Dreaming and waking cognition.
Abstract
Dreams are often believed to be “symbolic” and thus categorically distinct from the “ordinary” thoughts of waking cognition. But to the contrary, emerging evidence suggests that dreams and waking cognition share a common origin at the neurobiological level, which is reflected in similarity of form, content, and function at the phenomenological level. In both dreams and daydreams, memories of the past form the basis of novel imaginary scenarios. Neural networks that support remembering the past, imagining the future, and creating fictitious scenes remain active across conscious states of wake and sleep. Taken together, this evidence suggests that dreaming is a natural extension of waking conscious experience. This empirically supported conception of dreaming has important clinical applications concerning the “interpretability” of dreams in the therapeutic setting.
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In humans, recent evidence shows that mental time travel and dreaming may be generated through similar networks in the brain, share parallels in their (re)constructive processes, and share deficits owing to injury and disease.
“In humans, recent evidence shows that mental time travel and dreaming may be generated through similar networks in the brain [194,195], share parallels in their (re)constructive processes [196–199] as well as deficits owing to injury and disease [200,201].”
From Is episodic-like memory <i>like</i> episodic memory? (2024) · cites this paper as [195]
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Self-citation
- Authors
- Graveline, Y. M., & Wamsley, E. J.
- ORCID
- Wamsley, Erin J.
- Venue
- Translational Issues in Psychological Science
- Published
- 2015-03
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 97-105
- ISSN
- 2332-2136 (ISSN-L)
- 2332-2179
- OpenAlex
- W2149179569
- Cited by
- 21
- References
- 53
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 1.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Translational Issues in Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Sleep and Wakefulness Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Philosophy and Theoretical Science
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Sleep and related disorders
- Keywords
- dreams, daydreaming, memory, imagination, artificial neural networks, sleep, subjective experience, dream interpretation, therapeutic use of dreams
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