Frequent lucid dreaming associated with increased functional connectivity between frontopolar cortex and temporoparietal association areas

Abstract

Humans typically lack awareness that they are dreaming while dreaming. However, at times a remarkable exception occurs and reflective consciousness can be regained while dreaming, referred to as lucid dreaming. While most individuals experience lucid dreams rarely there is substantial variance in lucid dream frequency. The neurobiological basis of lucid dreaming is unknown, but evidence points to involvement of anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) and parietal cortex. This study evaluated the neuroanatomical/neurofunctional correlates of frequent lucid dreams and specifically whether functional connectivity of aPFC is associated with frequent lucid dreams. We analyzed structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging from an exceptional sample of fourteen individuals who reported ≥3 lucid dreams/week and a control group matched on age, gender and dream recall that reported ≤1 lucid dream/year. Compared to controls, the frequent lucid dream group showed significantly increased resting-state functional connectivity between left aPFC and bilateral angular gyrus, bilateral middle temporal gyrus and right inferior frontal gyrus, and higher node degree and strength in left aPFC. In contrast, no significant differences in brain structure were observed. Our results suggest that frequent lucid dreaming is associated with increased functional connectivity between aPFC and temporoparietal association areas, regions normally deactivated during sleep.

Wake Up, Work on Dreams, Back to Bed and Lucid Dream: A Sleep Laboratory Study

“…Lucid dreams are linked with higher levels of automatic nervous system activity (LaBerge et al, 1986), but also with more pronounced H-reflex suppression (Brylowski et al, 1989). Neurophysiological studies found increased activation during REM lucid dreaming especially in frontal and frontolateral regions but also in temporoparietal regions as well as an functional connectivity between those areas (Voss et al, 2009;Dresler et al, 2012;Baird et al, 2018). This specific dream state offers many opportunities to study consciousness processes (Baird et al, 2019) or psychophysiology in general (LaBerge et al, 2018).…”

Prevalence of near-death experiences in people with and without REM sleep intrusion

“…REM sleep is defined by rapid and random saccadic eye movements, loss of muscle tone, a propensity towards vivid dreams, and cortical activation as revealed by EEG desynchronization (Peever & Fuller, 2017). Importantly, REM state features can intrude into wakefulness, both in healthy people and those with narcolepsy, which may lead to visual and auditory hallucinations at sleep onset (hypnagogic) or upon awakening (hypnopompic) and muscle atonia with sleep paralysis and cataplexy (Scammell, 2015; Jalal & Ramachandran, 2017; Baird et al, 2018).…”

Orchestration of dreams: a possible tool for enhancement of mental productivity and efficiency

“…Different brain regions have been shown to be involved in REM and NREM sleep generation [ 34 ]. At cellular level, acetylcholine muscarinic receptors Chrm1 and Chrm3 proven to be crucial for REM sleep [ 74 ] and calcium hyperpolarization pathway facilitates NREM sleep [ 72 , 74 , 75 ]. Mechanism of dream, different types (REM/NREM dreams) and regions involved in it, largely remains elusive.…”

“…Initial investigations have shown the involvement of prefrontal and parietal regions of brain in LD [ 76 ]. Some studies showed that frequent lucid dreaming is linked with increased functional connectivity between left anterior prefrontal cortex (aPFC) and bilateral middle temporal gyrus (MTG), right inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and bilateral angular gyrus (AG) [ 75 ]. Recently it was demonstrated that the dreaming process is associated with decrease in local slow wave activity (SWA) in the posterior regions of brains in both REM and NREM [ 77 ].…”