The Electrophysiological Landscape of Dreams

Informazioni relative al progetto

Dreamscape

ID dell’accordo di sovvenzione: 101039782

DOI

10.3030/101039782

Data della firma CE 11 Luglio 2022

Data di avvio 1 Gennaio 2023

Data di completamento 31 Dicembre 2027

Finanziato da

• European Research Council (ERC)

Costo totale

€ 1 748 906,00

Contributo UE

€ 1 748 906,00

Coordinato da

KONINKLIJKE NEDERLANDSE AKADEMIE VAN WETENSCHAPPEN - KNAW
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Dreamscape (The Electrophysiological Landscape of Dreams)

Periodo di rendicontazione: 2023-01-01 al 2025-06-30

Sintesi del contesto e degli obiettivi generali del progetto

Why and how do we dream? Although this question has fascinated humankind since the earliest ages, it remains largely unanswered. Each night, when we fall asleep, we progressively disengage from the external world until we cease to sense it and to act upon it. Despite this disconnection from the environment, in our dreams we have vivid sensations and engage in actions. Although we do so in a purely imaginary world, our dream experiences bear so much resemblance with the real world that we almost invariably take them for real. How does the brain create such a real-world analogue, and why? The project Dreamscape proposes to answer this question by studying a set of brain potentials, recorded with electroencephalography (EEG), which not only occur spontaneously during dreams, but in a similar form also in response to sensory stimuli during sleep and wakefulness. The overarching objective of Dreamscape is to understand the precise role of these brain potentials in the generation of dreams.

Lavoro eseguito dall’inizio del progetto fino alla fine del periodo coperto dalla relazione e principali risultati finora ottenuti

Specifically, the project will 1) provide a systematic characterization of these potentials in the sleeping and waking brain, 2) clarify their relation to arousal systems, 3) assess how they relate to sensory and motor features of dreams and 4) manipulate them to causally affect dreams. It will employ a unique combination of cutting-edge experimental approaches, including 256-channel-high-density EEG sleep recordings combined with controlled sensory stimulations, serial awakening paradigms, pharmacological manipulations, closed-loop acoustic slow wave modulation and movement analyses in neurological patients who act out their dreams.

Progressi oltre lo stato dell’arte e potenziale impatto previsto (incluso l’impatto socioeconomico e le implicazioni sociali più ampie del progetto fino ad ora)

The project will contribute to the basic understanding of how and why we dream, with implications for the fields of consciousness, neuroscience and neuropsychiatry. It will also provide technological and pharmacological tools to manipulate sleep and dreams, with clinical relevance for patients with sleep disorders.