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Dreaming, lucid dreaming, insight, psychosis, schizophrenia
Abstract:
The idea that dreaming can serve as a model for psychosis has a long and
honourable tradition, however it is notoriously speculative. Here we
demonstrate that recent research on the phenomenon of lucid dreaming
sheds new light on the debate. Lucid dreaming is a rare state of sleep
in which the dreamer gains insight into his state of mind during
dreaming. Recent electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic
resonance imaging (fMRI) data for the first time allow very specific
hypotheses about the dream-psychosis relationship: if dreaming is a
reasonable model for psychosis, then insight into the dreaming state and
insight into the psychotic state should share similar neural correlates.
This indeed seems to be the case: cortical areas activated during lucid
dreaming show striking overlap with brain regions that are impaired in
psychotic patients who lack insight into their pathological state. This
parallel allows for new therapeutic approaches and ways to test
antipsychotic medication. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
