The Anatomical Origin of Dreams

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There's apparently a "dream center" in the human brain.
I've read something about it in a newspaper, did some googling and found this article.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3645576.stm

It never occurred to me that dreaming could be localized. I always thought that it was a generalized process, like thinking or memory.

The thought is scary. You go to sleep one night, and never dream again.

Well, at least next time I wake up after a nightmare, I'll know which part of my scull to blame.

 

I wonder about the psychological impact of losing the ability to dream. Dreaming is a very important nightly sorting process for the brain. A lot of people share the belief that dreaming is a key factor in maintaining sanity. Even people who say that they don't dream generally do have dreams but the dreams are so deeply imbedded that they don't remember them. I would be interested in learning more about this research that the article you posted was based on.

 

I assume that the psychological impact would be disastrous, since I agree with the importance of dreams, as presented in your post, Dragonfly.
(However, it seems that the old lady in question functioned normally during the three months without dreams.)

It's a scientific fact that everyone dreams, even people who never remember their dreams.

As for the research, I was unable to access the article myself, since I'm not subscribed to the journal in question, but I'll post it's title here:

"Total Dream Loss: A Distinct Neuropsychological Dysfunction after Bilateral PCA Stroke," by Matthias Bischof and Claudio L. Bassetti, Annals of Neurology; Published Online: September 10, 2004 (DOI: 10.1002/ana.20246).

O, and I've just remembered. I've read about a study in which mice were released into a maze, and their brain activity monitored. That night, when the animals were asleep, their brain patterns repeated.

They were dreaming about the maze.

 

I have such f****d up dreams that it might be nice to lose that part of the brain for a while. Then again, it would make life less interesting.

And it's a weird thought. Something major and integral would definitely be missing.

 

What's the difference to the individual psyche with not having dreams and not remembering your dreams?

 

Iku-Turso:
If you don't remember your dreams, that doesn't mean that they can't perform the subconscious "brain maintenance" or whatever it is that they are intended to do. You simply won't be aware of their existence. Not remembering is quite normal.

If you are not dreaming at all - then you definitely get no benefits from them, conscious or otherwise.

Point being that dreams seem to be needed for something. If you don't dream, that some part of your neurology is faulty. I'm guessing that the long turn effects won't be pleasant.

Not remembering the dreams is not a problem. They work anyway.

 

Makes you wonder what causes Dajavo (spelling, sorry )

 

Magister: deja vu

You could add jamais vu too. (rhyme was unintentional )
(Presque vu is rather common place.)

 

No dreams would be bad, I think, and I'm surprised to hear from other posters that the patient described in the article seemed to suffer no ill effects.

I thought I remembered from college psych classes (OK, that was more than 30 years ago, maybe the info is outdated) that people waked up by researchers to interrupt their dream cycles had problems.

Hmm, interesting study.

 

Just as a quick aside - If anyone wants to read the article, just PM me as I can get it via my Uni.

 

Well, there's a difference between dreams and REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, in which dreams occur. The latter is apparently critical to brain maintenance, though I don't think we really know how, but the former is a big question mark. There are tons of theories out there, and this kind of a discovery may well help unlock the truth, but if she suffered no ill effects then I'd guess it isn't actually the dreaming that is critical, but rather something else that is still going on in the rest of her brain.

Also, we're discovering more and more that a lot of brain functions have distinct centers. Language has 2 or 3, the emotion fear has a unique one, what we generally consider concious thought has one, so does impulse control. Dreams having one isn't too surprising I guess.

 

Of course there is a difference between REM and dreaming, no one is saying the opposite. REM is simply often connected with dreaming, since the visual dreams occur during this sleep stage.

As for REM's significance... It is the dominant type of sleep for the fetus, and one of the theories suggests that it is important for the myelinization process. (The evidence being that the ratio of REM and non-REM sleep characteristic for adults is established about the time the myelinization in the organism is complete. )

Although, NOG, I absolutely agree with you that we don't know why is REM so critical.

Dreaming simply seemed like a delicate and complex process to me, something that would deserve more than a tiny cluster of neurons.

Tarrasque: Thank you for the offer.

 

Loreseeker, never underestimate what a tiny cluster of neurons can do.

Seriously, though, processing concepts and images into words is done by a tiny cluster of neurons. Now you may well consider that much simpler than dreaming, but its still undeniably complex.

Also, realize that this 'tiny cluster of neurons' doesn't work in a vacuum. It most likely pulls things from the entire rest of the brain, or at least significant parts of it. Think of it like a Physics card in a PC. The Physics card allows the computer to do some pretty amazing and complex things, but it hardly does everything by itself. Without the CPU, the Physics card would be useless. Without memory storage, the card would have nothing to work with. My guess is that this is more of a critical stage in the dreaming process, without which dreaming can't occur, than some kind of absolute seat of dreaming.

 

Hmm... I had probably "misphrased" my thoughts.

I meant to say that I simply never thought of dreaming as of a process with enough consistency to have a defined center, even if that center is just a part of it. A silly idea really, but the existence of something as real as a neurological center for something as incorporeal as dreaming, never crossed my mind, until I read the article. That's all.

I have no problems with the concept of brain activity as you describe it NOG, it's perfectly logical. For me brain has always been a complex web of impulses, much more than a sum of all its parts.