Activation model of dreaming

The activation-synthesis model rests heavily on the equation REM = dreaming. The established neurochemistry of the REM state can explain the phenomenology of the dream state only to the extent that this equation is accepted. If dreams are shown to occur independently of the REM state, then the unique physiology of REM cannot account for the unique phenomenology of dreaming. 

And the answer is yes if we emphasize the way the new findings enable us to revise Freud s necessarily speculative dream theory and replace it with one that gives a detailed alternative account of dream phenomenology and eliminates the very dubious disguise-censorship idea, but still retains the crucial concept of emotional salience as a major element in dream content elaboration. The model does not now specify regional shifts in neuronal activity and/or blood flow, but if both derive from the neuromodulatory ratio shift, then factor M would predict the enhancement of emotion in dreaming and its central role in shaping dream plots. 

Table 1 Differences between Freud and activation-synthesis two models that offer different explanations of the altered state of dreaming...

In 1957, William Dement, a co-worker of Aserinsky and Kleitman, vigorously investigated the REM sleep-dream connection in humans, and discovered that cats also had periods of brain activation and REM in their sleep. This provided the experimental model necessary for investigation of the cellular and molecular basis of brain activation in sleep, and the chance to integrate phenomena at the level of cells and molecules with the EEG and the distinctive forms of mental activity in human sleep. We didn t need to know whether cats dreamed to make this integration. All we... 

Within three months of his arrival at Irvine, Molina and Rowland had developed the rudiments of their CFC-ozone depletion theory. Both became aware that Crutzen s earlier work on the influence of nitrogen oxides on ozone levels provided a model for how chlorine atoms could influence the concentration of ozone as well. By 1985, Molina, working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, was able to show that the chlorine activation reactions took place effectively in the presence of ice crystals in the polar stratosphere and, thus, account for the seasonal fluctuation of the ozone discovered earlier by Joseph Farman and his coworkers. Molina has stated that he chose the initial research project with Rowland simply out of scientific curiosity, never dreaming of the impact then-work would have on the world s environment. You may read about their exploits, and those of other Nobel laureates, at http //www.nobel.se/ chemistry/laureates/. 

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