Dreaming: What’s Going on?

• Dream behavior

• Theories of Dreaming

• Conclusions– What can we learn from our dreams?

• Are they meaningful? True / predictive?

• Basic Methodology (if we have time…)

Some Questions:

• Are Dreams meaningful--what do they mean?• Are the predictive or “true”?• How do they differ from other states?• What is their function do they even have one?• Are they brain functions or mind functions?

Dream behavior & description

• Within sleep

• Amount

• Brainwave activity & bodily quietude– the paradox

• REM

Dreams & REM sleep

• REM amount & periodicity

• Brainstem cholinergic & adrenergic promoting & inhibiting areas

• A regular activity rooted in the brain

Outline

• Characteristics and Descriptions

• Theories of Dreaming

• Conclusions– What can we learn from our dreams?

• Are they meaningful? True / predictive?

• Basic Methodology (if we have time…)

Theories of Dreaming

• Dreams as meaningful events:• Freud (& Jung)

(--Poetzel effect)

--Aserinsky, Dement & Kleitman implications

• Hall/Cartright• Dreams as random activity (Hobson +)• Synthesis (perhaps)

Psychoanalytic Theory

• Mental conflict• Unconscious motivations• Two forces: impulses & defenses (repression)• Dreams as a release• Dreamwork and its results

– Latent dream– Manifest dream– Remembered dream

Dreamwork and forgetting as protective mechanisms

Poetzel Effect,

Freud & Neuroimaging

• Michael Anderson- Validates Repression: Forebrain active in inhibiting hippocampus on repressed items

• Allen Braun: Limbic system-emotion active during REM)• Prefrontal cortex (working mem. Att’n, logic & self-monitoring)

inactive during REM• Above consistent with dream bizarreness & emotional

disinhibition/wish fulfillment• Visual cortex inactive but higher visual areas active so we see

w.o. visual input- one of the amazing things about dreaming!

Freud & Neuroimaging (Mark Solms)

Injured Pons vs. injured Forebrain-Pons-disrupts REM but dreaming goes on. -Forebrain-lose dreaming but REM goes on.-Also, some dreaming outside of REM

Role of Motivation (in addition to emotional areas)-Prefrontal leukotomy (white matter in ventro-medial forebrain area) decreases dopamine release. It’s a motivational area “seeking” behavior. -Hartmann: administering dopamine supercharges dreaming! Freudian tie between motiv. & dreaming.

Variations on Psychoanalytic Explanation + Challenges

• Aserinsky, Dement & Kleitman: REM & implications• Hall and Cartwright: Dream Series• Challenging Views • Dreams as random activity (Hobson +)• Synthesis (perhaps)

Other Neuroscience Views

• Crick: Purge extraneous connections

• Evans: Sorting function on day’s events

• Winson: Sorting for survival: Neurons reactivated during dreams

• Wilson: Rat Dream article- maze learning during dreams

• Hobson: random activity & activation-synthesis hypothesis

Hobson: Dream Transformations

• From: inanimate animate character

• To:

• inanimate 21 0 0

• Animate 2 0 7

• Character 0 0 14

Dream CharacteristicsLack of active volition

Absence of ongoing reflective judgment

Limited to phenomena of the immediate present

Diffuse cognitive slippage--dreamlike confusion-transformations of perception, thought, memory, emotion,relationships, etc.

Gaps in experience: 20%Confusion of thought & irrational intuitions: 41%Problems in sustained attention: 5%Memory deficiencies within the dream: 15%

Overall, even 51% of "clearest dreams" had clouding of cs. --Usually not radical (scz, psychedelic) but rather more like that of waking life

Can even have hallucinations or psychedelic exper. in dreams (as in waking life!) ex. flying 4%, bizarre figures,4%, changed identity 3%, LSD-like transformations of vision 13%. Mostly visual 47%. Somatic 10%, audit. 14%.

Conclusions

• Can we obtain meaningful insights about ourselves through our dreams?

• What can we learn from our dreams?• Are they meaningful? true /

predictive/useful?• Dream problem-solving (Lowie, Kekule)!

Outline

• Characteristics and Descriptions

• Theories of Dreaming

• Conclusions– What can we learn from our dreams?

• Are they meaningful? True / predictive?

• Basic Methodology

Basic Methodology

• Experimentation– Independent vs. Dependent variables– Observational vs. Experimental studies

• Causation vs. Correlation• Experimental “control”

Making Observations• Scientific observations often begin with a

question or hypothesis.• The hypothesis must be testable.• This calls for an operational definition of key

terms to specify the study’s dependent variable.

• Data must also be systematically collected.• Researchers ignore anecdotal evidence.

Defining the Sample

• Based on observations of a sample, psychologists want to draw conclusions about a broad population.

• Random sampling• All members of the population have an

equal chance of being picked to participate.

• Researchers also use other procedures, including stratified sampling and case studies.

The Power of Experiments

• The two groups must be matched at the outset of the experiment.

• To ensure matching groups, researchers use:• random assignment (ex. Clinical trials)• within-subject comparison.

• taking precautions to address problems created by the sequence of conditions

The Control Condition

Assessing External Validity

• Researchers want their study to mirror circumstances of the broader world.• external validity

• External validity depends on many factors. • The study should not change behaviors the

researchers hope to understand.

Assessing External Validity

• One concern here involves the study’s possible demand characteristics:• cues that can signal to participants how

they’re supposed to behave

• One way of avoiding this problem is to use a double-blind design.

Measurement

• The Description of Data– Central tendency

• Mean, median, mode

– Variability• Variance• Standard deviation

– Correlation & significance level

Measurement

T H

HT

TH HHTT

T = tailsH = heads

Correlation Coefficients (0 – 1)