Dreaming and the brain: Toward a cognitive neuroscience of conscious states

Sleep researchers in different disciplines disagree about how fully dreaming can be explained in terms of brain physiology. Debate has focused on whether REM sleep dreaming is qualitatively different from nonREM (NREM) sleep and waking. A review of psychophysiological studies shows clear quantitativ...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Behavioral and brain sciences 2000-12, Vol.23 (6), p.793-842
Main Authors: Hobson, J. Allan, Pace-Schott, Edward F., Stickgold, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Brain
Brain - physiology
Brain Mapping
Cognition & reasoning
Consciousness
dreaming
Dreams
Dreams - physiology
Humans
neuroimaging
Neurology
neuromodulation
NREM
phenomenology
Psychophysiology
qualia
REM
Sleep
Sleep Stages - physiology
Sleep, REM - physiology
Space life sciences
Wakefulness - physiology
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Summary:Sleep researchers in different disciplines disagree about how fully dreaming can be explained in terms of brain physiology. Debate has focused on whether REM sleep dreaming is qualitatively different from nonREM (NREM) sleep and waking. A review of psychophysiological studies shows clear quantitative differences between REM and NREM mentation and between REM and waking mentation. Recent neuroimaging and neurophysiological studies also differentiate REM, NREM, and waking in features with phenomenological implications. Both evidence and theory suggest that there are isomorphisms between the phenomenology and the physiology of dreams. We present a three-dimensional model with specific examples from normally and abnormally changing conscious states.
ISSN:0140-525X
1469-1825
DOI:10.1017/S0140525X00003976