Abstract
Hobson's AIM theory offers a general framework for thinking about states of consciousness like wakefulness, REM dreaming and NREM mentations in terms of a state space defined by the dimensions of the level of brain activity, the source of input, and the type of neurochemical modulation. This account inspired theoretical models of other altered states of consciousness—including hypnosis—claiming that studying REM dreaming can advance our understanding of these phenomena as well. However, recent developments showed that hypnosis is not a sleep like stage, and that the REM-centric attitude toward dreaming is mistaken. At the same time, the advancement of the neuro-cognitive theory claiming that dreaming and mind-wandering are on a continuum both underlain by default-mode network activity called many aspects of the AIM theory into question. Our aim in this paper is to show that certain hypnotic states—hypnotic dreams (experiences that subjects have in a hypnotic state as a result of an explicit suggestion to have a dream)—can, nevertheless, be highly relevant for the neuro-cognitive theory, and that their comparison with dreaming and mind-wandering has the potential to advance the field in unexpected ways.
Highlights
Allan Hobson’s Activaton-Input-Modulation (AIM) theory of dreaming claiming that rapid eye movement (REM) dreaming and NREM mentations are subserved by different mechanisms and can best be understood in terms of a state space defined by the dimensions of the level of global brain activity, the source of input, and the type of neurochemical modulation has been extremely influential not just in dream science [1], and in studying hallucinations [2] and understanding other altered states of consciousness, like luciddreaming [3] and hypnosis [4]
Developments in hypnosis research have demonstrated that hypnosis is not a sleep-like state [8], and the REM-centric attitude toward dreaming that the AIM model relied on has been severely criticized over the years on several grounds [9,10,11,12,13]
Our aim in this paper is to show that certain hypnotic states can, be highly relevant for the neuro-cognitive theory, and that their comparison with dreaming has the potential to advance the field in unexpected ways
Summary
Allan Hobson’s Activaton-Input-Modulation (AIM) theory of dreaming claiming that REM dreaming and NREM mentations are subserved by different mechanisms and can best be understood in terms of a state space defined by the dimensions of the level of global brain activity (low-high), the source of input (external-internal), and the type of neurochemical modulation (aminergic-cholinergic) has been extremely influential not just in dream science [1], and in studying hallucinations [2] and understanding other altered states of consciousness, like luciddreaming [3] and hypnosis [4]. The only neural level study published so far (a very coarse grained analysis with only 4 EEG channels) gestures toward the same direction [27] It reports increased 40 Hz activity during deep-trance hypnotic dreams (compared to a rest in hypnosis condition) over the right posterior (especially parietal) areas, which is roughly in line with the recent claim that increased high-frequency activity of posterior content-specific regions is the neural correlate of the content of dream, lucid dreaming and mind-wandering experiences [28,29,30,31]. Instrumentalist hypnosis research uses hypnosis as a tool for exploring other psychological processes and phenomena by inducing and modulating specific cognitive and perceptual states [32] Such a cognitive or perceptual state occurring in hypnosis is a hypnotic analog of a target phenomenon if they have a high degree of similarity in phenomenological characteristics and significant overlaps in correlating neural activity patterns. Both in hypnotically and in heat induced pain there was a direct relationship between the reported intensity of the pain and the degree of activation of pain areas, with the activity of the overlapping brain regions contributing to the subjective feel of pain
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