Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rdxmf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T05:23:22.194Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The analogy between dreams and the ancient art of memory is tempting but superficial

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2013

Nikolai Axmacher  and
Juergen Fell
Nikolai Axmacher
Affiliation:
Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany. [email protected]://epileptologie-bonn.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=470 German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, 53175 Bonn, Germany. [email protected]://epileptologie-bonn.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=540
Juergen Fell
Affiliation:
Department of Epileptology, University of Bonn, 53105 Bonn, Germany. [email protected]://epileptologie-bonn.de/cms/front_content.php?idcat=470
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although the analogy between dreams and ancient mnemotechniques is tempting because they share several phenomenological characteristics, this analogy is superficial at a closer look. Unlike mneomotechnically encoded material, rapid eye movement (REM) dreams are inherently difficult to remember, do not usually allow conscious subsequent retrieval of all interconnected elements, and have been found to support subsequent episodic memory in only rare cases.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 607 - 608
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bartlett, F. C. (1932) Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cipolli, C., Fagioli, I., Mazzetti, M. & Tuozzi, G. (2005) Consolidation effect of the processing of declarative knowledge during human sleep: Evidence from long-term retention of interrelated contents of mental sleep experiences. Brain Research Bulletin 65:97–104.Google Scholar
Diekelmann, S. & Born, J. (2010) The memory function of sleep. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11:114–26.Google Scholar
Fell, J., Staedtgen, M., Burr, W., Kockelmann, E., Helmstaedter, C., Schaller, C., Elger, C. E. & Fernández, G. (2003) Rhinal-hippocampal EEG coherence is reduced during human sleep. European Journal of Neuroscience 18:1711–16.Google Scholar
Fiss, H., Kremer, E. & Lichtman, J. (1977) The mnemonic function of dreaming. Sleep Research 6:122–37.Google Scholar
Hobson, J. A., Pace-Schott, E. F. & Stickgold, R. (2000) Dreaming and the brain: Toward a cognitive neuroscience of conscious states. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23(6):793–842; discussion 904–1121.Google Scholar
Nishida, M., Pearsall, J., Buckner, R. L. & Walker, M. P. (2009) REM sleep, prefrontal theta, and the consolidation of human emotional memory. Cerebral Cortex 19:1158–66.Google Scholar
Plihal, W. & Born, J. (1997) Effects of early and late nocturnal sleep on declarative and procedural memory. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 9(4):534–47.Google Scholar
Rasch, B., Pommer, J., Diekelmann, S. & Born, J. (2009) Pharmacological REM sleep suppression paradoxically improves rather than impairs skill memory. Nature Neuroscience 12:396–97.Google Scholar
Wagner, U., Gais, S. & Born, J. (2001) Emotional memory formation is enhanced across sleep intervals with high amounts of rapid eye movement sleep. Learning and Memory 8:112–19.Google Scholar
Wamsley, E. J. & Stickgold, R. (2010) Dreaming and off-line memory processing. Current Biology 20:R1010–13.Google Scholar