Eonnn, about your first question - no one knows how to "program" the brain at this level yet. During dreams we get different personalities because of different activation of areas of the brain. A parallel example would be people with split personalities - brain imaging of such people show that while one personality is "on", certain pathways of the brain are "activated" (get more blood flow), and while the other personality is "on", other pathways are "activated". These personalities can even share certain pathways, like these of certain memories and skills. So this is about what happens in a dream, but it's temporary and it's not like you have one alternative personality, rather the personality traits can vary between dreams. No one knows how to activate certain areas artificially yet, at least without putting electrodes in the brain. And even such methods aren't specific enough, can't literally chose what emotion to activate... An even less specific method is medication - which is why every person is effected differently. I'm not a doctor, but as far as I know that's the best solution current medicine has to offer.
About your second question - how can our brains simulate abilities, that we don't have in real life, so well in a dream? That's another great question! My opinion on this:
1. The brain makes the whole dream, thus it has the advantage to make it look the way it wants. Let's say you've seen some kick ass moves in some movie... I real life applying these moves won't necessarily give you the win - since you can't predict the moves of your opponent. In a dream, you also can't predict them, but you brain instructs you with the right way to beat that opponent which he created. It's like playing against yourself, but with a futuristic virtual reality equipment on.
2. Many skills are limited by the body, and by the body-brain connection in real life, not only by the brain. Rapping for example would require a great deal of effort from your mouth muscles and so on... So not only that these limiting factors aren't at play in a dream, but they don't take resources that can be used for the brain - so even the part limited just by the brain is "better".
3. Our brains are great at simulating things and predicting outcomes. This is why we enjoy music - it challenges us to predict the next note / sound, and later we can "replay" it in our heads (simulation) even if most of us can't properly reproduce it with our mouths. So to simulate fluency in a foreign language the brain can use just some vague memories from some TV show or something - because it doesn't need to worry about how to actually use the mouth, the memory is enough.
4. Our perception of things (reality, or dreamscape) is a result of constant filtering by the brain, so if you think you nailed a rhyme this doesn't necessary means it's true. In reality, other people might challenge our perception, but in a dream the brain decided all of it. So if it decides that the DCs will love your song - they will. If it decides they'll hate it - they will. This argument depends greatly on the recall of that particular dream, since if your recall is good enough you'll be able to inspect the details and "challenge" yourself (e.g. writing the rhymes, and checking if they actually work), but if the recall isn't that good you might only have the impression that the rhymes worked.
So the answer in my opinion is some combination of these factors... Seems incredible, but remember that what you see as "real life" is just a huge simulation, too. The only difference is that in real life the brain creates the simulation [mostly*] based on external stimuli (which he collects via senses), while in a dream the stimuli is also supplied by the brain.
*by that I refer to the effects of drugs, diseases and disorders, that can supply false stimuli.
My two cents
|
|
Bookmarks