Cargando…

Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research

Dreams are still an enigma of human cognition, studied extensively in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. According to the Freudian dream theory and Solms' modifications of the unconscious derived from it, the fundamental task of meeting our emotional needs is guided by the principle of homeostasi...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Koslowski, Michael, de Haas, Max-Pelgrom, Fischmann, Tamara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9978341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36875230
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1080177
_version_ 1784899501119504384
author Koslowski, Michael
de Haas, Max-Pelgrom
Fischmann, Tamara
author_facet Koslowski, Michael
de Haas, Max-Pelgrom
Fischmann, Tamara
author_sort Koslowski, Michael
collection PubMed
description Dreams are still an enigma of human cognition, studied extensively in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. According to the Freudian dream theory and Solms' modifications of the unconscious derived from it, the fundamental task of meeting our emotional needs is guided by the principle of homeostasis. Our innate value system generates conscious feelings of pleasure and unpleasure, resulting in the behavior of approaching or withdrawing from the world of objects. Based on these experiences, a hierarchical generative model of predictions (priors) about the world is constantly created and modified, with the aim to optimize the meeting of our needs by reducing prediction error, as described in the predictive processing model of cognition. Growing evidence from neuroimaging supports this theory. The same hierarchical functioning of the brain is in place during sleep and dreaming, with some important modifications like a lack of sensual and motor perception and action. Another characteristic of dreaming is the predominance of primary process thinking, an associative, non-rational cognitive style, which can be found in similar altered states of consciousness like the effect of psychedelics. Mental events that do not successfully fulfill an emotional need will cause a prediction error, leading to conscious attention and adaptation of the priors that incorrectly predicted the event. However, this is not the case for repressed priors (RPs), which are defined by the inability to become reconsolidated or removed, despite ongoing error signal production. We hypothesize that Solms' RPs correspond with the conflictual complexes, as described by Moser in his dream formation theory. Thus, in dreams and dream-like states, these unconscious RPs might become accessible in symbolic and non-declarative forms that the subject is able to feel and make sense of. Finally, we present the similarities between dreaming and the psychedelic state. Insights from psychedelic research could be used to inform dream research and related therapeutic interventions, and vice versa. We propose further empirical research questions and methods and finally present our ongoing trial “Biological Functions of Dreaming” to test the hypothesis that dreaming predicts intact sleep architecture and memory consolidation, via a lesion model with stroke patients who lost the ability to dream.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-9978341
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2023
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-99783412023-03-03 Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research Koslowski, Michael de Haas, Max-Pelgrom Fischmann, Tamara Front Hum Neurosci Human Neuroscience Dreams are still an enigma of human cognition, studied extensively in psychoanalysis and neuroscience. According to the Freudian dream theory and Solms' modifications of the unconscious derived from it, the fundamental task of meeting our emotional needs is guided by the principle of homeostasis. Our innate value system generates conscious feelings of pleasure and unpleasure, resulting in the behavior of approaching or withdrawing from the world of objects. Based on these experiences, a hierarchical generative model of predictions (priors) about the world is constantly created and modified, with the aim to optimize the meeting of our needs by reducing prediction error, as described in the predictive processing model of cognition. Growing evidence from neuroimaging supports this theory. The same hierarchical functioning of the brain is in place during sleep and dreaming, with some important modifications like a lack of sensual and motor perception and action. Another characteristic of dreaming is the predominance of primary process thinking, an associative, non-rational cognitive style, which can be found in similar altered states of consciousness like the effect of psychedelics. Mental events that do not successfully fulfill an emotional need will cause a prediction error, leading to conscious attention and adaptation of the priors that incorrectly predicted the event. However, this is not the case for repressed priors (RPs), which are defined by the inability to become reconsolidated or removed, despite ongoing error signal production. We hypothesize that Solms' RPs correspond with the conflictual complexes, as described by Moser in his dream formation theory. Thus, in dreams and dream-like states, these unconscious RPs might become accessible in symbolic and non-declarative forms that the subject is able to feel and make sense of. Finally, we present the similarities between dreaming and the psychedelic state. Insights from psychedelic research could be used to inform dream research and related therapeutic interventions, and vice versa. We propose further empirical research questions and methods and finally present our ongoing trial “Biological Functions of Dreaming” to test the hypothesis that dreaming predicts intact sleep architecture and memory consolidation, via a lesion model with stroke patients who lost the ability to dream. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-02-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9978341/ /pubmed/36875230 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1080177 Text en Copyright © 2023 Koslowski, de Haas and Fischmann. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Human Neuroscience
Koslowski, Michael
de Haas, Max-Pelgrom
Fischmann, Tamara
Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
title Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
title_full Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
title_fullStr Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
title_full_unstemmed Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
title_short Converging theories on dreaming: Between Freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
title_sort converging theories on dreaming: between freud, predictive processing, and psychedelic research
topic Human Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9978341/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36875230
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2023.1080177
work_keys_str_mv AT koslowskimichael convergingtheoriesondreamingbetweenfreudpredictiveprocessingandpsychedelicresearch
AT dehaasmaxpelgrom convergingtheoriesondreamingbetweenfreudpredictiveprocessingandpsychedelicresearch
AT fischmanntamara convergingtheoriesondreamingbetweenfreudpredictiveprocessingandpsychedelicresearch