Predictive coding, multisensory integration, and attentional control: A multicomponent framework for lucid dreaming.
Péter Simor, Tamás Bogdány, Philippe Peigneux
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences November 1, 2022 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2123418119 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Lucid dreaming Dreaming |
| Keywords | Multisensory integration Predictive processing Sleep disorders |
| Citations | 23 |
| Key points | Proposes that lucid dreaming arises from prediction error signals during sleep, resolved by a superordinate self-model integrating ambiguous stimuli, with attentional control regulating multisensory integration. |
Abstract
Lucid dreaming (LD) is a mental state in which we realize not being awake but are dreaming while asleep. It often involves vivid, perceptually intense dream images as well as peculiar kinesthetic sensations, such as flying, levitating, or out-of-body experiences. LD is in the cross-spotlight of cognitive neuroscience and sleep research as a particular case to study consciousness, cognition, and the neural background of dream experiences. Here, we present a multicomponent framework for the study and understanding of neurocognitive mechanisms and phenomenological aspects of LD. We propose that LD is associated with prediction error signals arising during sleep and occurring at higher or lower levels of the processing hierarchy. Prediction errors are resolved by generating a superordinate self-model able to integrate ambiguous stimuli arriving from sensory periphery and higher-order cortical regions. While multisensory integration enables lucidity maintenance and contributes to peculiar kinesthetic experiences, attentional control facilitates multisensory integration by dynamically regulating the balance between the influence of top-down mental models and the precision weighting of bottom-up sensory inputs. Our novel framework aims to link neural correlates of LD with current concepts of sleep and arousal regulation and provide testable predictions on interindividual differences in LD as well as neurocognitive mechanisms inducing lucid dreams.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on lucid dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up | 2009 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| What I make up when I wake up: anti-experience views and narrative fabrication of dreams | 2013 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| New perspectives for the study of lucid dreaming: From brain stimulation to philosophical theories of self-consciousness | 2010 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Lucid dreaming: Evidence and methodology | 2000 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |
Citations in the library
Cited by 11
- To be or not to be hallucinating: Implications of hypnagogic/hypnopompic experiences and lucid dreaming for brain disorders. PNAS Nexus December 19, 2023
- Out-of-body experiences in relation to lucid dreaming and sleep paralysis: A theoretical review and conceptual model. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews August 1, 2024
- Electrophysiological Correlates of Lucid Dreaming: Sensor and Source Level Signatures. Journal of Neuroscience May 14, 2025
- Visual perspective, distance, and felt presence of others in dreams. Consciousness and Cognition August 1, 2023
- Dreaming as fascinated predictions: bridging Sartre’s phenomenology and predictive processing Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences October 16, 2025
and 6 more in the library
Cites 56
- Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self Trends in Cognitive Sciences October 12, 2013
- Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Sleep September 1, 2009
- From cognitivism to autopoiesis: towards a computational framework for the embodied mind. Synthese 2018
- The spectral exponent of the resting EEG indexes the presence of consciousness during unresponsiveness induced by propofol, xenon, and ketamine Neuroimage January 11, 2019
- Neural Correlates of Dream Lucidity Obtained from Contrasting Lucid versus Non-Lucid REM Sleep: A Combined EEG/fMRI Case Study Sleep June 29, 2012
and 51 more in the library