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The Science Behind Dreaming
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Early theories about dreaming
Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung put forth some of the most well-known theories of dreaming.
- Freud's theory was that dreaming allows us to sort through unresolved and repressed wishes.
- Carl Jung also believed dreams had psychological importance but differed about their meaning.
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The relationship our dreams have with our memories
Recent studies suggest we employ the same neurophysiological mechanisms while dreaming that we use to construct and recall memories while we are awake.
Studies also found that vivid, bizarre and emotionally intense dreams are linked to parts of the amygdala and hippocampus. The amygdala plays a key role in processing and memory of emotional reactions. The hippocampus is implicated in important memory functions, such as the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term memory.
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Dreams help us process emotions
Dreams seem to help us to process emotions by constructing memories of them. The experience in our dreams may not be real, but the emotions we experience are real.
Our dream stories try to strip emotion out of some experiences by creating a memory of it. This mechanism seems to fulfil an important role because it helps us process our emotions.
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About Consciousness
Consciousness is everything you experience - taste, pain, love, feeling. Where these experiences come from is a mystery.
Many modern analytic philosophers of mind either d...
Searching For Physical Footprints
What is it about brain matter that gives rise to consciousness? In particular, the neuronal correlates of consciousness (NCC) - the minimal neuronal mechanisms jointly sufficient for any conscious experience.
Consider this question: What must happen in your brain for you to experience a toothache?
Neuronal Correlates of Consciousness (NCC)
The whole brain can be considered an NCC because it generates experience continually.
- When parts of the cerebellum, the "little brain" underneath the back of the brain, are lost to a stroke or otherwise, patients may lose the ability to play the piano, for example. But they never lose any aspect of their consciousness. This is because the cerebellum is almost wholly a feed-forward circuit. There are no complex feedback loops.
- The spinal cord and the cerebellum are not enough to create consciousness. Available evidence suggests neocortical tissue in generating feelings.
- The next stages of processing are the broad set of cortical regions, collectively known as the posterior hot zone, that gives rise to conscious perception. In clinical sources of causal evidence, stimulating the posterior hot zone can trigger a diversity of distinct sensations and feelings.
- It appears that almost all conscious experiences have their origin in the posterior cortex. But it does not explain the crucial difference between the posterior regions and much of the prefrontal cortex, which does not directly contribute to subjective content.
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Rocking Sleep
Rocking babies back and forth while making them sleep is common as parents try to stop them from wailing and shouting. Even as adults, we can get lulled into sleep in the rhythmic motion of the tra...
Health Benefits Of Rocking
- People who rock while sleeping tend to be less disturbed during the night and maintain their deep sleep longer.
- The memory function improves by a factor of three, according to a study.
- Rocking synchronizes the brainwaves in the ‘thalamocortical’ networks of the brain, helping both sleep and memory consolidation while improving one’s mood.
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Déjà vu: The Glitch In The Matrix
Most people have experienced a sensation where while being in a situation, event, or place, we feel as if we have already experienced the same. This sensation is called déjà vu, me...
Scientists Examine Déjà vu
Scientists have studied this phenomenon in the lab using hypnosis and virtual reality, concluding it to be related to memory, where we experience a feeling of familiarity as the new experience seems to be traced according to an old memory.
A new study using MRI scans suggested that déjà vu is related to decision making, and the brain may be trying to resolve a conflict in the memory index.