The roles of recollection and familiarity in the positive association between dream lucidity and reality monitoring: Evidence from ERPs and EEG.

People who frequently experience lucid dreams tend to be better at distinguishing memories of imagined events from memories of real events. In a study of 41 participants completing a source memory task with EEG recording, those with higher trait lucidity showed greater accuracy, especially for externally perceived items. Brain activity patterns—stronger left parietal old/new effects for imagined items and greater frontal gamma-band power for perceived items—correlated with both lucidity and source accuracy. Theta-band activity also predicted source accuracy. These results suggest that high-lucidity individuals use recollection and familiarity processes to enhance subjective specificity, enabling more precise discrimination between imagined and perceived experiences.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Dream lucidity, the ability to recognize and reflect on one's dream state, has been linked to heightened memory monitoring. Although individuals with high trait lucidity often rate imagined and perceived events as similarly vivid, they nonetheless perform better in distinguishing memory sources. This study examined whether this advantage reflects greater subjective specificity, the retrieval of more distinct representational details, supported by recollection. Forty-one participants completed a source memory task involving object names that were either imagined or paired with images. During a later recognition test with EEG recording, participants judged each item's prior occurrence and its source. Trait lucidity was assessed via a multi-day self-report inventory and lucid dream frequency. Participants with higher trait lucidity tended to show greater source memory accuracy, especially for externally perceived items. Event-related potential (ERP) and time-frequency analyses indicated stronger left parietal old/new effects for imagined items, and greater frontal gamma-band power for perceived items. Both effects were positively correlated with trait lucidity (p < 0.05) and source accuracy (p < 0.05). Theta-band activity also predicted source accuracy for both item types. These findings may suggest that high-lucidity individuals engage recollection and familiarity processes to enhance subjective specificity, leading to more precise discrimination between imagined and perceived experiences.