The DOI matches its Crossref record; 167 of the 176 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; 1 of the 47 sources its claims cite were checked for support.
Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology
Open accessAbstract
Dreams are a most remarkable experiment in psychology and neuroscience, conducted every night in every sleeping person. They show that our brain, disconnected from the environment, can generate by itself an entire world of conscious experiences. Content analysis and developmental studies have furthered our understanding of dream phenomenology. In parallel, brain lesion studies, functional imaging, and neurophysiology have advanced our knowledge of the neural basis of dreaming. It is now possible to start integrating these two strands of research in order to address some fundamental questions that dreams pose for cognitive neuroscience: how conscious experiences in sleep relate to underlying brain activity; why the dreamer is largely disconnected from the environment; and whether dreaming is more closely related to mental imagery or to perception.
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
1 of 47 cited sources checked · 0 supported · 0 flagged · accuracy not yet measured
The cited sources support only part of this claim — read each source’s verdict below.
In the paper
“An intriguing possibility concerns the putative antagonism between externally oriented cortical networks and internally oriented, default-mode networks[92, 93].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Why is the dreamer disconnected from the environment?
What the sources say
- Partly supportedcites [92] Golland, 2007, Extrinsic and intrinsic systems in the posterior cortex of the human brain revealed during natural sensory stimulation, Cereb. Cortex sourceExperimental — accuracy not yet measured
The Introduction distinguishes an externally driven extrinsic system from an intrinsic system associated with internally driven functions, and the default-mode comparison reports that parts of the intrinsic system deactivate during visual stimulation. But the same comparison explicitly says this study did not observe a negative correlation between the two systems. The paper therefore supports a possible tension between them, not a demonstrated antagonistic relationship. (LLM, conf=0.85)
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [93] Ioannides, 2009, MEG identifies dorsal medial brain activations during sleep, Neuroimage source
- Partly supported
In the paper
“Neuromodulatory activity in cataplectic dogs is largely similar to that in REM sleep except that levels of histamine are high, much like during wakefulness[105]. It thus seems that levels of histamine are correlated with our ability to incorporate sensory stimuli into conscious experience.”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Why is the dreamer disconnected from the environment?
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [105] Gallop, 1990
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matched
A result the paper reports from its own data — it cites no other source for it, so there is none to check. The quote shows it is in the paper.
In the paper
“In fact, during dreaming there is a prominent reduction of voluntary control of action and thought. We cannot pursue goals, and have no control over the dream’s content.”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Phenomenology of dreams and their relation to brain activity > Similarities between dreaming and waking
In the paper
“Dreams are highly visual, in full color, rich in shapes, full of movement, and incorporate typical wakefulness categories such as people, faces, places, objects, and animals[3].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Phenomenology of dreams and their relation to brain activity > Similarities between dreaming and waking
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [3] Hobson, 1988
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Moreover, stimuli not only fail to elicit a behavioral response, but also largely fail to be incorporated in the content of the dream[8, 84–86] (though some stimuli, such as a spray of water, pressure on the limbs, and meaningful words have a slightly higher chance of incorporation[84, 85]).”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Why is the dreamer disconnected from the environment?
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [8] Rechtschaffen, 1965, Effect of visual stimuli on dream content, Percept. Mot. Skills source
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [84] Berger, 1963, Experimental modification of dream content by meaningful verbal stimuli, Br. J. Psychiatry source
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [85] Koulack, 1969, Effects of somatosensory stimulation on dream content, Arch. Gen. Psychiatry source
- Not matchedcites [86] Steriade, 2003
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“From lesion studies (Box 3) we know that dreaming requires an intact temporo-parieto-occipital junction[22, 23] and lesions in this region also affect mental imagery in wakefulness[109].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Are dreams more like perception or imagination?
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [22] Solms, 1997
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [23] Solms, 2000, Dreaming and REM sleep are controlled by different brain mechanisms, Behav. Brain Sci. source
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [109] Butler, 1985, Individual differences in memory for dreams: the role of cognitive skills, Percept. Mot. Skills source
- Not matched
None of the sources cited for this claim have been checked yet.
In the paper
“Overall, lesion studies indicate that dreaming depends on specific forebrain regions rather than on the brainstem REM sleep generator[22, 128, 129].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Phenomenology of dreams and their relation to brain activity > Similarities between dreaming and waking
What the sources say
- Not matchedcites [22] Solms, 1997
Couldn’t be matched to a paper in Crossref, so it can’t be checked.
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [128] Kosslyn, 1994 source
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [129] Epstein, 1983, Aphasia with reported loss of dreaming, Am. J. Psychiatry source
- Not matched
In the paper
“This feature is known as “high arousal threshold”, and it persists in REM sleep despite its wake-like low-voltage EEG[83].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > Why is the dreamer disconnected from the environment?
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [83] Dement, 1958, The relation of eye movements, body motility, and external stimuli to dream content, J. Exp. Psychol. source
A claim is checked only against the cited paper’s full text, never its abstract, and none is available for its sources.
In the paper
“Indeed, 10–30% of all NREM sleep reports are indistinguishable by any criteria from those obtained from REM sleep[64, 65].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > What determines the level of consciousness during sleep?
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [64] Monroe, 1965, Discriminability of Rem and Nrem Reports, J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. source
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [65] Antrobus, 1995, Dreaming in the late morning: summation of REM and diurnal cortical activation, Conscious Cogn. source
In the paper
“reports of conscious experiences in NREM sleep ranged between 23% and 74%[9].”
§ Dreaming and the brain: from phenomenology to neurophysiology > What determines the level of consciousness during sleep?
What the sources say
- Not checked — no full text of the sourcecites [9] Rechtschaffen, 1973, The psychophysiology of mental activity during sleep source
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The cited source doesn’t support the claim as written.
In the citing paper
“The modification of memory performance across early childhood, due in the firsts ages to the so-called infantile amnesia72–74 and subsequently to the development of cognitive functions,67 parallel the improvement of dream recall rates in children.”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
Checked by a reasoning model — may be wrong.
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“infantile amnesia and confabulatory reports in infancy are the main reasons why reliable studies in this age range cannot be carried out.73,74”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“the regions implicated in emotional processes during wakefulness are also responsible for the neurophysiological background of REM sleep that can explain some qualitative features of DE”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Nir and Tononi, 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Considering that mental imagery shares the same neuronal substrates as dreaming [2,73]”
From How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them (2024) · cites this paper as [2]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Although sleep is often associated with “rest,” the brain remains highly active, with neuronal activity persisting but exhibiting frequency patterns distinct from those observed during wakefulness23,24.”
From Energy paradox in REM sleep: balancing supply and consumption in brain metabolism (2026) · cites this paper as [24]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“the processes that regulate dreaming and emotional salience in sleep mentation share similar neural substrates of those controlling emotions during wakefulness”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Nir and Tononi, 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“the neural activation of emotional-limbic (Nir and Tononi, 2010) and reward systems (Perogamvros and Schwartz, 2012) during REM-DE contributes to the offline reprocessing of emotions and associative learning”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Nir and Tononi, 2010
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“At the same time, dream content analysis reveals a full development and adult-like content of dream experience from 9 years of age,4,89,73,91 coherent with mature mental imagery skills.73,92”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“A first real development in dream content is reached at the age of 7 years, when the child starts to represent himself in the dream, with higher emotional content, active participation, and narrative structure, in dreams overall more frequent and longer.4,73,89,91”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Longer reports, but with still low recall rate, are reached between ages 5 and 7 years.”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Specifically, dream content at the age of 2–5 years shows a general absence of people, object, and events, being usually a static report of single characters.”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“The ages in which children begin to report some dream content seem to parallel their cognitive maturation.73”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“the distribution of brain activity in REM sleep is not homogenous”
From The Functional Role of Dreaming in Emotional Processes (2019) · cites this paper as Nir and Tononi, 2010
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Strikingly, these experiences usually evoke the sensation of being awake, since similar features as in our external sensorium (characters, objects, colors, places, and sounds) are incorporated in a realistic manner [2].”
From How Adversarial REM Dreams May Facilitate Creativity, and Why We Become Aware of Them (2024) · cites this paper as [2]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“Second, during sleep subjects are largely disconnected from the environment on both the input and output side, meaning that in the majority of cases, sensory stimuli do not influence the content of experience 2 .”
From The neural correlates of dreaming (2017) · cites this paper as [2]
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“In other words, mind wandering and dreaming both refers to a peculiar internal cognition, so it is plausible that the neural substrate for sleep mentation shares some brain regions with the network for mind wandering (i.e., DMN; Fosse and Domhoff, 2007; Ioannides et al., 2009; Nir and Tononi, 2010).”
From EEG oscillations during sleep and dream recall: state- or trait-like individual differences? (2015) · cites this paper as Nir and Tononi, 2010
The check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“Some empirical evidence showed that children start at 4 years of age to discern dream from reality and reach a complete comprehension of this difference at the age of 9 years, when cognitive abilities are adequately matured.4,69,73,89,90”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“Interestingly, another issue in facing dream research in infancy is the achievement of the ability to discern a dream from reality, whose age definition is still controversial.4,69,73,89,90”
From Spotlight on dream recall: the ages of dreams (2018) · cites this paper as [73]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Citations
Cites
The Brain's Default Network: Anatomy, Function, and Relevance to Disease
Buckner, R. L., Andrews‐Hanna, J. R., & Schacter, D. L. (2008) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1196/annals.1440.011 · Cited by 9,761
The human brain is intrinsically organized into dynamic, anticorrelated functional networks
Fox, M. D., Snyder, A. Z., Vincent, J. L., Corbetta, M., Van Essen, D. C., & Raichle, M. E. (2005) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0504136102 · Cited by 8,553 · cited 1×
“An intriguing possibility concerns the putative antagonism between externally oriented cortical networks and internally oriented, default-mode networks [ 91 ,92].”
2. The Interpretation of Dreams
Freud, S., Crick, J., & Robertson, R. (1913) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1037/10561-000 · Cited by 6,979
Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine
Kryger, M. H., Roth, T. G., & Dement, W. C. (2011) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/c2009-0-59875-3 · Cited by 5,118
EPILEPSY AND THE FUNCTIONAL ANATOMY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN
Penfield, W., & Jasper, H. (1954) · Southern Medical Journal · doi:10.1097/00007611-195407000-00024 · Cited by 4,092
Gusnard, D. A., Akbudak, E., Shulman, G. L., & Raichle, M. E. (2001) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.071043098 · Cited by 2,997
Wandering minds: the default network and stimulus-independent thought
Mason, M. F., Norton, M. I., Van Horn, J. D., Wegner, D. M., Grafton, S. T., & Macrae, C. N. (2007) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1131295 · Cited by 2,792
Regularly Occurring Periods of Eye Motility, and Concomitant Phenomena, During Sleep
Aserinsky, E., & Kleitman, N. (1953) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.118.3062.273 · Cited by 2,488
The distinct modes of vision offered by feedforward and recurrent processing
Lamme, V. A. F., & Roelfsema, P. R. (2000) · Trends in Neurosciences · doi:10.1016/s0166-2236(00)01657-x · Cited by 2,338 · cited 1×
“retinotopic cortex is a necessary condition for visual awareness [ 131 ].”
BackgroundImage And Brain: The Resolution of the Imagery Debate
Kosslyn, S. M. (1994) · doi:10.7551/mitpress/3653.001.0001 · Cited by 1,977
Flagged first, then by citations
9 of the 176 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Hartmann, 1968, The day residue: time distribution of waking events, Psychophysiology, 5, 222
- Doricchi, 1992, Dream recall in brain-damaged patients: A contribution to the neuropsychology of dreaming through a review of the literature, 99
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Tononi, G., & Cirelli, C. (2014) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2013.12.025 · Cited by 2,356
“For example, more than half of nocturnal awakenings reveal the occurrence of imaginary scenes or full-fledged dreams, so it could be dangerous if they gave rise to new declarative memories (Nir and Tononi, 2010).”
BackgroundSelf-citationNeural correlates of consciousness: progress and problems
Koch, C., Massimini, M., Boly, M., & Tononi, G. (2016) · Nature Reviews Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nrn.2016.22 · Cited by 1,600
Self-citationThe brain's default network and its adaptive role in internal mentation
Andrews-Hanna, J. R. (2012) · The Neuroscientist · doi:10.1177/1073858411403316 · Cited by 1,114
Regional Slow Waves and Spindles in Human Sleep
Nir, Y., Staba, R. J., Andrillon, T., Vyazovskiy, V. V., Cirelli, C., Fried, I., & Tononi, G. (2011) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2011.02.043 · Cited by 924
“Moreover, the fact that in late sleep many brain regions remain in an ON state while only a minority of areas are in an OFF state may not be unrelated to the increased occurrence and intensity of dreaming in NREM sleep toward the end of the night (Nir and Tononi, 2010).”
Self-citationThe neural correlates of dreaming
Siclari, F., Baird, B., Perogamvros, L., Bernardi, G., LaRocque, J. J., Riedner, B., Boly, M., Postle, B. R., & Tononi, G. (2017) · Nature Neuroscience · doi:10.1038/nn.4545 · Cited by 758
Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Nir, Y., & Tononi, G.
- Affiliations
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2010-02
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 88-100
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC2814941
- OpenAlex
- W2081767153
- Cited by
- 595
- References
- 176
- Citations by year
- 2026: 42 · 2025: 64 · 2024: 41 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 40 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 60 · 2019: 51 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 26 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 24
- FWCI
- 1.81
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institutes of Health (5p20mh077967-04, DP1OD000579)
- National Institute of Mental Health (P20MH-077967)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- dreams, phenomenology of dreams, brain lesions, functional imaging, mental imagery, perception, sleep
- MeSH terms
- Brain, Consciousness, Dreams, Emotions, Environment, Humans, Imagination, Neurophysiology, Perception, Psychophysiology
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
A language model drew the claims from the paper on 2026-09-26 (prompt extract-v2).
Cited sources are checked with a language model’s help (gpt-6-sol).
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
