Roffwarg HP, Adrien J, Herman J, Pessah M, Spiro R, Bowe-Anders C. The middle ear muscle activity in the neurophysiology and psychophysiology of the REM state. 96. The discovery of REM sleep kickstarted a flurry of scientific research into the mechanisms of the sleeping brain. In blind people, whose auditory and somesthetic sensitivity is enhanced, auditory dreams predominate, as expected from their high auditory sensibility. 88. Many hypotheses have been advanced but so far they do not explain why and what for we do dream. PMC The Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, 1967;45:352-423. NeuroReport 1995;6:532-6. 4 According to Freud, The caudalmost portion of this system (then labeled descending hypnogenic cholinergic) comprises the ventral and dorsal Gudden's nuclei, whose stimulation with carbachol triggered sleep in nearly 20 seconds. Brain Res 1996;770:192-201. National Library of Medicine 24. Plenum Press, 1990. Doctoral thesis, Federal University of So Paulo, 1995. & Bertini, M. Gadea-Ciria M. Plasticity of ponto-geniculo-occipital waves during paradoxical sleep after frontal lobe lesions in the cat. Brain Res 1979;176:233-54. Accordingly, the H reflex, an equivalent to the Achillean reflex that is provoked not by stretching the gastrocnemius tendon but by applying electrical pulses to its afferents in the sciatic nerve, is highly depressed during this phase of sleep (48). Neurosc Res 1993;17:181-202. Later, theta waves were also found in rats during both attentive wakefulness and desynchronized sleep (19,30,31,74-76). 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. Villablanca J. Behavioral and polygraphic study of the "sleep" and "wakefulness" in chronic decerebrate cats. Sleep Res 1973;4:65. Bethesda, MD 20894, Web Policies 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. Unless we agree that such movements in human and in non-human animals are manifestations of dreaming activity, it is impossible to explain the electro-oscillograms and the movements that both classes of animals exhibit during desynchronized sleep. Fratelli Bocca Editori, Torino 1899. Arch Gen Psychiat 1966;14:238-48. Fortunately, thanks to this peculiar incomplete motoneuron inhibition we are able to record movements occurring in both humans and non-human animals and thus infer the presence of dreams. The hypothesis has been recently put forward by Revonsuo (2000) that the function of dreaming is to simulate threatening events, and to rehearse threat perception and threat avoidance (111). Nature 1989;304:111-4. 18. Arch Psychiat Nervenkrankh 1938;109:1-17. When a dream is a nightmare, both motor and vegetative events may be very intense. J Neurosci 1995;15:3500-8. Such important discoveries were buried by the impact of psychoanalysis, which was created soon after Calkins' work was published. The same holds true for animals that live in water, such as fishes, molusks, crustacea and other similar animals; it is impossible to invoke as a proof that they do sleep the shutting of their eyes, inasmuch as they do not have eyelids but it is obvious that they periodically do rest, immobile, what perhaps does explain why at night their predators attack them heavily and devour them. The posterior areas affected in this syndrome are the visual areas V3, V3a and V4 (97). Some more recent theories of dreaming emphasize an adaptive function related to emotion and a role in learning and memory consolidation. Before Stern W, Forbes WN, Morgane PJ. There are two kinds of vegetative components: 1. Usually r is very high between area 17 (visual cortex) and the hippocampus. We propose that the function of dream sleep (more properly rapid-eye movement or REM sleep) is to remove certain undesirable modes of interaction in 10. These findings do not necessarily mean that such areas are involved in generating dreaming. With the development of scientific technology, many theories of dreaming have been established. 126. 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. ), Ermdung, Schlaf un Traum, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Sttutgart 1971:123-172. Progr Neurobiol 1984;22:241-88. Herodotus, in his Histories, the first textbook on History ever written, tells that the Persian King Xerxes dreamed quite often about the war he was about to fight against Athens. 5. During this bright period of the Middle Ages some physicians also reasoned about dreams. In such a condition, the brain produces a behavior that immobilizes the animal, in order to simulate it is dead and may thus become uninteresting to a predator that is in search of fresh flesh. 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. 62. J Neurophysiol 1966;29:871-87. 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. Takakusaki K, Ohta y, Mori S. Single medullary reticulospinal neurons exert postsynaptic inhibitory effects via inhibitory interneurons upon alpha-motoneurons innervating cat hindlimb muscles. Web5 Theories on dreaming . Desseilles M, Dang-Vu TT, Sterpenich V, Schwartz S. Conscious Cogn. Even in humans, such electrophysiological, motor and vegetative signs of oniric activity are enough to know that a dream is going on. The ancient Chinese scientific inquiry tried to understand dreaming but usually also considered them mistically. Solms M. Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms. Eye movements during dreaming are usually expressed as potentials of different voltages, which can be interpreted as due to distinct movements performed as a function of the movements of the dreamed of objects. ), Ermdung, Schlaf und Traum, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Sttutgart 1971:173-242. The result of such conscious identification is a dream. Much effort was devoted to searching for parallels between physiological aspects of REM sleep and characteristics of associated dreams, with modest results. Human cerebral potentials associated with rapid eye movements during REM sleep. Am J Physiol 1937;118:8-14. Mirmiran M, Van den Dungen H, Uylings HBM. 78. Noda H, Adey WR. Marini G. Motor phenomena during sleep. Reticulospinal and reticulobulbar tracts are involved in conveying to the motoneurons the impulses that cause oniric movements. Foulkes D. A cognitive-psychological model of REM dream production. Ann Rev Psychol 1990;41:557-884. In decerebrate cats eye movements do occur and are integrated below the midbrain (67,95). In: C. Guilleminaut, W. C. Dement and P. Passouant (eds.) 15. 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). News Physiol Sci 1998;13:91-7. Vertes RP. The meaning of dreams is therefore still an unsolved problem. 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. Therefore, alpha-coeruleus nucleus is mobilized by the mechanisms that generate desynchronized sleep and exerts its inhibitory action through the reticulospinal pathways, as well as through pathways that go to the brain stem motor nuclei. 8. Electroencerph Clin Neurophysiol 1964;17:617-29. Perachio AA. By visually examining the amplitude of theta waves in these examples it seems they vary at random but when the instant variation of voltage is plotted as a function of time, a regular variation appears during the phasic movements (figure 10). 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. Candia O, Favale E, Guissani A, Rossi G. Blood pressure during natural sleep and during sleep induced by electrical stimulation of the brain stem reticular formation. 2. Pompeiano and his group produced important knowledge in this field (41,42), showing that the muscle contractions that produce the motor component of oniric behaviors, such as eye and limb movements, need that the pontine gigantocellularis nucleus be intact and activated. The command character of theta waves is probably the reason why such potentials occur almost simultaneously in different brain structures. Physiology and Psychology. A theory that has many followers is the one that connects dreams, in particular, desynchronized sleep in general, with memory consolidation. Gardner Jr R, Grossman WI, Roffwarg HP, Weiner H. The relationship of small limb movements during REM sleep to dreamed limb action. 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. Role of pontine tegmentum for locomotor control in mesencephalic cat. Grimm R, Tischmeyer W. Complex patterns of immediate gene induction in rat brain following brightness discrimination training and pseudotraining. 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. In 1936, Klaue (12) described periods of sleep in cats characterized by high frequency electrocorticograms that he considered as a sign of deep sleep and in 1950 Passouant described a phase of desynchronization (a term coined by Adrian to label an increase in frequency with a decrease in voltage) of the EEG potentials in humans. 41. With developments in understanding of the neurophysiology of REM sleep, new theories of dreaming were proposed. Mol Brain Sci 1995;32:211-20. Rapid increase of an immediate early gene messenger RNA in hippocampal neurons by synaptic NMDA receptor activation. 83. Around 1860, Kohlschtter, a young medical student in Germany, showed that the threshold to awake humans by auditory stimulation oscillates along the night (4,8). 118. Stimulus response theory of dream: The stimulus response theory which existed prior to Freud is based upon the associationistic stimulus response view. This theory stresses the relationship between brain changes during sleep and changes in perceptual efficiency. Some disturbing stimuli force activity into one portion of the cerebral cortex. As will be shown below, in rats, that are macrosmatic animals, rostrum (snout) movements predominate during desynchronized sleep over eye movements (31,32). In: Baust, W. Schmidt MH, Sakai K, Valatrix JL, Jouvet M. The effects of spinal mesencephalic transections on sleep-related erections and ex-copula penile reflexes in the rat. During the first half of the twentieth century, despite the heavy influence of psychoanalysis, dreaming was again but sporadically studied scientifically. 117. Desynchronized sleep in early life may be an indicator for the degree of brain maturation and promoter of further brain maturation. It is likely that even strong stimuli may be ineffective in producing an arousal during sleep if they are trivial, whereas light stimulation containing relevant information may be highly efficient. 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. Therefore, the wider is the eye rotation, the higher is the recorded potential, which occurs when the eyes are scanning the environment. Electroencephal Clin Neurophysiol 1987;66:383-90. 57. Mirmiran M, Van Someren E. The importance of REM sleep for brain maturation. 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). Doneshka & Kehaiyov (1978) reported dreams with striking vestibular sensations. 16. Descending projections from the dorsolateral pontine tegmentum to the paramedian reticular nucleus of the caudal medulla in the cat. 1. In: Antrobus, J.S. Later, school and work dominate the mental field and the main features in dreams also change accordingly, supporting this hypothesis. It would appear that the intense activation of desynchronized sleep must overcome this demodulation and persist into subsequent waking, in order for very vivid dreams to be remembered. and transmitted securely. 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). Neuroscience 1997;81:893-926. Ergebn. San Diego, 1973. (1991) and Lovblad et al. The correlation between dream content and the oniric movements was first studied by Aristotle, who identified lip, eye and limb movements and correctly related them to what was being dreamed of. The latter are absolutely necessary for any neural activity to occur, inasmuch as the oxygen required by the nervous system amounts to 20% of the total oxygen consumption (near ten times as much as the average of the body as a whole). 110. A comparison of presleep and REM sleep thematic content. 84. The meaning of dreams. 127. A regular oscillation modulates the amplitude of the potentials. Moruzzi G. Sleep and instinctive behavior. Raven Press, New york 1981:405-429. 43. This is an additional fact to point to the activation of other mechanisms capable of producing wakefulness and desynchronized sleep, including dreaming. In: Baust, W. Important dream theories are Freud's interpretation of dreams, Dreams during REM sleep tend to be longer, more vivid, more story-like, and more bizarre than those during NREM sleep. 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). Sigmund Freuds theory of dreams suggests that dreams represent unconscious desires, thoughts, wish fulfillment, and motivations. As a prevailing concept even today, dreams were considered premonitory, messages from the dead and mystical warnings. The gamma-alpha loop has been shown to play no role in producing the movements that characterize dreaming. In: Klemm, W. R. & Vertes, R. P. Their data do not depart from modern studies of the same kind. 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. 80. Afferent transmission in the somesthetic pathways is inhibited during desynchronized sleep (45-47) and may be the main reason of the powerful inhibition of stretch reflexes in desynchronized sleep. Electroencephal Clin Neurophysiol 1966;21:562-77. Kohyama T, Hori A, Sato T, Nikami T, yamaki T, Veda S. Changes in cerebral blood flow velocity in healthy young men during overnight sleep and while awake. Control in mesencephalic cat, Uylings HBM of an immediate early gene messenger RNA in hippocampal by... Lesions in the animals subjected to a rich-environment zif-268 increased significantly from synchronized to desynchronized,! 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