A Supplement to Self-Organization Theory of Dreaming
Frontiers in Psychology March 8, 2016 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00332 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Dreaming |
| Citations | 8 |
| Key points | Argues that Kahn and Hobson's self-organization theory explains how dream images and narratives form during REM sleep but cannot explain which memories are activated and incorporated into dreams, and proposes supplementing it with the two-stage model of memory consolidation. |
Abstract
Kahn and Hobson (1993) proposed that dreams are a product of self-organization of brain during sleep.As a complex system far from equilibrium state, the dreaming brain may form a new pattern by the interaction between components within this system.At REM sleep stage, signals from neuronal clusters self-organize and form image fragments, then the image fragments interact and produce images, and finally these materials are associated into a relatively continuous narrative (i.e., dreams).This process above happens under a weak control of brain, and the conditions of this state mainly include: (a) the inhibition of external stimuli or feedback; (b) the changes of neuromodulatory systems (e.g., the governance of aminergic neurochemicals and the weakness of cholinergic neurochemicals); (c) the bombardment of PGO wave to the visual cortex; and (d) the changes of neural activity in brain (e.g., the activation of limbic system and the reduction of prefrontal regions).In this situation, the brain could focus on the internal world and integrate various psychological and physiological changes into dream content (Kahn et al., 2000(Kahn et al., , 2002)).However, self-organization mechanism could not determine which memories will be activated and incorporated into dream content (Kahn, 2013), although it provides an approach how an ordered structure, behavior or pattern spontaneously emerges from the interaction between components or subsystems without an external guidance (see Isaeva, 2012;Sasai, 2013).It merely combines materials which present during sleep and then makes up a "story."Thus, the content of dreams is, to a large degree, determined by the active materials in sleep.In this article, we attempt to make a supplement to this theory on the basis of the two-stage model of memory consolidation.
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 |
Citations in the library
Cites 15
- The threat simulation theory in light of recent empirical evidence: A review The American Journal of Psychology April 1, 2009
- A new neurocognitive theory of dreams. Dreaming March 1, 2001
- Dream content and psychological well-being: A longitudinal study of the continuity hypothesis Journal of Clinical Psychology 2005
- The effect of external stimuli on dreams, as assessed using Q-methodology Lincoln Repository 2014
- The dream-lag effect: Selective processing of personally significant events during Rapid Eye Movement sleep, but not during Slow Wave Sleep. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory July 1, 2015
and 10 more in the library