On Dream Consciousness
My reflections on Dreams & Neurophysiology of REM Sleep from a Cognitive Neuroscience Perspective
The Dream of Solomon by Luca Giordano
Dream consciousness is remarkably similar to waking consciousness, though there are several intriguing differences in volition, self-awareness and reflection, affect, and memory, and there is great variability between individual dreams. The neurophysiology of REM sleep, and in particular recent insights into its regional activity patterns, offers a useful starting point for relating dream phenomenology to underlying brain activity.
However, the initial equation of REM sleep with dreaming has been shown to be inaccurate. Thus, it is time we moved beyond sleep stages when trying to link dream consciousness to neuronal events, and focused on more subtle features of brain activity in space and time. The Brain Lesion injury considers Neurophysiology & Functional Imaging which has substantially progressed our insight into the Neural premise of dreaming making it conceivable to begin coordinating these two strands of examination to resolve the same key inquiries that dreams pose for Cognitive Neuroscience. Moreover, how cognizant encounters in sleeping states identify with fundamental brain movements & also why the dreamer is to a great extent separated from its environmental setting regardless of whether dreaming is all the more firmly identified with mental symbolism or to perception itself.
To acquire knowledge into the phenomenology and Neural basis of dreams, it is valuable to think about both the similarities & differences b/w waking consciousness & dreaming consciousness & to relate these distinctions to changes in brain movement & its association. Dreams also contain sounds (including speech and conversation), and more rarely tactile percepts, smells and tastes, as well as pleasure and pain. In many dreams, perceptual modalities and submodalities that rule in wakefulness are vigorously addressed. Dreams are profoundly visual, in full colour, wealthy in shapes, loaded with development, and consolidate average wakefulness classes like individuals, objects, faces etc. Hence, Dreams likewise contain sounds, tastes & scents and tastes.
I guess reduced self-monitoring in dreams may be related to the deactivation of brain regions such as the posterior cingulate cortex, inferior parietal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex— although I’m not quite sure. During dreaming there is a noticeable decrease involuntary control of activity and thought. We can't seek after objectives and have zero influence over the dream substance.
-Sanjana Singh/16.11.2021