title: The analogy between dreams and the ancient art of memory is tempting but superficial.
abstract: Although the analogy between dreams and ancient mnemotechniques is tempting because they share several phenomenological characteristics, this analogy is superficial at a closer look. Unlike mneomotechnically encoded material, rapid eye movement (REM) dreams are inherently difficult to remember, do not usually allow conscious subsequent retrieval of all interconnected elements, and have been found to support subsequent episodic memory in only rare cases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany. juergen.fell@ukb.uni-bonn.de http://epileptologie-bonn.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=470.
authors.forename: Nikolai
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Axmacher
authors.forename: Juergen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fell
mesh_terms: D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D004325:Dreams / Q000502:physiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D061212:Memory, Episodic; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology*