Current Ideas about REM Sleep, Dreams and Dreaming: Confirmations of Psychoanalytic Ideas about DreamsSwiss doctors, writing in the Annals of Neurology, describe the case of a 73-year-old woman who suffered a stroke to the occipital lobe of her brain. This region is responsible for the processing of visual information and, unsurprisingly, the stroke impaired the patient's sight. A few days later she regained her sight, but a new problem emerged which astonished the doctors: the patient stopped dreaming.
Echoing your "dropped on your head" "confession"We have reviewed the function of dreaming and the causes for dreaming. What about the mechanism of dreaming? Is there a connection between Freud's ideas and neuroscientific evidence?
Yes, in regression where dreaming reverses the normal sequence of perceptual events. When awake we perceive something from the outside and then process the information in the cortex. In dreams, there are internally generated images, which are fed backwards as if coming from the outside and abstract thoughts are converted into concrete perceptions. That is why there is a cessation of dreaming when there is damage to the gray cortex at the back of the brain (occipito-temporo-parietal junction) which is where the brain performs the highest level of processing of perceptual information.
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
![Shocked 8O](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
![Shocked 8O](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)
I have always "fancied" this "brain trauma" and "social betrayal" (trusting a group for my welfare) to have affected my "social skills" somehow, and has contributed to my "difficulty communicating" with others,
![Wink ;)](./images/smilies/wink.gif)
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
I always have some weird angle on things, and usually outpace a conversation by a few steps talking "about the end" when the rest of the crowd was "still in the middle" of a topical conversation. Analytical machine, processing - processing - processing. I have always enjoyed this seperation ultimately, but not always, heh, not many "enjoy" being an outsider, but are forced to comply with the inherent judgement of ones peers, because this has allowed me to pursue a resolute path of curiosity, discovery, and supposition about the nature and structure of life itself, unencumbered by "social demands". Tailor made for a "disciple" of Don Juan and Carlos, the core principle in their practices being dreaming and perception, who I absolutely admire and trust more than those who seek Jesus, Buddha or that Zen guy, heh.
In other words, the trauma was a necessary and vital factor in my development and critical to it's path and progress. Maybe, heh. But I am incredibly visual, and dream quite frequently, randomly, and uncontrollably. "Lucid Dreaming" is something that I have quite forgotten about by the time I am "going to sleep", and sleeping itself is almost like crack to me. I could somtimes just sleep and sleep, and have remained in bed for entire weekends sometimes, gettin up only for "necessities", heh.
Enough for now, and ur-bane, that dying deal must have been super freaky, heh. wow.
![Shocked 8O](./images/smilies/icon_eek.gif)