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Complex hallucinations in waking suggest mechanisms of dream construction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2005

Edward F. Pace-Schott*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, Center for Sleep and Cognition, Harvard Medical School, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, East Campus, Boston, MA02215

Abstract

Waking hallucinations suggest mechanisms of dream initiation and maintenance. Visual association cortex activation, yielding poorly attended-to, visually ambiguous dream environments, suggests conditions favoring hallucinosis. Attentional and visual systems, coactivated during sleep, may generate imagery that is inserted into virtual environments. Internally consistent dreaming may evolve from successive, contextually evoked images. Fluctuating arousal and context-evoked imagery may help explain dream features.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2005

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