Abstract Patients undergoing general anesthesia are often assumed to be unconscious. However, it is known that conscious experiences in the form of dreams occur even in unresponsive states induced by anesthetics. Here, we recorded resting state electroencephalography (EEG) as well as EEG combined with TMS perturbations in 20 healthy participants during propofol sedation. Participants were...
Perceived sleep depth is a key determinant of subjective sleep quality, traditionally thought to reflect unconsciousness and reduced cortical activation. Here, we combined high-density EEG with a serial awakening paradigm during NREM sleep to examine its neural and experiential correlates. As expected, deeper sleep was associated with reduced cortical activation, reflected in a lower...
Abstract This article concerns a Hasidic homily describing a technique for lucid dream cultivation. The homily outlines a worldview in which fantasy and reality merge, and thoughts, both positive and negative, have real cosmic and personal consequences. To counter the allure of sexual fantasy, the homily recommends a form of Neoplatonic contemplation widely taught within early Hasidic circles....
Insights into the mysteries of dreaming and waking conscious experience can be gained by considering fundamental concepts in memory research. To support this assertion, we first provide an overview of the conscious/nonconscious distinction in memory research and then summarize the memory theory of consciousness (MToC). According to the MToC, the brain system responsible for explicit memory is...
The problem of dramatic conventions must be solved in close relationship with the conventional nature of art in general and the peculiarities of the dramatic genre in particular. The problem has been widely discussed by such western critics as John Gassner, Francis Fergusson and Siegfried Melchinger. The interest of Soviet literary criticism in the problem of dramatic conventions is manifested...
Sleep and dreams are frequent themes in science fiction (Sci-Fi) literature and films, often used to explore questions about consciousness, reality, technology and the human experience. Sci-Fi authors and filmmakers utilise the enigmatic nature of sleep and dreams to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, raising philosophical questions or extrapolating the effects of futuristic...
The Bi-Interpretive Mind Framework (BIMF) introduces a dual-system model of human cognition and consciousness, positing the coexistence of two interdependent subsystems: the Primary Mind (logical, conscious, reality-testing) and the Secondary Mind (intuitive, unconscious, biologically interpretive). Subjective experience is conceptualized as emerging from the “interpretive handshake” between...
Abstract This chapter explores Husserl’s innovative conception of immanent time in three parts: retention, now-moments, and protention. It explains his advance relative to Brentano’s conception of time and memory being the result of “productive imagination.” Early on, it demonstrates that sensation, welling up from the body, both accounted for our feeling of temporal flow and depended on that...
Abstract Background Dream enactment behavior is a common feature of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder (RBD); however, there has been surprisingly little focus on sex differences in dream characterization in RBD. This is important to evaluate further, as it is possible that females and males have different dream characteristics in RBD, and screening questionnaires that focus on...
Magneto/electroencephalography (M/EEG) studies of dreaming are an essential paradigm in the investigation of neurocognitive processes of human consciousness during sleep, but they are limited by the number of observations that can be collected per study. Dream research also involves substantial methodological and conceptual variability, which poses problems for the integration of results. To...