echemi logo
Product
  • Product
  • Supplier
  • Inquiry
    Home > Active Ingredient News > Study of Nervous System > Is "Inception" coming true?

    Is "Inception" coming true?

    • Last Update: 2021-03-25
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
    Search more information of high quality chemicals, good prices and reliable suppliers, visit www.echemi.com
    ▎Editor of WuXi AppTec's content team In the 2010 science fiction film "Inception", Leonardo's role can enter the dreams of others, communicate with dreamers, and obtain secrets from their subconscious minds.

    In the reality of 2021, scientists from four teams in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United States jointly reported that for the first time, they achieved "real-time dialogue" with dreamers, allowing subjects to answer questions or perform mathematical operations in their sleep.

    The research results have just been published online in Current Biology, an academic journal under Cell.

    "Science" magazine commented that this makes the plot in the science fiction movie one step closer to reality! So, how do scientists do it? In this study, in order to realize the "two-way communication" with the dreamers—both asking and answering questions to the dreamers, the researchers first trained the volunteers to enter the state of "lucid dreaming".

    Lucid dreaming refers to the realization that you are dreaming in the dream.

    According to reports, one in two people have had a lucid dream at least once, and about 10% have experienced a lucid dream at least once a month.

    Interestingly, after a certain amount of training, some people realize that their ability to dream can be enhanced, and they can even "direct" their dreams.

    ▲Researchers use brain waves and other signals to monitor the volunteers' sleep and identify whether they have entered a dream state (picture source: reference [2]; Credit: K.
    KONKOLY) On this basis, 36 volunteers participated in the experiment.

    Some of them often experience lucid dreams; some are "good at" recalling their dreams, and after training they have improved their ability to be aware of their dreams; some of them belong to patients with "narcolepsy" and often have Fall asleep briefly and have lucid dreams.

    Experienced sleep scientists can judge that the volunteers have entered the dream state by observing the eye movements and brain wave characteristics of the dreamer.

    Then, scientists from different teams tried to ask the dreamer questions by playing sounds, flashing lights, or tapping with fingers.

    Some questions only need to answer "yes" or "no", and some are simple numerical calculations.

    ▲Experiment diagram: The researcher asks the person in his sleep through sound, flashing or touch, and the person in the dream answers by moving his eyeballs and contracting facial muscles (picture source: Reference [1]) Volunteers in sleep Weave the received signals into their current dreams, and respond with eye movements or facial muscle contractions in a previously trained way.

    For example, "I dreamed that I was having a party with my friends, and a voice came over, like a movie narration, asking if I could speak Spanish.

    I moved the muscles on my face and said,
    "No.
    " Yes The volunteer awoke and told the story.

    "The light in my dream suddenly flashed.
    I felt that this was a Morse code from the outside world.
    I saw that it was asking me how much 4 plus 0 is equal to.
    I rolled my eyes left and right several times, indicating that the answer was '4.
    '.

    ' recalled the volunteers in another group of experiments.

    ▲The volunteers "listened" to the researcher asking "how much is 8 minus 6" in their dreams, and answered "2" by turning their eyes left and right twice.
    Questions and questions and answers were repeated twice (picture source: reference material [1 ]) Four research teams posed a total of 158 questions to the volunteers in their dreams, and got the correct answers from the dreamer nearly 30 times.

    The researchers said that this result is sufficient to show that although it is difficult to communicate with people in sleep, it is possible to achieve.

    This amazing research has also attracted the attention of many scientists.

    Some cognitive neuroscientists have pointed out that sleep is traditionally defined as a state in which the brain is "disconnected" from the outside world.
    However, "this study challenges the basic definition of sleep", which shows that we can actually receive and process complex things while sleeping.
    External information. ▲The idea of ​​using dreams to change people is still a plot in a science fiction story, but real-time communication with dreamers is an important first step (picture source: 123RF) "Dreamers live in a world composed entirely of memory storage, and We found a way to communicate with people in that world," the researcher said in the paper, "It's like trying to talk to an astronaut on another planet.

    " Related reading: "Science": Dreaming Why can't you remember? Scientists have finally found the answer: Are you studying while sleeping? Scientists directly proved for the first time that the brain "plays back" learning content when we sleep and why we dream.
    Reference materials [1] Karen R.
    Konkoly et al.
    , (2021) Real-time dialogue between experimenters and dreamers during REM sleep.
    Current Biology DOI: https ://doi.
    org/10.
    1016/j.
    cub.
    2021.
    01.
    026[2] Scientists entered people's dreams and got them'talking'.
    Retrieved Feb.
    19, 2021 from https:// /02/scientists-entered-peoples-dreams-and-got-them-talking
    This article is an English version of an article which is originally in the Chinese language on echemi.com and is provided for information purposes only. This website makes no representation or warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness ownership or reliability of the article or any translations thereof. If you have any concerns or complaints relating to the article, please send an email, providing a detailed description of the concern or complaint, to service@echemi.com. A staff member will contact you within 5 working days. Once verified, infringing content will be removed immediately.

    Related Articles

    Contact Us

    The source of this page with content of products and services is from Internet, which doesn't represent ECHEMI's opinion. If you have any queries, please write to service@echemi.com. It will be replied within 5 days.

    Moreover, if you find any instances of plagiarism from the page, please send email to service@echemi.com with relevant evidence.