By Dr. Osman Shabir, Ph.D. Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc. Dreams are periods of mental activity that occur during sleep in which the sleeping person experiences imaginations and visions. The science behind dreams is limited, and the exact function remains unclear – but research has shed light on some of the mechanisms behind dreaming. Image...
Written by James Kingsland on May 14 New research helps explain the usefulness of dreams. Getty Images The “overfitted brain” hypothesis centers on the idea that as animals learn repetitive tasks, they run the risk of becoming hidebound, losing the ability to generalize what they have learned. This hypothesis, which was inspired by machine learning, proposes that...
DAVID EAGLEMAN DON VAUGHN EAGLEMAN IS A NEUROSCIENTIST AT STANFORD UNIVERSITY. HIS LATEST BOOK IS LIVEWIRED: THE INSIDE STORY OF THE EVER-CHANGING BRAIN. VAUGHN PHD IS A NEUROSCIENTIST AT UCLA. When he was two years old, Ben stopped seeing out of his left eye. His mother took him to the doctor and soon discovered he had...
A glove-like device which taps into a user’s semi-conscious mind to record the creativity of their dreams has been developed by scientists. The glove, named the Dormio, records users as they begin dreaming before falling fully asleep – a state known as hypnagogia. This stage takes place in the moment between sleep and wakefulness, and...
Many of us struggle to remember the details of our dreams. The reasons lie in the complicated cycles of our sleep. By Stephen Dowling 17 May 2019 I am standing outside my childhood primary school, near the front gates and the teachers’ car park. It is a bright sunny day and I am surrounded by...
