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Your Imaging Group Has Coined the Term ‘Dream Imaging.’ Please Summarize the Concept in Relation to Dream Theory

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Dream Consciousness

Part of the book series: Vienna Circle Institute Library ((VCIL,volume 3))

Abstract

The rise of modern imaging techniques has endowed neuroscience with a new quality to enquire into cognition and consciousness. In the 1990s, positron emission tomography (PET) was utilised for the first time to address sleep-specific questions and led to intriguing insights into the neural correlates of sleep. While the brain experiences widespread deactivations during slow wave sleep, REM sleep is again associated with increased cerebral blood flow in the thalamus, visual areas and limbic regions as well as attenuated metabolism in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), parietal cortex and the precuneus (Maquet et al. 1996, 1997; Braun et al. 1998). Such a pattern of activation has been related to the phenomenology of REM sleep dreaming. Activation of visual association areas is in line with vivid dream imagery, amygdala activation with dream emotionality, and DLPFC deactivation with the lack of insight, reflexivity and volition commonly experienced in dreams (Hobson and Pace-Schott 2002; Nir and Tononi 2009; Desseilles et al. 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Max Planck Society, Munich, Germany

    Martin Dresler, Victor Spoormaker, Renate Wehrle & Michael Czisch

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  1. Martin Dresler
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  2. Victor Spoormaker
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  3. Renate Wehrle
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  4. Michael Czisch
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Correspondence to Martin Dresler .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Harvard Medical School, Salem, New Hampshire, USA

    Nicholas Tranquillo

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Dresler, M., Spoormaker, V., Wehrle, R., Czisch, M. (2014). Your Imaging Group Has Coined the Term ‘Dream Imaging.’ Please Summarize the Concept in Relation to Dream Theory. In: Tranquillo, N. (eds) Dream Consciousness. Vienna Circle Institute Library, vol 3. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07296-8_13

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