Sleep and Dreaming: Scientific Advances and Reconsiderations
Language: English
Pages: 376
ISBN: B01DM25OKI
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
How and why does the sleeping brain generate dreams? Though the question is old, a paradigm shift is now occurring in the science of sleep and dreaming that is making room for new answers. From brainstem-based models of sleep cycle control, research is moving toward combined brainstem/forebrain models of sleep cognition itself. The book presents five papers by leading scientists at the center of the current firmament, and more than seventy-five commentaries on those papers by nearly all of the other leading authorities in the field. Topics include mechanisms of dreaming and REM sleep, memory consolidation in REM sleep, and an evolutionary hypothesis of the function of dreaming. The papers and commentaries, together with the authors' rejoinders, represent a huge leap forward in our understanding of the sleeping and dreaming brain. The book's multidisciplinary perspective will appeal to students and researchers in neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology.
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recall. The very predictability of experiences in everyday life may provide both an illusion of memory for mundane events, and a structure with which to enhance memory for exceptions (cf. Reiser et al. 1985). One of the most dramatic examples of memory failure for routine events is the time-gap experience (Chapman et al. 1999b; Reed 1972). The commonest example of a time-gap experience is when a driver suddenly realises that he or she has no recollection of some considerable part of the journey
primarily during REM sleep, or a non-REM activating system ascending through dopaminergic circuits originating in the midbrain ventral segmental area of Tsai, the origin of the mesolimbic and mesocortical dopamine systems. Therefore it is no longer necessary to look to the pontine brainstem as the sole source of endogenous cerebral activation. In short, (chaotic) activation of forebrain structures throughout the sleep cycle has the potential to reactivate neuronal circuits facilitating the
Likewise, Cicogna et al. (1991) reported few REM/Stage 2 differences in number of temporal units, implausibility, self presence, settings or characters. Nonetheless, as in the case of dream content (Antrobus 1983; Foulkes & Schmidt 1983), some residual state-related memory source differences continued to be reported (Cavallero & Cicogna 1993; Cavallero et al. 1990; 1992; Cicogna et al. 1991) and these need to be explained. The research on memory sources for mentation among the different
little, if anything, to Total Recall Content with respect to the association with the sleep stages REM and NREM” (p. 567), although his statistics did confirm a significant contribution (F(1,71) ϭ 15.9, p Ͻ 0.01). Nevertheless, this conclusion formed the basis of the wider interpretation that the differences between REM and NREM reports are merely a consequence of enhanced recall in REM. In the second paper critiqued, Foulkes and Schmidt (1983) concluded that global discontinuity “is
“dreaming.” 62 Numerous studies have replicated the finding of mentation outside of REM sleep as the latter is traditionally defined. All NREM sleep stages can produce some form of mentation. However, in accordance with the distinction between dreaming and cognitive activity discussed earlier, the more recent (post-1962) studies together indicate that about half of all NREM awakenings result in no recall of cognitive activity whatsoever. Further, about 50% of subjects appear to have noticeably
