111. 14. These findings do not necessarily mean that such areas are involved in generating dreaming. The hypothesis has been recently put forward by Revonsuo (2000) that the function of dreaming is to simulate threatening events, and to rehearse threat perception and threat avoidance (111). The meaning of dreams is therefore still an unsolved problem. Hansotia P, Broste S, Ruggles K, Wall R, Friske M. Eye movement patterns in REM sleep. The other is that dreams are caused Around 1860, Kohlschtter, a young medical student in Germany, showed that the threshold to awake humans by auditory stimulation oscillates along the night (4,8). Baldissera F, Broggi G. An analysis of potential changes in the spinal cord during desynchronized sleep. 90. Two major theories have been proposed regarding the neural circuits involved in dreaming. Vertes RB, Eastman KE. Accessibility Weed & Halam listed in 1896 (4,7) the proportion of several kinds of dreams as related to their sensory content. Our hypothesis is that the cerebellum is involved in overall corrections of the components of all kinds of behavior, including sleep. Gottesmann C. Theta rhythm: the brain stem involvement. Brain Res 1990;517:224-8. Brain Mechanism and Perceptual Awareness. After transection of the brain stem at the pontomesencephalic transition, rostrally to locus coeruleus, desynchronized sleep still occurs below the transection (10,90-93). Moruzzi G. Active processes in the brain stem during sleep. Freuds wish-fulfillment. Arch Ital Biol 1965;103:369-96. Doneshka P, Kehaiyov A. Rerum Natura, I et II. Reactivation of hippocampal ensemble memories during sleep. (1987) suggested the occurrence of two kinds of eye movements during dreams, one associated to the very dream content, another of reflex nature, that may be involved in those occurring in children and in blind people but such a hypothesis is unlikely to be valid (35). During the nineteenth century several physiologists and neuropsychiatrists tried to understand the mechanisms and meaning of dreams. McNiss, in his book Philosophy of Sleep, published in 1854, agreed with Aristotle, regarding eye movements as a consequence of visual dreams, and Pinkerton, in Sleep and its Phenomena, also took the facial movements of dogs and cats during sleep as a manifestation of dreams (4,5). It seems that not only humans but also dogs, cows, sheep and goats and the entire family of four-legged viviparous animals do dream. A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that occur for the most part involuntarily during certain stages of sleep. Roldan E, Weiss TT. Arch Gen Psychiat 1966;14:238-48. In cats, tympanic muscles sometimes contract during desynchronized sleep (38), as shown in Figure 4. (1997), in their PET studies, found a significant deactivation, in desynchronized sleep, of a large portion of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, what was found also by Madsen et al. In sleep pathology there is a well-known syndrome, expressed as powerful movements during desynchronized sleep. 108. The PubMed wordmark and PubMed logo are registered trademarks of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). HHS Vulnerability Disclosure, Help In cats, Thomas & Benoit (18) have found oniric activity during synchronized sleep, similar to what we described in rats as pre-paradoxical sleep (19,20) as intermediate phase. In 1999, Ribeiro et al., assaying zif-268 expression in control rats and in rats subjected to a rich environment training, found that in control animals this gene protein generally decreased, mainly in the cerebral cortex, from wakefulness to synchronized sleep and from synchronized to desynchronized sleep (109). J Neurophysiol 1938;1:413-30. In normal humans they found that around 20% of the dreams contain a vestibular component (vertigo, sensation of head drop) but in people with a vestibular illness the proportion of such dreams increased to over 70%, as expected from the close relationship between dreams and the events occurring in the previous day (39). 83. Selective deactivation of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has been found in desynchronized sleep. Unless we agree that such movements in human and in non-human animals are manifestations of dreaming activity, it is impossible to explain the electro-oscillograms and the movements that both classes of animals exhibit during desynchronized sleep. Xu Q, Xie H, Zheng D, Wu X, Zhang Y, Li T, Yan T. J Pers Med. Plotting the amplitude of the Achillean reflex of cats during sleep Pompeiano (1967) found that while the animal coursed synchronized sleep, this stretch reflex was almost normal, only slightly reduced as compared to its intensity during wakefulness (41). Respiratory frequency decreases during the entire sleep cycle but is phasically activated during dreaming because it is a vegetative function that has to be increased in any behavior, including the oniric ones. Differentiating Oneiric Stupor in Agrypnia Excitata From Dreaming Disorders. As pointed It has, however, been utilized with a great success in sleep studies. Takakusaki K, Ohta y, Mori S. Single medullary reticulospinal neurons exert postsynaptic inhibitory effects via inhibitory interneurons upon alpha-motoneurons innervating cat hindlimb muscles. The motoneuron inhibition, responsible for the sleep atonia and abolition of movements, is not complete in infancy (figure 5). Jouvet (12,119), one of the most important researchers on sleep, suggests that dreaming is "a guardian and programmer of the hereditary part of our personality" and as such it plays a role in our general behavior. This allows us to see the irrational as a normal event, while emotional processing and symbolic identities can be explored. It is not known if such a mechanism does exist in humans; if it exists, what is highly possible, we can reason that it is the activity of the chemoreceptor system that senses pO2 that keeps us alive during desynchronized sleep. Time course of foslike immunoreactivity associated with cholinergically induced REM sleep. Instead, they thought that dreams were not provoked by spirits, ghosts or gods, which took over the mind to express themselves through dreaming. 78. 67. World Fed Sleep Res Soc Newsletter 1997;5:22-3. 40. Electroencephal Clin Neurophysiol 1966;21:562-77. Therefore, any neural event, be it running or just thinking, or dreaming, requires a large amount of oxygen, which is carried to the nervous system by the blood through powerful hemodynamic adjustments, such as increase in blood pressure, heart rate and central blood flow (21,25,26). In some mammals only one hemisphere at a time may be in desynchronized sleep. What is the University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1963. In the past, most civilizations boasted having wise people who could tell the meaning of dreams if conveniently paid for that, a fancy profession that still has its counterparts in modern nations. Physiological-functioning theor y was supported in a 2009 paper written by J. Allan 130. Electrical potentials recorded from the medial vestibular nuclei precede eye movements by 20 to 30 milliseconds, which points to these nuclei as the last synaptic stations in the pathway that produces eye movements during desynchronized sleep. As a matter of fact, manifestations of dreaming have been identified in many species, including chickens, chimpanzees, cats, rats and in some birds. Mori S, Matysuyama K, Kohyama J, Kobayashi y, Takakusaki K. Neuronal constituents of postural and locomotor control systems and their interactions in cats. 2022 Nov 3;12(11):1832. doi: 10.3390/jpm12111832. Noda H, Adey WR. Sigmund Freuds theory of dreams suggests that dreams represent unconscious desires, thoughts, wish fulfillment, and motivations. Motoneuron inhibition is mild in the early post-birth days and increases according to a saturation curve (60). Such patterns mimic oniric eye movements, which may occur in functional coincidence or not with the visual scenes that are dreamed of. J Abnorm Psychol 1982;91:433-6. 126. For instance, during desynchronized sleep theta waves, in rats, are highly coherent in nucleus reticularis pontis oralis and in the fronto-parietal cortex, as well as with the hippocampus (78). Maquet P, Pters J, Aerts J, Delfiore G, Degueldre C, Luxen A, Franck G. Nature. Several authors also quantified the kinds of dreams as related to their sensory content. Arch Ital Biol 1962;100:216-22. J Neurophysiol 1954;17:532-57. However, human oniric behaviors are also expressed as lips, tongue and facial movements, as well as fingers, toes and whole limbs jerks, as described above. J Ment Nerv Dis 1966;141:623-50. This site needs JavaScript to work properly. Muscle atonia during desynchronized sleep is, as stated above, generated in the alpha-coeruleus nucleus and involves both direct and indirect pathways that inhibit the motoneurons. The oscillation of the sleep depth as cycles, as is well known presently, is quite clear in this figure. Behav Brain Res 1995;69:203-6. In: C. Guilleminaut, W. C. Dement and P. Passouant (eds.) Candia et al. Two major theories have been proposed regarding the neural circuits involved in dreaming. Proc Natl Acad Sci 1989;86:8737-41. Recently a more acceptable evidence in favor of the consolidation hypothesis arises from the study of a gene involved in neuronal activation This gene protein, zif-268 (98), binds to a specific DNA molecule present in the promoters of a variety of genes expressed in the nervous system (99) and its up-regulation is thought to initiate a program of gene regulation leading to neuronal plasticity (100). ), Ermdung, Schlaf un Traum, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Sttutgart 1971:123-172. Cole AJ, Saffen DW, Baraban JM, Worley PF. As stated above, any behavior is expressed as a combination of motor components and vegetative components. Proposed by Harvard psychiatrists J. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley in 1977, the theory posits that dreams are your brains attempts to make sense of random patterns of firing neurons while you slumber. Ergebn. It is interesting to consider that while muscles all over the body are paralyzed during sleep, respiration is little affected, except that some muscles in the upper respiratory airways are inhibited during sleep (44). Arch Ital Biol 1965;103:25-44. Dreams during REM sleep tend to be longer, more vivid, more story-like, and more bizarre than those during NREM sleep. 125. 47. In rats we found similar potentials in the amygdala as related to olfactory dreams, expressed as rostrum movements (32). The value of r is as high as 0.9618 when theta waves in the hippocampal CA1 field of one side are matched with those in the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis, what points to a close temporal relationship between theta waves in hippocampus and in the nucleus reticularis pontis oralis. 50. However, reflex penile erection is facilitated after spinal transection whereas mesencephalic transections significantly increase the latency to its reflex induction, without affecting the percentage of tests eliciting an erectile event. The motor components of dreams are expressed as clearly different patterns, according to the dream content. Jouvet M. Neurophysiology of the states of sleep. As a prevailing concept even today, dreams were considered premonitory, messages from the dead and mystical warnings. 12. Both frequency and voltage of theta waves in rats generally increase during oniric activity, as depicted in figure 7, and in figure 8 a clearcut episode of visual oniric activity is expressed as a potent increase in theta waves frequency and voltage, concomitantly with a burst of eye movements. Brainstem Control of Wakefulness and Sleep. the apparitions. Absence of ponto-geniculo-occipital (PGO) spikes in rats. Klein M, Michel F, Jouvet M. tude polygraphique du sommeil chez les oiseaux. Fortunately, thanks to this peculiar incomplete motoneuron inhibition we are able to record movements occurring in both humans and non-human animals and thus infer the presence of dreams. As such, this explanation may be interpreted as a way of doing something that we should never be allowed to do without paying for it. The number of PGO potentials undergoes a high increase after the frontal ablation, which is suggestive of a tonic inhibition of these potentials by the frontal cortex. Arch Ital Biol 1963;101:648-68. Ribeiro S, Goyal V, Mello CV, Pavlides C. Brain gene expression during REM sleep depends on prior waking experience. 18. The very essence of dreams is, certainly, memorized information. In addition, zif-268 is up-regulated in several novelty or learning behavioral paradigms, including two-way active avoidance (104), brightness discrimination (105), and enriched environment exposure (106). Dreams and Nightmares in Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Review. Sakai K, Sastre JP, Kanamori N, Jouvet M. State-specific neurons in the ponto-medullary reticular formation with special reference to the postural atonia during paradoxical sleep in the cat. Webanalyzing dreams. In 1944 Obhlmeyer, Brilmayer & Uhlstrung (10) observed that in humans penile erection occurs during sleep at intervals of 85 minutes, which is the average duration of a sleep cycle. Decety J, Jeannerod M, Durozard DR, Baveal J. Some more recent theories of dreaming emphasize an adaptive function related to emotion and a role in learning and memory consolidation. 29. The American psychologist Mary Whiton Calkins published in 1893 an important, although entirely unkwnown, article under the title Statistics of Dreams, wherein she introduced the technique of arousing people when they moved parts of the body during sleep and asking them to report their dreams (4,7). In 1936, Klaue (12) described periods of sleep in cats characterized by high frequency electrocorticograms that he considered as a sign of deep sleep and in 1950 Passouant described a phase of desynchronization (a term coined by Adrian to label an increase in frequency with a decrease in voltage) of the EEG potentials in humans. A theory that has many The command character of theta waves is probably the reason why such potentials occur almost simultaneously in different brain structures. During the medieval era in Spain, by then the very cultural center of Europe (probably of the entire world), and mainly in the 13th century, some Muslim Arabs and Jewish rabis, centered in Cordoba rediscovered the Greek literature, that had been concealed by early Christianism, and translated all that important work into Latin, Arabic and Hebraic. Xerxes, in fact, had discovered an important aspect of dreams but his oracle discarded such an explanation, in favor of the mystic one. Kohyama T, Hori A, Sato T, Nikami T, yamaki T, Veda S. Changes in cerebral blood flow velocity in healthy young men during overnight sleep and while awake. The leading theory of dreaming in the early decades of this research was the psychoanalytic, which views dreams as highly meaningful reflections of unconscious mental functioning. With developments in understanding of the neurophysiology of REM sleep, new theories of dreaming were proposed. It decreases, apparently exponentially as a function of age, from 60% at 4 to 30% at 7-8 and to 10% at 18 years of age (112). Whereas Freud was convinced that dream forgetting was an active function of repression, Hobson, Pace-Schott & Stickgold (2000) attribute the failure to recall a dream to a state-dependent amnesia caused by aminergic demodulation of the sleeping brain (120). Braz J Med Biol Res 1996;29:1645-50. Theta waves, discovered by Jung and Kornmller in 1938 (72), were extensively studied by Green & Arduini (73), who proved they are related to arousal. Thomas J, Benoit O. Individualisation d'un sommeil ondes lentes et activit phasique. In cats desynchronized sleep appears also as tonic cortical desynchronization (figure 3) but in the hippocampus, septal area and amygdala theta waves predominate, as in rats and rabbits. In: Antrobus, J.S. Brain Develop 1994;16:81-91. The most prominent, the activation-synthesis hypothesis, derived its view of dreaming directly from the neurophysiology of REM sleep, in particular the role of the brain stem, and in its original form regarded dreams as not essentially meaningful. Doctoral thesis, Federal University of So Paulo, 1995. In decerebrate cats eye movements do occur and are integrated below the midbrain (67,95). Gassel MM, Marchiafava PL, Pompeiano O. 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