What Are Dreams?Presentation

byCharles Beaman

MD/PhD StudentUT Health

Are Dreams Important?2 Nobel Prizes

Otto Loewi Chemical Transmission of

Nerve Impulses

Neils BohrStructure of Atoms and

Quantum Mechanics

How Do We Measure Dreams?

Electroencephalography (EEG)

How Do We Measure Dreams?St

ages

of S

leep

Animals in REM Sleep

Two Types of DreamsSt

ages

of S

leep

NREM

REM

NREM Dreaming

REM Dreaming

• Compressed in Time Scale (1 sec of dream equals 10 of reality)• Practice Learned skills

• Expanded Time Scale • Simulations?• Emotional• Testing Future Possibilities

NREM Dreaming – Tetris Experiment

Tetris Improvement

Expert Players

Novice Players

Amnesics

Novice Players reported dreaming about Tetris much more than Expert Players

Alpine Racer 2

Dreaming in RatsNow we can actually LISTEN to the Neurons in the brain

Rats in the Maze

Dreaming in Rats

Dreaming in Rats

NREM Dreaming

REM Dreaming

• Compressed in Time Scale (1 sec of dream equals 10 of reality)• Practice Learned skills• Declarative Memory?

• Expanded Time Scale • Simulations?• Testing Future Possibilities• Procedural Memory?

REM Dreaming

• Vividly remembered Dreams

• REM Atonia

• Sexual Stimulation

• Emotions

• Is there a point?

Why Do We have Nightmares?

How Does My Lab Measure Dreams?

Electrocorticography

• Intractable Epilepsy Patients

• Patients in the Hospital for about 1 week

• We can use this time window to study Sleep

Local Sleep

Future Research

The Dream-Reading Machine

Dream-Reading Machine

Thank You

Questions?