Re: Some brain questions i need help with

From: Wolf Kirchmeir (wwolfkir_at_sympatico.ca)
Date: 09/23/04 

Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 14:11:44 -0400

dan michaels wrote:
[...]>
>
> Trying to analyze the dream contents, as per Freudianism, is probably
> either mundane or hopeless.

Mundane as an opposite to hoipeless???? How?

> However, conceptualizing the "mechanisms"
> underlying them is much more interesting - and pertinent. Vivid visual
> imagery, totally internally-generated. High emotional content, totally
> internal. The feeling to the externally-unconscious "I" that it is
> fully-conscious within the dream, experiencing the dream experiences,
> and experiencing high-emotional affect due to the dream experiences.
> All this totally internal. That's what's remarkable. Isn't it.
> ============
[...]

It's just as remarkable as visual imagery etc "externally" generated.
Because of course there's really no difference. IMO, all visual imagery
is internally generated. The only difference between the "internally"
and "externally" generated VI is the originating stimulus. That's why
it's so hard to study VI - we have on the one hand the external visual
environment, on the other the responses in the VC and other parts of the
brain (including the speech centers when the subject reports on what's
een, etc.) When dreaming, almost all the same parts of the brain are
active as when awake. Now _that's_ interesting - it suggests (to me
anyhow) that the "experience of seeing" in the waking state is as much a
product of the internal processes of the brain as when we dream. Since
in REM sleep the eyes move, and muscular contractions are potentiated
and inhibited (otherwise you'd actually flap your arms while "flying"
etc), there is also feedback between the VC and other parts of the
brains. Now _that's_ interesting, too, since it suggests that seeing as
a behaviour is far more complex than "processinmg visual inputs from the
retina". It also suggests that the VC uses the feedback as much as it
uses the retinal inputs. Etc. IOW, if the VC gets input from other parts
of the brain, it responds as usual. It can't differentiate between
signals originating as responses to some external stimulus and those
originating from some internal process. The "I" can sometimes tell the
difference, but exactly how it does this is not clear.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Some brain questions i need help with
    ... >> either mundane or hopeless. ... What I meant is that many dream experiences are completely mundane, ... > brain (including the speech centers when the subject reports on what's ... decision-making" which is offline during dreaming. ...
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  • Re: Some brain questions i need help with
    ... >> either mundane or hopeless. ... What I meant is that many dream experiences are completely mundane, ... > brain (including the speech centers when the subject reports on what's ... decision-making" which is offline during dreaming. ...
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