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Konkoly KR, Appel K, Chabani E, Mangiaruga A, Gott J, Mallett R, Caughran B, Witkowski S, Whitmore NW, Mazurek CY, Berent JB, Weber FD, Türker B, Leu-Semenescu S, Maranci JB, Pipa G, Arnulf I, Oudiette D, Dresler M, Paller KA. Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep. Curr Biol 2021; 31:1417-1427.e6. [PMID: 33607035 PMCID: PMC8162929 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.01.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/09/2020] [Revised: 12/08/2020] [Accepted: 01/08/2021] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Dreams take us to a different reality, a hallucinatory world that feels as real as any waking experience. These often-bizarre episodes are emblematic of human sleep but have yet to be adequately explained. Retrospective dream reports are subject to distortion and forgetting, presenting a fundamental challenge for neuroscientific studies of dreaming. Here we show that individuals who are asleep and in the midst of a lucid dream (aware of the fact that they are currently dreaming) can perceive questions from an experimenter and provide answers using electrophysiological signals. We implemented our procedures for two-way communication during polysomnographically verified rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep in 36 individuals. Some had minimal prior experience with lucid dreaming, others were frequent lucid dreamers, and one was a patient with narcolepsy who had frequent lucid dreams. During REM sleep, these individuals exhibited various capabilities, including performing veridical perceptual analysis of novel information, maintaining information in working memory, computing simple answers, and expressing volitional replies. Their responses included distinctive eye movements and selective facial muscle contractions, constituting correctly answered questions on 29 occasions across 6 of the individuals tested. These repeated observations of interactive dreaming, documented by four independent laboratory groups, demonstrate that phenomenological and cognitive characteristics of dreaming can be interrogated in real time. This relatively unexplored communication channel can enable a variety of practical applications and a new strategy for the empirical exploration of dreams. Scientific investigations of dreaming have been hampered by the delay between a dream and when people report on their dream, and by a change in state from sleep to wake. To overcome this problem, Konkoly et al. show that individuals in REM sleep can perceive and answer an experimenter’s questions, allowing for real-time communication about a dream.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karen R Konkoly
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Kristoffer Appel
- Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany; Institute of Sleep and Dream Technologies, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Emma Chabani
- Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Anastasia Mangiaruga
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands; Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Jarrod Gott
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Remington Mallett
- Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA
| | - Bruce Caughran
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Sarah Witkowski
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Nathan W Whitmore
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | - Christopher Y Mazurek
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
| | | | - Frederik D Weber
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Başak Türker
- Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Smaranda Leu-Semenescu
- Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France; AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sleep Disorders Department, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Baptiste Maranci
- Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France; AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sleep Disorders Department, Paris, France
| | - Gordon Pipa
- Institute of Cognitive Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Isabelle Arnulf
- Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France; AP-HP, Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, Sleep Disorders Department, Paris, France
| | - Delphine Oudiette
- Institut du Cerveau - Paris Brain Institute - ICM, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Martin Dresler
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, the Netherlands
| | - Ken A Paller
- Department of Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA.
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