Activation of Retinotopic Visual Areas Is Central to REM Sleep Associated Dreams: Visual Dreams and Visual Imagery Possibly Co-Emerged In Evolution

Abstract

The latest experimental results support that multiple retinotopic visual systems play a central role not only in the processing of visual signals but also in the integration and processing of internally represented auditory and tactile information. These retinotopic maps have access to higher levels of cognitive processing, performed by the frontal lobes, for example. The occipital cortex may have a special role in multisensory integration. There is a functional basis for the development and maturation of visual memory in association of rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) which is linked to dreams and visual imagery. Physiological and psychological processes of REMS are similar to waking visual imagery. Furthermore, visual imagery during REMS utilize a common visual neural pathway similar to that used in wakefulness. This pathway subserves visual processes accompanied with auditory experiences and intrinsic feelings. We argue that the activation of the retinotopic visual areas is central to REM sleep associated dreams and that REMS associated dreaming and visual imagery may have coevolved in homeothermic animals during evolution. We also suggest that protoconscious state during REM sleep, as introduced by Hobson many years ago, may be a basic visual process.

Challenges to free will: transgenerational epigenetic information, unconscious processes, and vanishing twin syndrome

“…Free choice (a given conscious decision) may be essentially a convergent and integrated spatiotemporal manifestation of millions of subjective unconscious processes while a subject interacts with environmental factors. As the conscious (explicit) mind may have originated from preconscious (implicit) or proto-conscious processes (Hobson, 2009;Bókkon and Mallick, 2012) in evolution, this suggests that consciousness may be a dynamic and convergent manifestation of unconscious neurocomputation processes. Furthermore, even if in a given situation we could truly perform free choice, we cannot know and cannot make a distinction that it was our true free choice or if it was determined by large number of unconscious processes and epigenetic-linked factors as presented throughout this article.…”

Rapid eye movements are reduced in blind individuals

“…This activation of the visual cortex in the absence of visual input is similar to activations shown in visual perception and imagery exercises during wakefulness (Ganis, Thompson, & Kosslyn, ; Klein, Paradis, Poline, Kosslyn, & Le Bihan, ; Kosslyn, Thompson, & Alpert, ). Furthermore, studies have demonstrated a relationship between dream content and activity in the retinotopic visual areas during REM sleep (Bókkon & Mallick, ).…”

“…One specific study of patients with REM sleep behaviour disorder found that rapid EMs were present in approximately 60% of the goal-oriented motor behaviours reflecting dream content, and when these were present, up to 90% of the directionality of rapid EMs was coherent with the observed limb movements (Leclair-Visonneau, Oudiette, Gaymard, Leu-Semenescu, & Arnulf, 2010). Although the hypothesis is still debated (Ogawa, Nittono, & Hori, 2002;Zhou & King, 1997), various studies have demonstrated a relationship between the activity of the visual cortex, the occurrence of EMs and the visual imagery of the dream (see Bókkon & Mallick, 2012;Hobson, Pace-Schott, & Stickgold, 2000;Miyauchi, Misaki, Kan, Fukunaga, & Koike, 2009 for examples), suggesting a neurobiological link between dream content and EM activity. Interest in the association between nocturnal EMs and dream content has been ongoing since the beginning of the scientific research of sleep (Dement & Kleitman, 1957b), and remains, to this day, inconclusive.…”

Near death experiences: a multidisciplinary hypothesis

“…Recently, we argued (Bókkon and Mallick, 2012) that activation of the retinotopic visual areas is central to REMS associated dreams and that REMS associated dreaming and visual imagery may have co-evolved in homeothermic animals during evolution. In addition, visual imagery during REMS utilizes a common visual neural pathway similar to that used in wakefulness and during dreams expressed during REMS (Braun et al, 1998; Cantero et al, 1999; Gottesmann and Gottesman, 2007; Miyauchi et al, 2009; Horikawa et al, 2013).…”

“…Our idea appears to be related to Hobson's protoconscious notion (2009), i.e., protoconscious state may emerge from implicit memory in homeotherms during the evolution of REMS. We also suggested that the REMS protoconscious state may be basically a visual process and REMS associated visual dreams and visual imagery may have co-evolved in homeothermic animals in evolution (Bókkon and Mallick, 2012). …”