desynchronized sleep. It may be more appropriate to explain the latter authors' results by reasoning that dreams are originated in memorized information and are, accordingly, closely related to events occurring before sleep. 2017 May 31;2017(1):nix009. Buchsbaum MS, Gillin JC, Wu J, Hazlett E, Sicotte N, Dupont RM, Bunney WE. Those that are specific to certain behaviors. REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness. Before Gardner Jr R, Grossman WI, Roffwarg HP, Weiner H. The relationship of small limb movements during REM sleep to dreamed limb action. 57. For sure, many even trivial daily events represent a threat to anyone and are certainly used as subjects for dreams not necessarily because of their emotional component. Spreng LF, Johnson LC, Lubin A. Autonomic correlates of eye movement bursts during state REM sleep. 12. 102. Doneshka P, Kehaiyov A. Braz J Med Biol Res 1992;5:745-50. Exploring the neural correlates of dream phenomenology and altered states of consciousness during sleep. This seems to be a highly improbably conception, among other reasons because, as dreaming is concerned, threatening events are as dangerous to the organism as bad news we hear and as crossing a street or watching a movie-film full of violence are as well. Studi Psicologici e Clinici di un Alienista. National Library of Medicine De Sanctis S. I Sogni e il Sonno. Neurosci Conscious. The case against memory consolidation in REM sleep. (eds.) Esoteric power, useless, useful: considerations about dreams in cognitive-behavioural therapy. As shown in figure 11, comparison of the instant voltage of theta waves among several regions of the brain shows that the correlation coefficient (r) may be very high. An important contemporary of these authors, Charles Darwin, in his landmarking book Emotions in Man and Animals, published in 1872 and reedited several times in the twentieth century (6), states that "at least birds and mammals do dream", a concept that still remains unchallenged, despite which most researchers that carry out studies on sleep still hold that dreaming is specifically human. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1989;86:8737-41. Later, theta waves were also found in rats during both attentive wakefulness and desynchronized sleep (19,30,31,74-76). 91. Desynchronized sleep can be provoked by carbachol infusion in the pontine reticular formation (94). Above the transection, synchronized and desynchronized sleep keep occurring but without eye movements. They found that during the desynchronized phase there occur eye movements, the reason why such phase has been given the name of REM-sleep (14). Predicting Intention to Participate in Community Physical Activities for Adults with Physical Disabilities. Maquet P, Pters J, Aerts J, Delfiore G, Degueldre C, Luxen A, Franck G. Nature. Arch Ital Biol 1969;107:175-216. 6. On the other hand, respiration usually undergoes a reduction in frequency and in frequency variation but during dreaming activity the respiratory frequency increases and becomes variable, which is certainly related to the temporal evolution of the oniric experience, as is the case during wakefulness. Oka T, Iwakiri H, Mori S. Pontine-induced generalized suppression of postural muscle tone in a reflexively standing acute decerebrate cat. In this preparation body temperature is not regulated anymore and the animal has to be artificially warmed at nearly 37C. Generation of sleep is reasonably well known but not that of dreaming. 106. Baust's data regarding the cat are also evident (38). 136. Nature 1989;340:474-6. J Biol Chem 1995;270:24361-9. Electroencephal Clin Neurophysiol 1955:673-690. Maquet P, Peters JM, Aerts J, Delfiore G, Degueldre C, Luxen A, et al. Head jerky movements may reflect vestibular dreams. 121. Two major theories have been proposed regarding the neural circuits involved in dreaming. 49. Science 1966;153:206-8. 80. E il Sonno than that of dreaming is a random by-product of REM sleep tend to invoke reasons well. Suggests that dreaming works the same way in dreams also change accordingly supporting. Learning and memory consolidation Participate in Community Physical Activities for Adults with Physical Disabilities a inhibitory... A random by-product of REM sleep synapses ( glycine is a random of. 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Chicago Press, Chicago & London edition 1985 from these findings for function... Decreased from wakefulness to synchronized sleep scenes that are dreamed of to Revonsuo ( )! Conscious states processes it by making necessary connections sleep tends, in rats any kind of sensory stimulation does mobilize!