Ignite Creation Date:
2024-05-06 @ 3:45 PM
Last Modification Date:
2024-10-26 @ 1:56 PM
Study NCT ID:
NCT04749992
Status:
TERMINATED
Last Update Posted:
2024-03-12
First Post:
2021-01-23
Brief Title:
Biological Function of Dreaming in Dreaming and Non-Dreaming Patients With PCA Infarction
Sponsor:
International Psychoanalytic University Berlin
Organization:
International Psychoanalytic University Berlin
Study Overview
Official Title:
Biological Function of Dreaming - Declarative and Non-declarative Memory Consolidation and Sleep Quality in Dreaming and Non-dreaming Patients With PCA Infarction
Status:
TERMINATED
Status Verified Date:
2024-03
Last Known Status:
None
Delayed Posting:
No
If Stopped, Why?:
recruitment proved to be impossible for the necessary experimental non-dreaming group
Has Expanded Access:
False
If Expanded Access, NCT#:
N/A
Has Expanded Access, NCT# Status:
N/A
Acronym:
BFD
Brief Summary:
This study is a quasi-experimental between-group design Using a prospective two-arm controlled exploratory study data will be collected on an initial assessment of the effects of a specific neurological sample after thrombotic infarction PCA infarction who lost the ability to dream due to the infarction experimental group compared to a specific neurological sample after thrombotic infarction PCA infarction without loss of the ability to dream comparison group in terms of subjective and objective sleep quality and memory consolidation Besides the importance to further elucidate the role of dreaming for sleep architecture and memory consolidation the results of the evaluation are of great clinical relevance in a further scientific investigation regarding the treatment of a specifically neurological sample with acute thrombotic infarction
Detailed Description:
The aim of the study is to investigate the biological function of dreams which differs from that of REM rapid eye-movement sleep People spend almost a third of every day asleep About a fifth of this time they dream
Why do dreams occupy such a significant part of human life What is the biological function of dreams The physiological function of dreaming for humans has been investigated in extensive studies However these are predominantly in the area of memory research and address the question of whether dreaming is conducive to memory consolidation However other biological functions of dreaming such as their influence on the restorative effects of sleep remain virtually unexplored to date Therefore the planned DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft study will investigate the effect of dream activity on the objective and subjective quality of sleep
Solms was able to show that damage to the parieto-occipital brain region leads to a complete loss of dream recall in a large number of clinical cases in 44 of 361 cases This discovery holds the possibility of relating the biological function of dreaming to neuroanatomical structures Obviously the loss of dream memory must be related to the specific damage of the brain or its biological functions
Further studies also show that acute thrombotic infarction of the occipital lobe in the current area of the posterior cerebral artery can lead to complete loss of dream activity with simultaneous maintenance of REM sleep The authors Bischof Bassetti noticed seemingly by chance and without grasping the theoretical implications of the discovery that their patient was suffering from insomnia with difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep
Based on these observations Solms conducted a pilot study comparing the sleep patterns of five dreaming and five nondreaming patients with thrombotic infarcts in the same arterial territory-as observed by Bischof Bassetti Solms and his research group observed that within the non-dreaming group there was a striking decrease in absolute sleep duration as well as a more frequent number of nocturnal awakenings more arousals as well as microarousals previously unpublished data
The study of populations that have forfeited the ability to dream with preserved REM sleep makes it possible to test not only the classical theory on the function of dreams but also such theories that deal with the role of dreams in memory consolidation during sleep In recent years there has been increased interest in the hypothesis that sleep contributes to and significantly influences memory processing
In this context dreaming is postulated to play a specific role in memory processing during sleep
There are several hypotheses regarding the role of dreaming in memory consolidation For example Stickgold et al found that during REM sleep limbic forebrain structures are activated along with the amygdala while there is concomitant inhibition of hippocampal signalling which presumably prevents re-activation of episodic memory content Accordingly dreams would mainly occur via weak neocortical associations available during REM sleep The authors hypothesize that this feature reflects the brains attempts to recognize and evaluate new cortical associations in the context of emotions mediated by limbic structures They concluded that one function of REM sleep was to enhance or attenuate specifically activated associations with regression to pictorial imaginings to compensate for the relative loss of motor activity during sleep
Similarly it has been postulated that the occurrence of memories in dreams promotes learning by first reactivating memory elements in their original perceptual state and second that linking a wide variety of memory elements strengthens and consolidates them and third that dreaming newly learned material facilitates later recall
Relevance and research questions of the study
Through a specific choice of sample of neurological patients with posterior cortical lesions who are at risk of losing the ability to dream due to the lesion the proposed project is particularly aimed at understanding the biological function of dreaming as distinct from REM sleep Based on the neuropsychoanalytic theory of Solms as well as neuropsychological findings that REM sleep and dreaming are doubly dissociable phenomena the central hypothesis that dreams serve to maintain sleep Sigmund Freuds hypothesis will be investigated By this Freud meant that dreams serve to respond to sometimes highly affect-laden impulses to action with hallucinatory wish fulfillment so that they do not lead to premature awakening Secondly it will be investigated whether dreams influence affective memory consolidation This will be investigated using two groups of neurological patients with thrombotic infarction in the posterior stream area ie the posterior cerebral artery PCA infarction during preserved REM sleep i who have lost the ability to recall dreams and ii in whom the ability to recall dreams has been preserved This has far-reaching implications not only for sleep medicine and neuroscience but also for clinical neurology Sleep pathologies have not yet been considered clinically-scientifically as a consequence of PCA infarction and accordingly have not yet been studied but could provide significant clues for the clinical management of such patients Similarly findings on memory consolidation after PCA infarction during preserved REM sleep are significant because an important aspect of memory processing during sleep is examined with the distinction between preserved and nonsustained dreaming which also has not been considered in scientific studies to date but is of clinical relevance
Hypotheses Our hypotheses are that patients who have lost the ability to dream during preserved REM sleep will have i poorer sleep quality and ii poorer emotional declarative memory and non-declarative motor memory consolidation
Non-dreamers vs dreamers
Null hypothesis H0
There is no difference in terms of loss of ability to dream during preserved REM sleep related to poorer sleep quality as well as poorer emotional declarative and non-declarative motor memory consolidation between the experimental group and the comparison group
Alternative hypothesis H1
There is a difference in loss of ability to dream with preserved REM sleep related to worse sleep quality and worse emotional declarative and non-declarative motor memory consolidation between experimental group and comparison group
Design
Prospective two-arm controlled observational study quasi-experimental between-group design
Why do dreams occupy such a significant part of human life What is the biological function of dreams The physiological function of dreaming for humans has been investigated in extensive studies However these are predominantly in the area of memory research and address the question of whether dreaming is conducive to memory consolidation However other biological functions of dreaming such as their influence on the restorative effects of sleep remain virtually unexplored to date Therefore the planned DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft study will investigate the effect of dream activity on the objective and subjective quality of sleep
Solms was able to show that damage to the parieto-occipital brain region leads to a complete loss of dream recall in a large number of clinical cases in 44 of 361 cases This discovery holds the possibility of relating the biological function of dreaming to neuroanatomical structures Obviously the loss of dream memory must be related to the specific damage of the brain or its biological functions
Further studies also show that acute thrombotic infarction of the occipital lobe in the current area of the posterior cerebral artery can lead to complete loss of dream activity with simultaneous maintenance of REM sleep The authors Bischof Bassetti noticed seemingly by chance and without grasping the theoretical implications of the discovery that their patient was suffering from insomnia with difficulty falling asleep and staying asleep
Based on these observations Solms conducted a pilot study comparing the sleep patterns of five dreaming and five nondreaming patients with thrombotic infarcts in the same arterial territory-as observed by Bischof Bassetti Solms and his research group observed that within the non-dreaming group there was a striking decrease in absolute sleep duration as well as a more frequent number of nocturnal awakenings more arousals as well as microarousals previously unpublished data
The study of populations that have forfeited the ability to dream with preserved REM sleep makes it possible to test not only the classical theory on the function of dreams but also such theories that deal with the role of dreams in memory consolidation during sleep In recent years there has been increased interest in the hypothesis that sleep contributes to and significantly influences memory processing
In this context dreaming is postulated to play a specific role in memory processing during sleep
There are several hypotheses regarding the role of dreaming in memory consolidation For example Stickgold et al found that during REM sleep limbic forebrain structures are activated along with the amygdala while there is concomitant inhibition of hippocampal signalling which presumably prevents re-activation of episodic memory content Accordingly dreams would mainly occur via weak neocortical associations available during REM sleep The authors hypothesize that this feature reflects the brains attempts to recognize and evaluate new cortical associations in the context of emotions mediated by limbic structures They concluded that one function of REM sleep was to enhance or attenuate specifically activated associations with regression to pictorial imaginings to compensate for the relative loss of motor activity during sleep
Similarly it has been postulated that the occurrence of memories in dreams promotes learning by first reactivating memory elements in their original perceptual state and second that linking a wide variety of memory elements strengthens and consolidates them and third that dreaming newly learned material facilitates later recall
Relevance and research questions of the study
Through a specific choice of sample of neurological patients with posterior cortical lesions who are at risk of losing the ability to dream due to the lesion the proposed project is particularly aimed at understanding the biological function of dreaming as distinct from REM sleep Based on the neuropsychoanalytic theory of Solms as well as neuropsychological findings that REM sleep and dreaming are doubly dissociable phenomena the central hypothesis that dreams serve to maintain sleep Sigmund Freuds hypothesis will be investigated By this Freud meant that dreams serve to respond to sometimes highly affect-laden impulses to action with hallucinatory wish fulfillment so that they do not lead to premature awakening Secondly it will be investigated whether dreams influence affective memory consolidation This will be investigated using two groups of neurological patients with thrombotic infarction in the posterior stream area ie the posterior cerebral artery PCA infarction during preserved REM sleep i who have lost the ability to recall dreams and ii in whom the ability to recall dreams has been preserved This has far-reaching implications not only for sleep medicine and neuroscience but also for clinical neurology Sleep pathologies have not yet been considered clinically-scientifically as a consequence of PCA infarction and accordingly have not yet been studied but could provide significant clues for the clinical management of such patients Similarly findings on memory consolidation after PCA infarction during preserved REM sleep are significant because an important aspect of memory processing during sleep is examined with the distinction between preserved and nonsustained dreaming which also has not been considered in scientific studies to date but is of clinical relevance
Hypotheses Our hypotheses are that patients who have lost the ability to dream during preserved REM sleep will have i poorer sleep quality and ii poorer emotional declarative memory and non-declarative motor memory consolidation
Non-dreamers vs dreamers
Null hypothesis H0
There is no difference in terms of loss of ability to dream during preserved REM sleep related to poorer sleep quality as well as poorer emotional declarative and non-declarative motor memory consolidation between the experimental group and the comparison group
Alternative hypothesis H1
There is a difference in loss of ability to dream with preserved REM sleep related to worse sleep quality and worse emotional declarative and non-declarative motor memory consolidation between experimental group and comparison group
Design
Prospective two-arm controlled observational study quasi-experimental between-group design
Study Oversight
Has Oversight DMC:
None
Is a FDA Regulated Drug?:
False
Is a FDA Regulated Device?:
False
Is an Unapproved Device?:
None
Is a PPSD?:
None
Is a US Export?:
None
Is an FDA AA801 Violation?:
None