Being aware you are dreaming during a dream! Scientists analyse 'lucid dreamers'
We've all woken up and felt relief or regret that what just happened was only a dream; and this is how most people become conscious of the fact they were dreaming, during wakefulness. But some people, known as lucid dreamers, can become aware of dreaming during sleep itself. Although previous studies of these lucid dreamers have visualised which centres of the brain become active when we become aware of ourselves, until now it has been difficult to measure exactly which parts of the brain help us perceive our world in a self-reflective manner. Now a team of German researchers has used magnetic resonance tomography (MRT) to demonstrate that a specific cortical network consisting of the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus, all regions associated with self-reflective functions, is activated when this state of lucid consciousness is attained. The study, published in the journal SLEEP, is a unique insight into the neural basis of human consciousness and it builds on work carried out in earlier studies that made the neural networks of a conscious mental state visible for the first time. Despite advanced modern imaging techniques, it is still impossible to fully visualise what goes on in the brain when people move from a conscious state to an unconscious state. As the basic activity of our brain is usually greatly reduced during deep sleep, it is tricky to differentiate the specific brain activity underlying the regained self-perception and consciousness during the transition to wakefulness from the global changes in brain activity that take place at the same time. The team set out to study lucid dreamers as when they are in a dream state they are aware that they are dreaming and can deliberately control their dreams. Lead study author Martin Dresler from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry comments: 'In a normal dream, we have a very basal consciousness, we experience perceptions and emotions but we are not aware that we are only dreaming. It's only in a lucid dream that the dreamer gets a meta-insight into his or her state.' By comparing the activity of the brain during one of these lucid periods with the activity measured immediately before in a normal dream, the team was able to identify the characteristic brain activities of lucid awareness. Another study author Michael Czisch from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry comments on the study: 'The general basic activity of the brain is similar in a normal dream and in a lucid dream. In a lucid state, however, the activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex increases markedly within seconds. The involved areas of the cerebral cortex are the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, to which commonly the function of self-assessment is attributed, and the frontopolar regions, which are responsible for evaluating our own thoughts and feelings. The precuneus is also especially active, a part of the brain that has long been linked with self-perception.'For more information, please visit:Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry:http://www.mpipsykl.mpg.de/en/index.html
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