Behav Brain Res 1995;69:13-22. In blind people, whose auditory and somesthetic sensitivity is enhanced, auditory dreams predominate, as expected from their high auditory sensibility. 25. Some of his statements, hereby reproduced in a simplified form from his book on sleep and dreams, briefly illustrate his contribution to the study of this subject: "All creatures that have four limbs and are sanguine (mammals) display signs that they dream while asleep. Brain Mechanism and Perceptual Awareness. 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 posterior areas affected in this syndrome are the visual areas V3, V3a and V4 (97). 2. Central activation of autonomic effectors during mental stimulation of motor activity in man. In rats we have recorded ear movements in paradoxical sleep, which we attribute to the occurrence of auditory dreams (see Figure 9). 3. Sleep research: pictures from the early years. HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help Therefore, any neural event, be it running or just thinking, or dreaming, requires a large amount of oxygen, which is carried to the nervous system by the blood through powerful hemodynamic adjustments, such as increase in blood pressure, heart rate and central blood flow (21,25,26). 2020 Nov 12;11:565694. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.565694. 53. 97. 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. The main purpose of experimental decerebration is to study the mechanisms of the fundamental posture, that is, the standing posture. WebHe says the function of dreams is that by reproducing difficult or unsolved life situations or experiences, the dream aids towards a solving or resolution of the problems. De Sanctis, whose main research on sleep was the incorporation of sensory stimulation into dreams, states in his book that "by measuring the pulse and observing the movements in humans and other animals during sleep it is possible to detect the occurrence of dreaming and sometimes even to guess the dream content". In humans it has been shown that not only EEG desynchronization but also increase in vegetative functions, such as heart rate and ventilation (27), accompany mental activity. Finally, in 1953 Aserinsky & Kleitman started the present phase of the study of sleep in humans. Mirmiran M. The function of fetal neonatal rapid eye movement sleep. In: Klemm, W. R. & Vertes, R. P. During the second century of the present era, Galen, a Greek physician who practiced Medicine in Rome and was a great anatomist and clinician, knew that temperature, heart rate and respiration exhibited cyclic changes at night, which he attributed to dreaming (3). Usually r is very high between area 17 (visual cortex) and the hippocampus. Psychosomat Med 1975;37:147-59. Behav Brain Sci 2000;23:877-901. The neurophysiological mechanisms of the postural and motor events during desynchronized sleep. 129. eCollection 2020. McCarley RW, Nelson JP, Hobson JA. In cats, during movements related to dreams such hyperpolarization is reinforced by presynaptic inhibition of afferents to motoneurons. From a very weak inhibition in early infancy, it goes up rapidly up to 15 years of age, evolving asymptotically from this period on. Valle AC. Neurons from the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis send fibers to nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis in the medulla, a part of which passes through the dorsal tegmental field of the pons, and electrical stimulation of both nuclei also produces inhibition of muscle tone (53,54). The tonic inhibition of motoneurons by circuits in the alphacoeruleus nucleus during desynchronized sleep is mediated by hyperpolarization of their membrane (41-43). 130. During dreaming, however, it is well known that both heart rate and blood pressure undergo short duration increases (as related to the decreased values), which are most likely linked to the oniric behavior. J Neurophysiol 1966;29:871-87. A nerve growth factor-induced gene encodes a possible trancriptional regulatory factor. Figure 6 shows an increase in heart rate from 150 bpm to 180 bpm (the latter is the normal heart rate during resting wakefulness in this species), coinciding with the peak of eye movements. Baldissera F, Cesa-Bianchi MG, Mancia M. Phasic events indicating presynaptic inhibition of primary afferents to the spinal cord during desynchronized sleep. Temporal patterns of discharges of pyramidal tract neurons during sleep and waking in the monkey. Although it has not been shown that the alpha-coeruleus nuclei are lesioned in these patients, it is tempting to consider that their lesion underlies such sleep disturbance. Timo-Iaria C. Early research on dreaming. Physiology and Psychology. In rats penile erection in desynchronized sleep has also been detected and was found to cease after spinal transection; following mesencephalic transections that spare desynchronized sleep, penile erection was deeply reduced (11). 14. Roberts LA, Higgins MJ, O'Shaughnessy CT, Stone TW, Morris BJ. In this preparation body temperature is not regulated anymore and the animal has to be artificially warmed at nearly 37C. Chaudhuri A. Neural activity mapping with inducible transcription factors. Several physiologists, psychologists and psychatrists have theorized about that but all the explanations seem to be devoid of a logical or an experimentally demonstrable reason. Where do dreams come from? Contemporary neuroscientific theories often view dreams as epiphenomena, and many of the proposals for their biological function are contradicted by the phenomenology of dreams themselves. J Ment Nerv Dis 1966;141:623-50. & Ajmone-Marsan, C. Dement WC. Brain Res Mol Brain Res 1996;42:123-7. Arch Ital Biol 1963;101:648-68. Metabolism during desynchronized sleep tends, in fact, to be equal to or even larger than that of waking (131,132). Analysis of psychological theories concerning functions of dreams. The earliest theory to emerge, Freuds psychoanalytic theory, takes an observational approach to identifying the function that dreams serve. Freud theorized that dreams are the result of unfulfilled wishes or desires in the subjects life. Accessibility 108. In humans, Hansotia and colleagues (34) found in humans, in accordance with our own observations in rats and cats, that oniric eye movements may be directed to one side or the other, not exclusively to one side, as stated by Vanni-Mercier and co-workers (29). 109. Bookshelf 43. This allows us to see the irrational as a normal event, while emotional processing and symbolic identities can be explored. 30. Nat Rev Neurosci. doi: 10.1093/nc/nix009. Such a recovery means that other mechanisms are put into action that are able to generate not only wakefulness but desynchronized sleep as well. This hyperpolarization is due to an increased motoneuronal membrane permeability to chloride ions, which suggests that glycine or -GABA are released on the motoneuronal membrane during desynchronized sleep (44). University of Chicago Press, Chicago & London edition 1985. eCollection 2021 Aug 12. (eds. Both frequency and voltage of theta waves in rats generally increase during oniric activity, as depicted in figure 7, and in figure 8 a clearcut episode of visual oniric activity is expressed as a potent increase in theta waves frequency and voltage, concomitantly with a burst of eye movements. Those that are specific to certain behaviors. Axons from neurons of the nucleus reticularis gigantocellularis descend along the ventral and ventrolateral funiculi and connect with inhibitory interneurons in the spinal cord (55,56). 2021 Aug 30;24(2):543. doi: 10.4081/ripppo.2021.543. Dream recall and eye movement during sleep and their relation to eye movements, bodily motility and dreaming. Recordings of the electrical activity of the brain, which we will refer to as electro-oscillograms, reveal specific patterns that express the phases of sleep in several central regions of the brain, including the phase during which most oniric activity takes place, the desynchronized or paradoxical sleep. De Sanctis S. I Sogni e il Sonno. 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). Foulkes (1982) considered that dreams are so easily forgotten because the brain in desynchronized sleep is in a "reflective state". Fratelli Bocca Editori, Torino 1899. 73. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Our hypothesis is that the cerebellum is involved in overall corrections of the components of all kinds of behavior, including sleep. Neurosci Res 1993;17:127-140. Neurosci Conscious. It has, however, been utilized with a great success in sleep studies. Hansotia P, Broste S, Ruggles K, Wall R, Friske M. Eye movement patterns in REM sleep. Kleitman N. Sleep and Wakefulness. Dreaming 1996;6:121-30. Electroencerph Clin Neurophysiol 1964;17:617-29. During the nineteenth century several physiologists and neuropsychiatrists tried to understand the mechanisms and meaning of dreams. Accordingly, they are known as PGO (pontine, occipital cortex and lateral geniculate nucleus) potentials. Hence, experiments with such animals are extremely valuable and thus will be emphasized in the present review. Doneshka & Kehaiyov (1978) reported dreams with striking vestibular sensations. 38. Frequency clearly increases and becomes regular, as compared with the trend before oniric activity. For example, the Muslim physician Ib Sinna, known in Spain as Avicena, considered dreams more or less according to Aristotle's opinion but could not resist to accepting their premonitory character. Nikolaev E, Kaminska B, Tischmeyer W, Matthies E, Kaczmarek L. Induction of expression of genes encoding transcription factors in the rat brain elicited by behavioral training. (ed. & Bertini, M. According to Hobson, Pace-Schotter & Stickgold (2000), since image studies show activation of "limbic" and "paralimbic" structures of the forebrain during desynchronized sleep, as compared to wakefulness (120,126-128), emotion may be a primary shaper of dream plots, rather than playing a secondary role plot instigation. WebOne hypothesis drawn from TST is that real threatening events encountered by the individual during wakefulness should lead to an increased activation of the system, a threat simulation response, and therefore, to an increased frequency and severity of threatening events in dreams. Life Science 1989;45:1349-56. During the past two decades several authors also did quantify the kinds of dreams. Fenn WO, Hursh JB. Desynchronized sleep can be provoked by carbachol infusion in the pontine reticular formation (94). For the first time, direct and systematic investigation could be made of such topics as the occurrence, qualities, recollection, and childhood development of dreaming. They may well be activated during the behaviors caused by dreams (and which are not the dreams but their consequences), that are expressed as eye, head, lips, tongue, fingers, legs and other movements, that is, the motor components of the oniric behaviors. No wonder that most dreams in humans have a visual component, explaining the reason why eye movements occur in any kind of dream, alone or as part of non-visual dreams. Kuboyama T, Hori A, Sato T, Mikami T, yamaki T, Ueda S. Changes in cerebral blood flow velocity in healthy young men during overnight sleep and while awake.Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol 1997;102:125-31. 60. For instance, zif-268 has been shown to induce the expression of a synapse-specific protein, synapsin II (101), and has been linked to the induction of hippocampal long-term potentiation (102,103) and other plasticity phenomena. 123. Maquet P, Pters J, Aerts J, Delfiore G, Degueldre C, Luxen A, Franck G. Nature. 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. Dreams in which walking occurs are very common (4,5) and coincide with limb movements, however faulty. (57). Electrophysiologically, it has been shown that the same type of hippocampal cells that are activated during training in a radial maze are also endogenously reactivated during sleep, which accounts for memory consolidation and for a close correlation between dreams and events preceding sleep (87). Fortunately, this author did not suggest that dreaming, with all its movements, is intended to produce heat from the fake muscular contractions that occur as an expression of dreams. 72. These findings point to a decreased activation of executive and association cortex during desynchronized sleep, what is suggestive that the processes involved in building up wakeful thought and dreaming may be distinct. 2011 Dec;20(4):998-1008. doi: 10.1016/j.concog.2010.10.005. They include facilitation of memory storage, Confrontations Psychiatriques 1986;27:153-81. However, interruption of the pyramidal tract hardly affects the appearance of muscular twitches during desyncronized sleep (83,84) but the reticulospinal tract seems to be involved in such twitches (85) whereas the associaton cortex does not appear to be activated (86). The narrower is the angle of rotation, the lower is the recorded potential, which happens when attention is being directed to a very small part of the object or when the object is very near. Europ J Neurosci 1994;6:1298-1306. C R Soc Biol (Paris) 1938;128:533-9. Differentiating Oneiric Stupor in Agrypnia Excitata From Dreaming Disorders. The other is that dreams are caused by forebrain activation by dopamine. 104. Bol Inst Est Md Biol Mxico 1962;20:155-64. As will be shown below, in rats, that are macrosmatic animals, rostrum (snout) movements predominate during desynchronized sleep over eye movements (31,32). News Physiol Sci 1998;13:91-7. Whereas Freud was convinced that dream forgetting was an active function of repression, Hobson, Pace-Schott & Stickgold (2000) attribute the failure to recall a dream to a state-dependent amnesia caused by aminergic demodulation of the sleeping brain (120). This may be related to the presence of pet animals in most families in the Western countries and consequently this "subject" probably becomes the main thought of children. 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. 88. Lucrce. 57. 67. Jouvet M. The role of monoamines and acetylcholine-containing neurons in the regulation of the sleep-waking cycle. The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, 1967;45:352-423. Geschichte der Physiologie. This may well reflect auditory dreams, as has been found in humans (36,37). 119. In: C. Guilleminaut, W. C. Dement and P. Passouant (eds.) The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The meaning of dreams. Vision is our predominant sensory channel, so much so that if we hear a sound we immediately convey the eyes to the source of the sound, trying to identify its origin, even if vision is absent. Guazzi M, Baccelli G, Zanchetti A. Carotid body chemoreceptors: physiological role in buffering fall in blood pressure during sleep. 102. During REM sleep, several physiological changes also take place. 58. A theory that has many followers is the one that connects dreams, in particular, desynchronized sleep in general, with memory consolidation. Dreaming has been a subject of cogitation since remote Antiquity. 64. Penile erection, that also occurs in monkeys, is present during desynchronized (paradoxical or REMsleep) but it is not necessarily linked to erotic dreams. Brain Res 1970;19:263-75. The vegetative components, that are phasic increases of heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, pupillary diameter, and most probably metabolic adjustments as well, are expressed more consistently during a dream, as they are during attentive wakefulness. REM sleep and dreaming: towards a theory of protoconsciousness. Science 1953;118:273-4. Progr Neurobiol 1984;22:241-88. Braun et al. 110. These interneurons inhibit motoneurons by means of glycinergic synapses (glycine is a powerful inhibitory neurotransmitter), as shown by Soja et al. The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the postural and events., Delfiore G, Degueldre C, Luxen a, Franck G. Nature of primary afferents to the cord... To dreams such hyperpolarization is reinforced by presynaptic inhibition of motoneurons by means of glycinergic synapses ( glycine a! Et al posture, that is, the standing posture by forebrain activation by.. ( eds. Zanchetti A. 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