(Press-News.org) This news release is available in French.
Some people recall a dream every morning, whereas others rarely recall one. A team led by Perrine Ruby, an Inserm Research Fellow at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (Inserm/CNRS/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), has studied the brain activity of these two types of dreamers in order to understand the differences between them. In a study published in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology, the researchers show that the temporo-parietal junction, an information-processing hub in the brain, is more active in high dream recallers. Increased activity in this brain region might facilitate attention orienting toward external stimuli and promote intrasleep wakefulness, thereby facilitating the encoding of dreams in memory.
See video on the discovery (subtitles coming soon): http://youtu.be/b94oprdrWe4
The reason for dreaming is still a mystery for the researchers who study the difference between "high dream recallers," who recall dreams regularly, and "low dream recallers," who recall dreams rarely. In January 2013 (work published in the journal Cerebral Cortex), the team led by Perrine Ruby, Inserm researcher at the Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, made the following two observations: "high dream recallers" have twice as many time of wakefulness during sleep as "low dream recallers" and their brains are more reactive to auditory stimuli during sleep and wakefulness. This increased brain reactivity may promote awakenings during the night, and may thus facilitate memorisation of dreams during brief periods of wakefulness.
In this new study, the research team sought to identify which areas of the brain differentiate high and low dream recallers. They used Positron Emission Tomography (PET) to measure the spontaneous brain activity of 41 volunteers during wakefulness and sleep. The volunteers were classified into 2 groups: 21 "high dream recallers" who recalled dreams 5.2 mornings per week in average, and 20 "low dream recallers," who reported 2 dreams per month in average. High dream recallers, both while awake and while asleep, showed stronger spontaneous brain activity in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and in the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ), an area of the brain involved in attention orienting toward external stimuli.
"This may explain why high dream recallers are more reactive to environmental stimuli, awaken more during sleep, and thus better encode dreams in memory than low dream recallers. Indeed the sleeping brain is not capable of memorising new information; it needs to awaken to be able to do that," explains Perrine Ruby, Inserm Research Fellow.
The South African neuropsychologist Mark Solms had observed in earlier studies that lesions in these two brain areas led to a cessation of dream recall. The originality of the French team's results is to show brain activity differences between high and low dream recallers during sleep and also during wakefulness.
"Our results suggest that high and low dream recallers differ in dream memorization, but do not exclude that they also differ in dream production. Indeed, it is possible that high dream recallers produce a larger amount of dreaming than low dream recallers" concludes the research team.
INFORMATION:
Sources
Resting brain activity varies with dream recall frequency between subjects
Jean-Baptiste Eichenlaub1,2, Alain Nicolas3, Jérôme Daltrozzo1,2, Jérôme Redouté4, Nicolas
Costes4, Perrine Ruby1,2
1 CRNL - Lyon Neuroscience Research Center, INSERM, CNRS, Brain Dynamics and Cognition Team, Lyon, F-69000, France.
2 University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Lyon, F-69000, France.
3 Unité d'Exploration Hypnologique, CH le Vinatier, Lyon, F-69000, France.
4 CERMEP-Imagerie du Vivant, Lyon, F-69000, France.
Neuropsychopharmacology, Online Advance Publication 19 February 2014 (Accepted article preview online)
DOI: 10.1038/npp.2014.6
Video: http://youtu.be/b94oprdrWe4
Press contact : Juliette Hardy
presse@inserm.fr
Why does the brain remember dreams?
2014-02-17
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Transfer of knowledge learned seen as a key to improving science education
2014-02-16
CHICAGO -- (Feb. 16, 2014) -- Attendees of a workshop at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will be immersed into "active learning," an approach inspired by national reports targeting U.S. science education, in general, and, more specifically, the 60 percent dropout rate of students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).
"The goal of this session is to take many ideas around improving science education that are out there and make them applicable to the classroom," says Eleanor "Elly" V.H. Vandegrift, associate ...
Using crowdsourcing to solve complex problems
2014-02-16
If two minds are better than one, what could thousands of minds accomplish? The possibilities are endless -- if researchers can learn to effectively harness and utilize all that knowledge.
Northwestern University professor Haoqi Zhang designs new forms of crowd-supported, mixed-initiative systems that tightly integrate crowd work, community process and intelligent user interfaces to solve complex problems that no machine nor person could solve alone. Zhang's systems can ease challenges in designing a custom trip or planning an academic conference, for example.
Zhang ...
What is known about the pathway to aging well?
2014-02-16
CHICAGO --- Daniel K. Mroczek, professor of psychology and professor of medical social sciences in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will discuss his research at a symposium on resilient aging during the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago.
The interdisciplinary symposium "The Science of Resilient Aging" will be held from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m., Sunday, Feb. 16, in Grand Ballroom A in the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
Through his research, Mroczek has found that personality traits have emerged ...
Thinking it through: Scientists seek to unlock mysteries of the brain
2014-02-16
Chicago, Illinois - Understanding the human brain is one of the greatest challenges facing 21st century science. If we can rise to this challenge, we will gain profound insights into what makes us human, develop new treatments for brain diseases, and build revolutionary new computing technologies that will have far reaching effects, not only in neuroscience.
Scientists at the European Human Brain Project—set to announce more than a dozen new research partnerships worth Eur 8.3 million in funding later this month—the Allen Institute for Brain Science, and the US BRAIN ...
Loneliness is a major health risk for older adults
2014-02-16
Feeling extreme loneliness can increase an older
person's chances of premature death by 14 percent, according to research by John Cacioppo,
professor of psychology at the University of Chicago.
Cacioppo and his colleagues' work
shows that the impact of loneliness on premature death is nearly as strong as the impact of
disadvantaged socioeconomic status, which they found increases the chances of dying early by 19
percent. A 2010 meta-analysis showed that loneliness has twice the impact on early death as does
obesity, he said.
Cacioppo, the Tiffany ...
Misconceptions of science and religion found in new study
2014-02-16
The public's view that science and religion can't work in collaboration is a misconception that stunts progress, according to a new survey of more than 10,000 Americans, scientists and evangelical Protestants. The study by Rice University also found that scientists and the general public are surprisingly similar in their religious practices.
The study, "Religious Understandings of Science (RUS)," was conducted by sociologist Elaine Howard Ecklund and presented today in Chicago during the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference. ...
Archaeologists lend long-term perspective to food security and climate shock
2014-02-16
CHICAGO – What role does pre-existing vulnerabilities play for people who experience a climate shock? Does it amplify the effects of the climate shock or is effect negligible? Four Arizona State University archaeologists are looking into this as part of an international team examining how people can be most resilient to climate change when it comes to food security.
The group questioned whether vulnerability to food shortages prior to a climate shock – not the actual experience of the food shortage – is related to the scale of impact of that shock. They found a strong ...
Cultural foundations of human social behavior
2014-02-16
CHICAGO --- Joan Chiao, assistant professor of psychology in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will discuss her research "Cultural and Neural Basis of Empathy" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
Her presentation is part of the symposium "Physiological and Cultural Foundations of Human Social Behavior" to be held from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 in Grand Ballroom E of the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
The session will focus on recent findings in social neurosciences and ...
Contemplating the workplace of tomorrow
2014-02-16
CHICAGO --- Robert Gordon, the Stanley G. Harris Professor in the department of economics in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences at Northwestern University, will present "Long-Term Unemployment, Shrinking Participation and Future Economic Growth" at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Chicago.
His presentation is part of the symposium "Will the Workplace of Tomorrow Have Any Workers? Computing, Productivity and Jobs" to be held from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 15 in the Water Tower room at the Hyatt Regency Chicago.
In ...
Top-down and bottom-up approach needed to conserve potato agrobiodiversity
2014-02-16
Mashed, smashed and fried, Americans love potatoes, but only a few varieties are grown in much of North American agriculture. In South America, where potatoes originated, more than 5,000 varieties continue to exist. A Penn State geographer is gathering all the information he can about the agrobiodiversity of these uniquely adapted tubers with an eye toward sustainability of this fourth largest food crop worldwide.
"In the U.S. we rely primarily on 10 to 12 types of potatoes total," said Karl Zimmerer, department head and professor of geography. "In fact, mostly we use ...