Lecture 10 Flashcards
What is the first step in dream research? (Mparsa)
- measure overt physiology w/ polysomnography
- possibly introduce external stimuli
- awaken participants, ask “what was going through your mind” (search for mental activity during all stages)
- recorded by device, dictated, written by dreamer
- standard checklists used
- aware of experimenter/peer, gender/age or perception of how data used
What is the second step in dream research? (Hm)
- home - beeper, alarm clock and recorder
- more hostility, aggression, sexuality in home reports
What is the third step in dream research? (Anne)
- analyze dream journals kept longitudinally, within & across participants
- need >20 dreams/individual to assess patterns in dreaming
- need 125-200+ to compare content differences b/w people
- element consistency in indiv. (teens to elderly)
What are the challenges of dream research? (Nan N)
- no clear universal precise definition of “dream”:
- any mentation during sleep/in REM: more elaborate, vivid, story-like, “logical”, emotional
- NREM mentation occurs: fragmentary, vague thoughts, single sensation
- no direct access to dreams: simple awakening causes change in functional org. of brain, affects recall
What are the challenges of dream research? (LRISPW)
- longer from REM, more difficult to recall content
- recall reduced if woken up after REM body movement
- if dream >15min, early part forgotten
- subject bias: “want” to recall content
- ppl want to recall what “happened” vs. describing details
- what we recall often not “entire story”
What are the challenges of dream research? (MCNPM)
- memory processes not perfect
- cannot check accuracy of dream recall: uncertain of findings
- need vocabulary, ability to communicate/describe
- participants “complete”/“fill in” story: reconstruction, deduction
- minimal funding available
What is mentation?
thoughts, images, feelings, perceptions, cognition
What is reconstruction?
transformed, embellished
What is deduction?
fill in “links”, why, “this happened due to…”
What is dream recall? (SSAALA)
- sense of amazement/curiosity
- startled/afraid
- attempt to recall images, details & story
- attempt to understand why this content, why now (look for external causes)
- look for purpose & meaning
- attempt to interpret impact on waking life
What are the determinants of dream recall?
- Repression Hypothesis
- Salience Hypothesis
- Interference Hypothesis
- Non-Reporters
What is the repression hypothesis?
censorship at dreaming/waking state, but conversely dreams contain bad-natured behaviours
What is the salience hypothesis?
more vivid, bizarre, emotion-filled; more likely to recall dream
What is the interference hypothesis?
distraction during dreaming, during/after awakening unrelated to dreaming, interrupts dream recall
What are non-reporters? (S tcw)
some people cannot/do not recall dream content
- takes effort to focus, recall & report
- consistently sleep-deprived
or - wake from N3 regularly, cannot recall dream periods
What is psychophysiological parallelism?
how closely related are the physiological & physical events to that of dream content
What happens physiologically when we dream? (SLME)
- shifts in global brain function & area-specific changes
(measured via regional cerebral flow PET scans + blood oxygen level-dependent fMRI) - lack of motor output
- more activity in areas related to hallucinatory experiences
- emotional processes heightened
(emotions, survival, motivation, episodic memory)
What happens physiologically when we dream? (DLMH)
- DA increases in midbrain, initiates dreaming
- less activation in PFC
- majority of frontal lobe inhibited, prevents awakening
- have elements of waking life experiences + emotions but lack logic/reality testing
What is the precuneus? (TVSG)
- turns on slightly when lucid dreaming
- visual, spatial processing
- self-reflection, self-awareness
- gives info on context
What happens when we dream in terms of time? Do we dream in “real time”? (LRTBY)
- length of dream report & preceding REM related
- REM beh. disorder: movements in sync w/ real time
- time similar, unless there is stop-start, jumping from scene to scene
- body movements during REM = shifts in dream sequencing
- yes, we dream in “real time”
How do external events affect a dream? (I Rof Fi)
- incongruous to “story” but can enter dream content
REM:
- stimulus may modify dream, create mild element/change
- first night in sleep study lab: depict lab situation
- films, graphic, emotion-inducing scenes, video game content:
- intrude & influence dream content, if related to dreamer’s personal situation/emotional interests/investment
What are specific external stimuli that affect dreams? (NRMOSS)
- neutral sounds/tones, train whistle, rooster crowing, traffic, water drop on faces, light flashes, electric shock
- red light: changes hue, over several days
- memorization of nonsense sentences before sleep, has elements
- own voice: become more assertive, helpful, independent or active
- someone else’s voice: become more passive, observer
- starving/thirsty: content could be related to theme
What is the scanning hypothesis?
extra-ocular muscular movement during REM identical to eye movements when we scan environment
Do eye movements indicate looking around?
- scanning hypothesis
- motor activity generated by brain as dreamer visually connects during dream
- vertical plane = watching object fall, or up to sky & back to ground
- horizontal plane = looking at wide field, people at social gathering
- blind (from birth/before 5yrs): no eye movement, only EEG & EMG indicators of REM
What are counter-arguments of the scanning hypothesis?
- newborns: much eye movement in REM but vision not developed
- cats: eye movements jerky, solely horizontal & related to PGO sharp waves, causing non-specific bursts of brain activity, not related to “seeing”
- human adults: difficult to predict eye movements in any state
What is the release hypothesis of dreams?
- instinct “relief valves” for pent-up basic unacceptable unconscious drives not relieved due to societal/personal constraints
- thoughts/actions
- sexuality, aggression
- manifest vs. latent content
- many objects appearing in dreams “displaced” sexual thoughts, desires in which therapist finds symbolic substitutions & meanings
- Freud, traditional psychoanalysis
What is the facilitate emotional adaptation hypothesis of dreams? (HKABR)
- help to cope w/ balance of emotions, provide relief w/ current issues + prepare for future stress, life problems within safety of dream
- Jung: psychic balance, dreams reveal & assist us
- Adler: personal problem solving function
- Hobson: fMRI - activation of areas of emotion centres of brain during REM, shape content of dreams
- REM increases after day/multiple days of stress, worry & intense learning
What is the facilitate emotional adaptation hypothesis of dreams? (2)
- work directly on emotional problem, without fear of ridicule, social constraints, try out different solutions
- Hartmann: dreams make emotions into visual metaphors
- Kramer: mood regulatory hypothesis - after dreaming mood and beh. can improve, particularly with major life events, pre-post measure of mood following sleep
What is the creativity hypothesis of dreams? (1)
- several unique, original dreams
- suggest solutions to everyday problems, without restraint of logic or realism
- free from self-criticism/concern for others impressions
- reality testing can occur - once awake can discern reality, more easily recognize that our minds can create images that are not real (children)
What is the creativity hypothesis of dreams? (2)
- must be able to recognize that the dream is offering the solution
- unpredictable when it may occur, so ready to record possibilities
- musicians, chemists, engineers, writers, artists, students working on thesis…
- ….possible could have derived solution when awake, or when just falling asleep and the dream reflects this “rehearsal”
What is the play hypothesis of dreams?
- enjoyment, fun
- free to experiment, explore, “try on”
- exaggeration, variation, non-sensical purpose, actions or consequences
- try out skills, events, social relationships different from our serious life
- provide enhanced flexibility, prepare us for the future
What is the memory consolidation hypothesis of dreams?
- “off line” memory processing
- consolidating, assimilating information
- dreams are portions of recent episodes, mixed w/ older memories (biographical or sensorimotor), integration of past w/ present
- Hartmann: do not replay waking life, but create new connections, center around a theme, content changes over time
- our recall of material after REM sleep is more accurate, high protein synthesis in the brain during REM (esp. procedures, declarative memory)
- contrary evidence: anti-depressants that suppress REM, have appropriate memory function
What are other functions of dreams?
- Horne: dreams distract brain from waking up
- frontal cortex not keeping stimulation orderly or testing reality
- we accept our dreams as reality and distracts us from waking in a stage where we are close to doing so
- Revonsou: evolutionary purpose
- dreams enable a rehearsal of threats “threat script”, ways to avoid them; enhance probability of survival
- REM is a “pseudo-wake” state to test environment for danger
- McGrath, Cohen: REM is time for “systems testing”of nervous system beyond brain (highly variable activation of resp., CV, other autonomic systems)
What is the epiphenomena hypothesis of dreams?
- no function
- cognitive neuroscience approach
- Domhoff, Flanagan, Foulkes, etc
- generated as brain performing some other function that is required during sleep
- we find pattern/relationship when there is none
