Increase of both bottom-up and top-down attentional processes in high dream recallers
Perrine Ruby, Rémy Masson, Benoit Chatard, Roxane Hoyer, Laure Bottemanne, Raphael Vallat, Aurélie Bidet-Caulet
bioRxiv June 17, 2021 preprint DOI: 10.1101/2021.06.16.448743 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Observational cross-sectional EEG study |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 37 |
| Population | 18 high dream recallers (11 women, mean age 22.7 years) and 19 low dream recallers (10 women, mean age 22.3 years) |
| Measures | Event-related potentials (ERPs), contingent negative variation (CNV), P3b, Competitive Attention Task |
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Key findings | High dream recallers showed larger event-related potentials to distracting sounds, a larger contingent negative variation during target expectancy, and a larger P3b to target sounds than low dream recallers, despite similar behavioral performance. The authors suggest this reflects enhanced bottom-up processing of irrelevant sounds and greater top-down attentional recruitment, and that different neurophysiological profiles can yield similar cognitive performance at possibly higher resource cost. |
Abstract
Event-related potentials (ERPs) associated with the involuntary orientation of (bottom-up) attention towards 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 ± 4.1 years, dream recall frequency = 5.3 ± 1.3 days with a dream recall per week) and 19 LR (10 women, age = 22.3, DRF = 0.2 ±0.2) using EEG and the Competitive Attention Task. Between-group differences were found in ERPs but not in behavior. The results confirm that HR present larger ERPs to distracting sounds than LR during active listening, suggesting enhanced bottom-up processing of irrelevant sounds. HR also presented a larger contingent negative variation during target expectancy and a larger P3b response to target sounds than LR, speaking for an enhanced recruitment of top-down attention. Enhancement of both top-down and bottom-up processes in HR leads to an apparently preserved attentional balance since similar performance were observed in the two groups. Therefore, different neurophysiological profiles can result in similar cognitive performance, with some profiles possibly costlier in term of resource/energy consumption.
Comparable studies
Other cross-sectional and survey studies on dreaming, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Insomnia Symptoms, Nightmares, and Suicidal Ideation in a College Student Sample Undergraduate students at a large, public university in the southeastern United States | 2011 | Observational cross-sectional survey | n = 583 |
| Prevalence and Correlates of Frequent Nightmares: A Community-Based 2-Phase Study Middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese adults from the community, mean age 40.9 years (SD 5.5,... | 2010 | Cross-sectional survey with subsequent clinical evaluation (two-phase design) | n = 8,558 |
| Factors of home dream recall: a structural equation model Adults (general population sample) | 2003 | Cross-sectional survey with structural equation modeling | n = 444 |
| The Phenomenology of Lucid Dreaming: An Online Survey Respondents to an online survey about lucid dreams | 2014 | Online survey | n = 684 |
| Frequency of Lucid Dreaming in a Representative German Sample Representative sample of German adults | 2011 | Cross-sectional survey | n = 919 |
Citations in the library
Cites 12
- Neural Correlates of Dream Lucidity Obtained from Contrasting Lucid versus Non-Lucid REM Sleep: A Combined EEG/fMRI Case Study Sleep June 29, 2012
- 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
- Brain functional connectivity upon awakening from sleep predicts interindividual differences in dream recall frequency. Sleep December 14, 2020
- Methodological Recommendations to Control for Factors Influencing Dream and Nightmare Recall in Clinical and Experimental Studies of Dreaming. Frontiers in Neurology 2020
and 7 more in the library