Journal Article

Induction of self awareness in dreams through frontal low current stimulation of gamma activity

Paulus, Walter, Voss, Ursula, Holzmann, Romain, Koppehele-Gossel, Judith, Klimke, Ansgar, Nitsche, Michael A, Hobson, Allan

2014

Overview

Lucid dreaming, in which the sleeper is aware of the dream state, has been associated with increased neural activity around 40 Hz (lower gamma band), but their causal relationship remains unclear. The authors show that, during REM sleep, fronto-temporal transcranial stimulation in the lower gamma band can induce lucid dreaming. Recent findings link fronto-temporal gamma electroencephalographic (EEG) activity to conscious awareness in dreams, but a causal relationship has not yet been established. We found that current stimulation in the lower gamma band during REM sleep influences ongoing brain activity and induces self-reflective awareness in dreams. Other stimulation frequencies were not effective, suggesting that higher order consciousness is indeed related to synchronous oscillations around 25 and 40 Hz.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/378/2649/1398 / 9/26 / Adolescent / Adult / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Awareness - physiology / Behavioral Sciences / Biological Techniques / Biomedicine / Brain research / Brain Waves - physiology / brief-communication / Consciousness / Consciousness - physiology / Double-Blind Method / Dreams / Dreams - physiology / Dreams - psychology / Electrocardiography - methods / Electrocardiography - psychology / Electroencephalography / Electromyography / Eye movements / Female / Humans / Male / Neurobiology / Neurophysiology / Neurosciences / Physiological aspects / Self awareness / Sleep / Sleep, REM - physiology / Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - methods / Wavelet transforms / Young Adult