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Virtual reality and consciousness inference in dreaming.

J Allan Hobson, Charles C-H Hong, Karl Friston

Frontiers in Psychology October 9, 2014 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01133 (opens in new tab)

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AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed
Topics Dreaming
Keywords Prediction Sleep Free energy Virtual reality Consciousness Neuromodulation Rapid eye movements Pontine-geniculate-occipital waves
Key points Argues that the brain is endowed with an innate virtual reality generator that functions as a predictive model of the world, most clearly revealed in REM sleep dreaming. Proposes that waking consciousness emerges from REM sleep and that dreaming refines the generative model by minimizing complexity to maximize statistical and thermodynamic efficiency, thereby maintaining the capacity to model the world.

Abstract

This article explores the notion that the brain is genetically endowed with an innate virtual reality generator that - through experience-dependent plasticity - becomes a generative or predictive model of the world. This model, which is most clearly revealed in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep dreaming, may provide the theater for conscious experience. Functional neuroimaging evidence for brain activations that are time-locked to rapid eye movements (REMs) endorses the view that waking consciousness emerges from REM sleep - and dreaming lays the foundations for waking perception. In this view, the brain is equipped with a virtual model of the world that generates predictions of its sensations. This model is continually updated and entrained by sensory prediction errors in wakefulness to ensure veridical perception, but not in dreaming. In contrast, dreaming plays an essential role in maintaining and enhancing the capacity to model the world by minimizing model complexity and thereby maximizing both statistical and thermodynamic efficiency. This perspective suggests that consciousness corresponds to the embodied process of inference, realized through the generation of virtual realities (in both sleep and wakefulness). In short, our premise or hypothesis is that the waking brain engages with the world to predict the causes of sensations, while in sleep the brain's generative model is actively refined so that it generates more efficient predictions during waking. We review the evidence in support of this hypothesis - evidence that grounds consciousness in biophysical computations whose neuronal and neurochemical infrastructure has been disclosed by sleep research.

Comparable studies

Other theoretical and historical papers on dreaming, most cited first.

Study Year Design Participants
Dreaming: a conceptual framework for philosophy of mind and empirical research 2016 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Metaphor and hyperassociativity: the imagination mechanisms behind emotion assimilation in sleep and dreaming 2015 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Varieties of Lucid Dreaming Experience 2000 Theoretical or philosophical paper
Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives 2011 Theoretical or philosophical paper
The Neurobiology of Consciousness: Lucid Dreaming Wakes Up 2009 Theoretical or philosophical paper

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