The Dream Catcher experiment: Blinded analyses disconfirm markers of dreaming consciousness in EEG spectral power
William Wong, Valdas Noreika, Levente Móró, Antti Revonsuo, Jennifer Windt, Katja Valli, Naotsugu Tsuchiya
bioRxiv Preprint Server May 27, 2019 preprint DOI: 10.1101/643593 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental study with blinded classification task |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 9 |
| Population | Participants during sleep |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | EEG spectral power does not carry signatures of phenomenal consciousness, and previously reported correlates of dreaming consciousness were not replicated. |
Abstract
The Dream Catcher test defines the criteria for a genuine discovery of the neural constituents of phenomenal consciousness. Passing the test implies that some patterns of purely brain-based data directly correspond to the subjective features of phenomenal experience, which would help to bridge the explanatory gap between consciousness and brain. Here, we conducted the Dream Catcher test for the first time in a graded and simplified form, capturing its core idea. The experiment involved a Data Team, who measured participants’ brain activity during sleep and collected dream reports, and a blinded Analysis Team, who was challenged to predict better than chance, based solely on brain measurements, whether or not a participant had a dream experience. Using a serial-awakening paradigm, the Data Team prepared 54 one-minute polysomnograms of NREM sleep—27 of dreamful sleep (3 from each of the 9 participants) and 27 of dreamless sleep—redacting from them all associated participant and dream information. The Analysis Team attempted to classify each recording as either dreamless or dreamful using an unsupervised machine learning classifier, based on hypothesis-driven, extracted features of EEG spectral power and electrode location. The procedure was repeated over five iterations with a gradual removal of blindness. At no level of blindness did the Analysis Team perform significantly better than chance, suggesting that EEG spectral power does not carry any signatures of phenomenal consciousness. Furthermore, we demonstrate an outright failure to replicate key findings of recently reported correlates of dreaming consciousness.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming Verified by Volitional Communication during Rem Sleep Selected subjects proficient in lucid dreaming | 1981 | Experimental study | n = 5 |
| Incorporation of concern- and nonconcern-related verbal stimuli into dream content. Seven male subjects studied during sleep Stages 2 and REM | 1981 | Experimental study | n = 7 |
| Lucid Dreaming and Alpha Activity: A Preliminary Report Good dream recallers | 1982 | Experimental study | n = 10 |
| Lucid dreaming during NREM sleep: Two case reports | 2012 | Sleep laboratory study | |
| The Dream Catcher experiment: blinded analyses failed to detect markers of dreaming consciousness in EEG spectral power. Human participants during sleep | 2020 | Experimental study with blinded classification | n = 9 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 4
- How deep is the rift between conscious states in sleep and wakefulness? Spontaneous experience over the sleep–wake cycle Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences December 13, 2020
- Wakefulness fluctuations elicit behavioural and neural reconfiguration of awareness bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) June 26, 2017
- Brain functional connectivity upon awakening from sleep predicts interindividual differences in dream recall frequency. Sleep December 14, 2020
- Consciousness in sleep: How findings from sleep and dream research challenge our understanding of sleep, waking, and consciousness Philosophy Compass April 1, 2020
Cites 29
- An information integration theory of consciousness BMC Neuroscience November 2, 2004
- Consciousness as Integrated Information: a Provisional Manifesto Biological Bulletin December 1, 2008
- No-Report Paradigms: Extracting the True Neural Correlates of Consciousness Trends in Cognitive Sciences November 13, 2015
- 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 24 more in the library