Scientific research: Max Planck - New perspectives for the study of lucid dreaming

**web** · 12-20-2012 06:18 AM

I haven't seen this recent study referenced here in dreamviews and thought it would be of interest. Th Max Planck Institute took a close look at brain activity during lucid dreaming, using MRI.

Research | Research news | The seat of meta-consciousness in the brain

I've attached the full paper, in case anyone here has time to grok it and provide some further analysis.

“The general basic activity of the brain is similar in a normal dream and in a lucid dream,” says Michael Czisch, head of a research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. “In a lucid state, however, the activity in certain areas of the cerebral cortex increases markedly within seconds. The involved areas of the cerebral cortex are the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, to which commonly the function of self-assessment is attributed, and the frontopolar regions, which are responsible for evaluating our own thoughts and feelings. The precuneus is also especially active, a part of the brain that has long been linked with self-perception.” The findings confirm earlier studies and have made the neural networks of a conscious mental state visible for the first time.

**paigeyemps** · 12-20-2012 01:48 PM

Thanks for sharing this, web!

That further encourages me to practice self-awareness in waking life. The more we do it, the more we're gonna tap into that part of the brain and activate it. Hopefully that will increase the chances of it being active once i'm sleeping and boost the chances of lucidity. :3

**web** · 12-24-2012 08:01 PM

Thanks for the response paigeyemps, and for bringing it back to focusing on self-awareness in waking life. I agree that seems to be key and the results of this study do point to it! Hey I'm new to the site and see you're a dream guide, what does that mean, can you help me attain lucidity?

**paigeyemps** · 12-24-2012 08:09 PM

Np, web. And well, a DreamViews Dream Guide specializes in welcoming newcomers and answering on-topic questions such as those related to dreaming. [not to be confused with the other Dream Guide which is a special, helpful and mostly recurring dream character]

if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask! (might wanna put it in another thread though, or PM me or any other dream guide)

Cheers