title: Beyond the neuropsychology of dreaming: Insights into the neural basis of dreaming with new techniques of sleep recording and analysis.
abstract: Recent advances in electrophysiological [e.g., surface high-density electroencephalographic (hd-EEG) and intracranial recordings], video-polysomnography (video-PSG), transcranial stimulation and neuroimaging techniques allow more in-depth and more accurate investigation of the neural correlates of dreaming in healthy individuals and in patients with brain-damage, neurodegenerative diseases, sleep disorders or parasomnias. Convergent evidence provided by studies using these techniques in healthy subjects has led to a reformulation of several unresolved issues of dream generation and recall [such as the inter- and intra-individual differences in dream recall and the predictivity of specific EEG rhythms, such as theta in rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, for dream recall] within more comprehensive models of human consciousness and its variations across sleep/wake states than the traditional models, which were largely based on the neurophysiology of REM sleep in animals. These studies are casting new light on the neural bases (in particular, the activity of dorsal medial prefrontal cortex regions and hippocampus and amygdala areas) of the inter- and intra-individual differences in dream recall, the temporal location of specific contents or properties (e.g., lucidity) of dream experience and the processing of memories accessed during sleep and incorporated into dream content. Hd-EEG techniques, used on their own or in combination with neuroimaging, appear able to provide further important insights into how the brain generates not only dreaming during sleep but also some dreamlike experiences in waking.
authors: Department of Specialty, Diagnostic and Experimental Medicine, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
authors: Carlo
authors: C
authors: Cipolli
authors: Department of Biotechnological and Applied Clinical Sciences, University of L'Aquila, L'Aquila, Italy.
authors: Michele
authors: M
authors: Ferrara
authors: Department of Psychology, Sapienza University of Roma, Roma, Italy.
authors: Luigi
authors: L
authors: De Gennaro
authors: DIBINEM - Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; IRCCS - Istituto delle Scienze Neurologiche, AUSL di Bologna, Italy. Electronic address: giuseppe.plazzi@unibo.it.
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Plazzi
mesh_terms: D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition; D004325:Dreams / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D011939:Mental Recall / Q000502:physiology; D009484:Neuropsychology; D017286:Polysomnography / Q000379:methods*; D012895:Sleep, REM / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Cognitive processes; Dream recall; Dreaming; EEG correlates; Intracranial EEG recordings; Neuroimaging techniques; REM sleep; State-/trait-like differences; Video-polysomnography