Dream Recall and the Brain

A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Sleep and Circadian Neuroscience".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 May 2020) | Viewed by 14411

Special Issue Editors

Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L’Aquila, Via Vetoio, Coppito 2, 67100 L'Aquila, Italy
Interests: sleep; cognition and emotion; sleep deprivation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy
Interests: sleep; EEG; dreaming; memory; emotion; sleepiness; aging; parasomnia, neu-rodevelopmental disorders; narcolepsy
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Dream experience is a fascinating form of mental activity occurring during sleep. It is a multicomponential phenomenon characterized by sensory imagery, emotional arousal, and apparent speech and motor activity. Dreams occur in any sleep stage—during REM or NREM sleep, but also during sleep onset or relaxed wakefulness (e.g., hypnagogic and hypnopompic hallucinations). Researchers must face the difficulty of defining the time-coupling between sleep stages and the occurrence of dream experience, since the mental sleep activity is only indirectly accessible via content reports after awakening the subject.In recent decades, neuroanatomical, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological studies have tried to identify the neural basis of dream experience, showing its relationship with episodic memory and emotional processes. However, the brain mechanisms underlying dream recall and dream production are still mostly unknown.

The submission of original research articles advancing our understanding of neural correlates of dreaming are encouraged for this Special Issue. Additionally, reviews proposing new perspectives on the available literature on link dream features and brain mechanisms are welcome.

Dr. Michele Ferrara
Dr. Serena Scarpelli
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • Dream recall;
  • Mental sleep activity;
  • Sleep;
  • Neurobiological correlates;
  • Brain activity;
  • Memory;
  • EEG.

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

17 pages, 1325 KiB  
Article
Relationships between Dream and Previous Wake Emotions Assessed through the Italian Modified Differential Emotions Scale
by Francesca Conte, Nicola Cellini, Oreste De Rosa, Antonietta Caputo, Serena Malloggi, Alessia Coppola, Benedetta Albinni, Mariangela Cerasuolo, Fiorenza Giganti, Roberto Marcone and Gianluca Ficca
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(10), 690; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10100690 - 29 Sep 2020
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4504
Abstract
Despite the increasing interest in sleep and dream-related processes of emotion regulation, their reflection into wake and dream emotional experience remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess dream emotions and their relationships with wake emotions through the modified Differential Emotions Scale (Fredrickson, 2003), [...] Read more.
Despite the increasing interest in sleep and dream-related processes of emotion regulation, their reflection into wake and dream emotional experience remains unclear. Here, we aimed to assess dream emotions and their relationships with wake emotions through the modified Differential Emotions Scale (Fredrickson, 2003), which includes a broad array of both positive and negative emotions. The scale has been first validated on 212 healthy Italian participants, in two versions: a WAKE-2wks form, assessing the frequency of 22 emotions over the past 2 weeks, and a WAKE-24hr form, assessing their intensity over the past 24 h. Fifty volunteers from the wider sample completed the WAKE-24hr mDES for several days until a dream was recalled, and dream emotions were self-reported using the same scale. A bifactorial structure was confirmed for both mDES forms, which also showed good validity and reliability. Though Positive and Negative Affect (average intensity of positive and negative items, PA, and NA, respectively) were balanced in dreams, specific negative emotions prevailed; rmANOVA showed a different pattern (prevalence of PA and positive emotions) in wake (both WAKE-2wks and WAKE-24hr), with a decrease of PA and an increase of NA in the dream compared to previous wake. No significant regression model emerged between waking and dream affect, and exploratory analyses revealed a stable proportion of PA and NA (with prevailing PA) over the 3 days preceding the dream. Our findings highlight a discontinuity between wake and dream affect and suggest that positive and negative emotions experienced during wake may undertake distinct sleep-related regulation pathways. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dream Recall and the Brain)
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11 pages, 243 KiB  
Article
End-of-Life in Oncologic Patients’ Dream Content
by Alessandro Cicolin, Michele Boffano, Guglielmo Beccuti, Raimondo Piana and Alessandra Giordano
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(8), 505; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10080505 - 01 Aug 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2204
Abstract
Both non-rapid eye movements and rapid eye movements sleep facilitate the strengthening of newly encoded memory traces, and dream content reflects this process. Numerous studies evaluated the impact of diseases on dream content, with particular reference to cancer, and reported the presence of [...] Read more.
Both non-rapid eye movements and rapid eye movements sleep facilitate the strengthening of newly encoded memory traces, and dream content reflects this process. Numerous studies evaluated the impact of diseases on dream content, with particular reference to cancer, and reported the presence of issues related to death, negative emotions, pain and illness. This study investigates death and illness experiences in 13 consecutive patients with sarcoma compared to paired controls, early after diagnosis, evaluating dream contents, fear of death, mood and anxiety, distress, and severity of disease perception (perceived and communicated). Ten patients and 10 controls completed the study. Dream contents were significantly different between patients and normative data (DreamSat) and patients and controls (higher presence of negative emotions, low familiar settings and characters and no success involving the dreamer). Illness and death were present in 57% of patients’ dreams (0% among controls), but no differences emerged between patients and controls in regard to anxiety and depression, distress and fear of death, even if the severity of illness was correctly perceived. The appearance of emotional elements in dreams and the absence of conscious verbalization of distress and/or depressive or anxious symptoms by patients could be ascribed to the time required for mnestic elaboration (construction/elaboration phase) during sleep. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dream Recall and the Brain)
14 pages, 447 KiB  
Article
Dreaming and Insomnia: Link between Physiological REM Parameters and Mentation Characteristics
by Fee Benz, Dieter Riemann and Bernd Feige
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(6), 378; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10060378 - 16 Jun 2020
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3096
Abstract
(1) Background: An unresolved phenomenon of insomnia disorder is a discrepancy between objectively measured sleep and subjective complaints. It has been shown that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep might be especially vulnerable to an altered perception. The present work aimed to investigate the [...] Read more.
(1) Background: An unresolved phenomenon of insomnia disorder is a discrepancy between objectively measured sleep and subjective complaints. It has been shown that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep might be especially vulnerable to an altered perception. The present work aimed to investigate the link between physiological REM parameters and mentation characteristics in REM sleep. (2) Methods: 22 patients with insomnia and 23 good sleepers indicating at least one REM mentation within an awakening study were included. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVAs) were calculated to examine group differences and effects of mentation characteristics on number of arousals, REM density, and spectral power prior to awakenings. (3) Results: Increased perceived wakefulness was related to lower delta, theta, and alpha power in the minute prior to the REM awakenings. Nevertheless, no group differences regarding spectral power were found. With respect to number of arousals and REM density, no significant effects of mentation characteristics and no group differences were found. (4) Conclusions: Our results suggest that spectral power in REM sleep is linked with altered sleep perception. Reduced delta, theta, and alpha power might be a signature of this modified REM sleep associated with a high level of perceived wakefulness. Future awakening studies are necessary to further explore the link between physiological REM parameters and sleep perception. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dream Recall and the Brain)
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13 pages, 1877 KiB  
Article
Dream Recall upon Awakening from Non-Rapid Eye Movement Sleep in Older Adults: Electrophysiological Pattern and Qualitative Features
by Serena Scarpelli, Aurora D’Atri, Chiara Bartolacci, Maurizio Gorgoni, Anastasia Mangiaruga, Michele Ferrara and Luigi De Gennaro
Brain Sci. 2020, 10(6), 343; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci10060343 - 03 Jun 2020
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 3909
Abstract
Several findings support the activation hypothesis, positing that cortical arousal promotes dream recall (DR). However, most studies have been carried out on young participants, while the electrophysiological (EEG) correlates of DR in older people are still mostly unknown. We aimed to test the [...] Read more.
Several findings support the activation hypothesis, positing that cortical arousal promotes dream recall (DR). However, most studies have been carried out on young participants, while the electrophysiological (EEG) correlates of DR in older people are still mostly unknown. We aimed to test the activation hypothesis on 20 elders, focusing on the Non-Rapid Eye Movement (NREM) sleep stage. All the subjects underwent polysomnography, and a dream report was collected upon their awakening from NREM sleep. Nine subjects were recallers (RECs) and 11 were non-RECs (NRECs). The delta and beta EEG activity of the last 5 min and the total NREM sleep was calculated by Fast Fourier Transform. Statistical comparisons (RECs vs. NRECs) revealed no differences in the last 5 min of sleep. Significant differences were found in the total NREM sleep: the RECs showed lower delta power over the parietal areas than the NRECs. Consistently, statistical comparisons on the activation index (delta/beta power) revealed that RECs showed a higher level of arousal in the fronto-temporal and parieto-occipital regions than NRECs. Both visual vividness and dream length are positively related to the level of activation. Overall, our results are consistent with the view that dreaming and the storage of oneiric contents depend on the level of arousal during sleep, highlighting a crucial role of the temporo-parietal-occipital zone. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Dream Recall and the Brain)
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