EEG Microstate Dynamics Associated with Dream-Like Experiences During the Transition to Sleep.
Brain topography March 1, 2024 Sarah Diezig, Simone Denzer, Peter Achermann et al. 19 citations
During the transition to sleep, reflective awareness—the ability to recognize experiences as internally generated—breaks down before phenomenal awareness, the basic experience itself, fades. Dream-like experiences, characterized by uncontrolled thinking and perceptual images mistaken as real, are associated with an inverse relationship between cognitive effects and physiological activation in the brain. In 45 healthy young subjects, EEG microstate analysis showed that dream-like experiences correlated with increased presence of a microstate sourced in the superior and middle frontal gyrus and precuneus, and decreased presence of a microstate linked to higher-order visual areas. This suggests disengagement of cognitive control systems mediated by specific inhibitory microstates.