The neurocognition of dreaming: key questions and foci.
Emerging topics in life sciences December 22, 2023 DOI: 10.1042/etls20230099 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Review Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Keywords | Rem sleep Autobiographical memory |
| Key findings | Core features of REM sleep align with typical dream characteristics, and the default mode network offers a way to understand dreaming independently of REM sleep, but all measures of dreaming rely on recall processes. |
Abstract
Until recently, understanding the neurobiology of dreaming has relied upon on correlating a subjective dream report with a measure of brain activity or function sampled from a different occasion. As such, most assumptions about dreaming come from the neuroscience of rapid eye-movement (REM) sleep from which many, but not all, dream reports are recalled. Core features of REM sleep (intense emotional activation, a reduction in activity in most frontal regions, particularly the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, along with increased dopamine, acetylcholine, cholinergic activation) align with typical dream characteristics (characterised by fear, reduced reality monitoring, increased bizarreness and hyperassociativity, respectively). The default mode network offers a way of understanding the nature of dreaming more independently from a REM sleep context, and electroencephalography methods paired with serial awakenings to elicit dream reports demonstrate how high-frequency activity in posterior regions may be associated with dreaming. Nevertheless, all measures of dreaming rely fundamentally on recall processes, so our understanding of dreaming must embrace and address memory's crucial involvement in dream report production.
Comparable studies
Other narrative reviews on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The cognitive neuroscience of lucid dreaming | 2019 | Review | |
| Sleep and dreaming are for important matters | 2013 | Review | |
| Nightmare Disorder and Isolated Sleep Paralysis | 2020 | Review | |
| My Dream, My Rules: Can Lucid Dreaming Treat Nightmares? | 2019 | Review | |
| Dream Recall: State or Trait Variable? Part I: Model, Theories, Methodology and Trait Factors | 1996 | Review |
Citations in the library
Cited by 3
- Enhancing and advancing the understanding and study of dreaming and memory consolidation: Reflections, challenges, theoretical clarity, and methodological considerations Consciousness and Cognition June 27, 2024
- Neural Networks of Unconscious Processes: A Systematic Review of Functional Connectivity in Dreams and Free Association Cureus February 1, 2026
- Brain and Environment Interaction: Neuroplasticity of the Visual Cortex and the Roles of Sensory Deprivation, Sleep, and Dreams. Psychiatry July 6, 2026
Cites 20
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- Dreaming as mind wandering: evidence from functional neuroimaging and first-person content reports. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013
- Neural Correlates of Dream Lucidity Obtained from Contrasting Lucid versus Non-Lucid REM Sleep: A Combined EEG/fMRI Case Study Sleep June 29, 2012
- Dreaming in NREM Sleep: A High-Density EEG Study of Slow Waves and Spindles Journal of Neuroscience September 10, 2018
- The Dream Catcher experiment: blinded analyses failed to detect markers of dreaming consciousness in EEG spectral power. Neuroscience of Consciousness 2020
and 15 more in the library