Hot Zone, The Place In The Brain Where Dreams Originate
The research and new discoveries in the science of sleep are always fascinating. For many people, dreaming is an important source of personal discovery. A joint survey of several neuroscientists from the United States, Italy and Switzerland discovered what was called the hot zone .
The hot zone is an area of the brain with a pattern of activity that seems to tell us when dreams are produced. It was also discovered that dreams do not only occur in the REM phase. Furthermore, this pattern could reveal something about the content of dreams. A fascinating discovery for the knowledge of human consciousness.
The search
The research team monitored the electrical activity of the brains of 32 people in a sleep laboratory over periods of 5 to 10 nights. People were often awakened to report their experiences during the time they were sleeping. They reported information about whether they had dreamed or not. They answered if they remembered parts of the dream, the complete dream, or if they didn’t remember anything.
The difference between this study and previous research is that, in this case, brain activity was monitored with a device containing 256 wires. This monitoring offered a much more complete view than what has been done so far in sleep laboratories.
The results
The team found that although the participants had dream experiences, a part of the brain tended to be activated in a very significant way. They found a “hot zone” during their sleep experiences. This area is located in the parieto-occipital region of the cerebral cortex. It even seems to indicate that it could be the neural correlate of dreams.
When this area is stimulated during wakefulness, it induces the “feeling of being in a parallel world or in a dream state”. Without a doubt, a fascinating discovery. This, in turn, seems to suggest that consciousness is located in a specific posterior region. Until now it was believed to be located in the frontal and parietal lobes.
Hot zone : the opinions
Not everyone agrees with the theory that this technique can give us an idea of the content of dreams. Harvard Medical School professor of psychiatry, Dr. Stickgold, does not believe that dream detection will be a result of this research.
Dr. Stickgold believes that remembered dreams and forgotten dreams are likely to have a different electrical signature. However, he says that the most interesting potential of this research comes from understanding one of the great mysteries that human beings have always pursued: the nature and origin of consciousness.
The idea that during sleep there are different parts of the brain that act differently is a view shared by many researchers for nearly a decade. It was a suspicion, although there was not enough empirical evidence.
Future Hot Zone Studies
In future studies, the idea of stimulating this hot zone in patients in coma, epileptic seizures or under general anesthesia is contemplated .
In fact, everyone agrees that future research could provide access to other types of states of consciousness, as well as helping to clarify which other regions of the brain are involved in different types of states of consciousness. Or perhaps what we will discover is in what area and how we connect with Consciousness, in capital letters. It depends on who and how you want to interpret it. An enthralling topic and whose understanding seems to be getting closer every day.
