High dream recall frequency is associated with an increase of both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes.
Perrine Ruby, Rémy Masson, Benoit Chatard, Roxane Hoyer, Laure Bottemanne, Raphael Vallat, Aurélie Bidet-Caulet
Cerebral Cortex August 22, 2022 DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhab445 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cohort Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 37 |
| Population | High and low dream recallers |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Cnv P3 Audition Distraction |
| Key findings | High dream recallers show larger event-related potentials to distracting sounds and to target expectancy and target sounds than low dream recallers, indicating enhanced bottom-up and top-down attentional processing without behavioral performance differences. |
Abstract
Event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with the involuntary orientation of (bottom-up) attention toward an unexpected sound are of larger amplitude in high dream recallers (HR) than in low dream recallers (LR) during passive listening, suggesting different attentional functioning. We measured bottom-up and top-down attentional performance and their cerebral correlates in 18 HR (11 women, age = 22.7 years, dream recall frequency = 5.3 days with a dream recall per week) and 19 LR (10 women, age = 22.3, DRF = 0.2) using EEG and the Competitive Attention Task. Between-group differences were found in ERPs but not in behavior. The results show that HR present larger ERPs to distracting sounds than LR even during active listening, arguing for enhanced bottom-up processing of irrelevant sounds. HR also presented larger contingent negative variation during target expectancy and P3b to target sounds than LR, speaking for an enhanced recruitment of top-down attention. The attentional balance seems preserved in HR since their performances are not altered, but possibly at a higher resource cost. In HR, increased bottom-up processes would favor dream recall through awakening facilitation during sleep and enhanced top-down processes may foster dream recall through increased awareness and/or short-term memory stability of dream content.
Comparable studies
Other observational and cohort studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lucid Dreaming: a State of Consciousness with Features of Both Waking and Non-Lucid Dreaming Student volunteers trained to become lucid and signal lucidity with horizontal eye... | 2009 | Observational study | n = 6 |
| Nightmare Prevalence, Nightmare Distress, and Self-Reported Psychological Disturbance Young adults with a mean age of 20 years | 2002 | Prospective observational study | n = 116 |
| Long-term effects of extreme situational stress on sleep and dreaming Survivors of traumatic events who complained of sleep disturbances, compared with... | 1987 | Case-control study | n = 11 |
| The relationship of nightmare frequency and nightmare distress to well‐being Adults who reported dreams | 2004 | Observational cohort | n = 147 |
| Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Healthy human subjects | 2018 | Observational cohort | n = 14 |
Citations in the library
Cited by 5
- What about dreams? State of the art and open questions Journal of Sleep Research April 13, 2022
- Dreaming conundrum Journal of Sleep Research October 3, 2024
- Lucid Dreaming: Not Just Awareness, but Agency. Journal of Sleep Research April 1, 2026
- Dream recall frequency is associated with attention rather than with working memory abilities. Journal of Sleep Research October 1, 2022
- High Dream Recall Frequency is Associated with Increased Creativity and Default Mode Network Connectivity. Nature and Science of Sleep 2022
Cites 17
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- Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Journal of Sleep Research May 12, 2003
- Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Perceptual and Motor Skills February 1, 2011
- Experimental Research on Dreaming: State of the Art and Neuropsychoanalytic Perspectives Frontiers in Psychology 2011
and 12 more in the library