BY
It was discovered that those who displayed greater alpha-band brain activity in the right frontal cortex, as compared to the left, both during evening wakefulness and during REM sleep experienced more anger in dreams.
This neural signature – called frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) – has been linked to anger and self-regulation during wakefulness.
“We show that individuals with greater FAA (i.e. greater right-sided alpha power) during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, and during evening wakefulness, experience more anger in dreams,” the researchers write in a paper published in the journal JNeurosci.
“FAA may thus reflect the ability to regulate emotions not only in the waking but also in the dreaming state.”
There were limitations to the study – notably that it was carried out under laboratory conditions – but the researchers suggest their findings “provide support for theories according to which dreaming is a realistic simulation of waking life”.
They stress, however, that on the strength of this study alone it is not possible to say whether the particular neural activation accompanying dream anger supports a certain function, such as to experience threatening situations or negative affective states in order to better deal with them in waking life.
Comments