In article <1995Jan23.085947.24080 at rtc.atk.com> viosca at rtc.atk.com (Randall Viosca) writes:
>Newsgroups: bionet.neuroscience,alt.dreams.lucid
>Path: netnews.upenn.edu!dsinc!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!howland.reston.ans.net!news.moneng.mei.com!uwm.edu!src.honeywell.com!newshost.imageman.com!sinope!viosca
>From: viosca at rtc.atk.com (Randall Viosca)
>Subject: Dreams, location of?
>Message-ID: <1995Jan23.085947.24080 at rtc.atk.com>
>Organization: Alliant Techsystems, Inc., Mpls, MN
>Date: Mon, 23 Jan 1995 08:59:47 GMT
>Lines: 39
>Xref: netnews.upenn.edu bionet.neuroscience:5888 alt.dreams.lucid:6217
>This might not be the right group for this, but...
>I'm looking for papers or any information about where the brain
> creates/has visual and audio stimulation/activity during dreaming.
REM (which is suggestive of dreaming) as well as activity in the middle
ear muscles "appear to be driven by phasic bursts of electrical activity that
can be recorded in animals from a variety of structures in the brain stem [the
dorsolateral pons, motor nuclei of the oculomotor, trigeminal, and facial
nerves], in the thalamus [laternal geniculate nuclei] and in the visual and
auditory cortex." REM is also correlated to PGO [pontine-geniculate-occiptal]
spikes activity. Activity of cholinoceptive neurons in the pontine tegmentum
also seems to play a crucial role.
(this by no mean lists all areas involved - for those following up, please
correct me where appropiate)
-quote from Kandell, Schwartz, Jessell - PRINCIPLES OF NEURAL SCIENCE, 3rd ed.
>Specifically, what parts along the visual pathway (if any) are
>stimulated or active to the point that it might be inferred that those
>parts are actively visualizing or creating the image the dreamer is
>perceiving? Is the striate cortex active? It may seem far fetched,
>but has anyone been able to measure retinal activity during dreaming?
>Or have dreams been proven to be a more symbolic, higher level
>cortical function?
Freud deals with dreams on a psychological basis [symbolism of dreams] in THE
INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS.... but not necessarily as a higher level cortical
function...
>I am wondering if the circuit could look something vaguely like this
>*logical* diagram:
> S
> W
> I (or filter?)
> receptor (environmental) input T
>eyes --------->[LGC]----------->\ C
> \ H
> >--->StriateCortex>---+
> Symbolic (Dreaming) input / |
> +------------------------>/ |
> | |
> | /
> ^ /
> Higher cortical area(s). <---------------------/
>And could there be an analogous representation for audio?
>I know there is much research underway with PET, MRI and SQID; have
>any of these been applied towards dream research?
>Thank you,
hope some of this helps...
-Prat
pitharat at sas.upenn.edu
