Journal of Sleep Research
December 1, 2019
Julie A E Christensen, Sébrina Aubin, Tore Nielsen et al.
There is ongoing controversy regarding the role of rapid eye movements (EMs) during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep. One prevailing hypothesis is that EMs during REM sleep are indicative of the presence of visual imagery in dreams. We tested the validity of this hypothesis by measuring EMs in blind subjects and correlating these with visual dream content. Eleven blind subjects, of whom five were...
Sleep Medicine
February 18, 2014
Amani Meaidi, Poul Jennum, Maurice Ptito et al.
Objectives: We aimed to assess dream content in groups of congenitally blind (CB), late blind (LB), and age- and sex-matched sighted control (SC) participants. Methods: We conducted an observational study of 11 CB, 14 LB, and 25 SC participants and collected dream reports over a 4-week period. Every morning participants filled in a questionnaire related to the sensory construction of the dream,...
Frontiers in Psychology
2011
Ron Kupers, Pietro Pietrini, Emiliano Ricciardi et al.
139 citations
Vision plays a central role in how we represent and interact with the world around us. The primacy of vision is structurally imbedded in cortical organization as about one-third of the cortical surface in primates is involved in visual processes. Consequently, the loss of vision, either at birth or later in life, affects brain organization and the way the world is perceived and acted upon. In...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
August 17, 2006
Ron Kupers, Arnaud Fumal, Alain Maertens De Noordhout et al.
After loss of a particular sensory channel, the deprived cortex can be activated by inputs from other sensory modalities. It is not known whether activation of the rewired cortex evokes subjective experiences characteristic of that cortex or consistent with the rerouted sensory information. In a previous study, blind subjects were trained to perform visual tasks with a tongue display unit, a...