Dream Consciousness pp 83-86 | Cite as
Do You Still Hold to an Activation Only Theory of the REM Sleep-Dreaming Correlation?
Abstract
Allan’s new paper, Dream Consciousness, represents the ideal function of theory, particularly in a new field such as the cognitive neuroscience of dreaming. A theory is not a belief. It is, rather, an abstract representation of what we know and might reasonably assume about the phenomena under consideration. A good theory is one that provokes enough new research for it to be revised or replaced – ideally within 5 years. This is precisely how Allan’s AIM model trumps Freud’s 1899 theory of dreaming. This new proposal that “REM sleep dreaming … provides a structural and functional building block for waking consciousness…” is based on several revisions of the original AIM model that Allan originally published in The Neuropsychology of Sleep and Dreaming (1992). Revisions of the original model were made in response to continuous new research findings both within neurophysiology and human dreaming.
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