title: Physical motion in dreams: one measure of three theories.
abstract: As a normal psychological event, dreaming is an object of fascination and of conflicting explanation. In biopsychological terms, this article compares 3 explanations of 1 salient feature of dream cognition. Physical movement can be measured in dream reports, can be understood in physiologic terms, and can provide a focus for comparing dream theories. In addition, dreamed motion may have functional importance. The authors discuss dream motor data that conflict with Freud's explanation of dream movement and with a distributed activation explanation but coincide with an activation-synthesis hypothesis. Because physiologic models of sleep intersect with physiologic models of psychopathology, this approach may be relevant to psychopathological dreaming.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853-7601, USA. hsp2@cornell.edu
authors.forename: H S
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Porte
authors.forename: J A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Hobson
mesh_terms: D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology; D001364:Awareness / Q000502:physiology*; D004325:Dreams / Q000502:physiology*; D005619:Freudian Theory; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D011603:Psychophysiology; D012894:Sleep Stages / Q000502:physiology