When you dream , your middle dart speedily from side to side , which is just why this phase angle is known as speedy optic movement ( REM ) sopor . It ’s long been indicate that the eye movements might correlate with people seeing things in their dreams as they “ look around . ” Yet even fetuses and people who have been blind since birth experience REM , despite the fact that they ’ve never experienced sight .
novel researchbuilding on this show that during rapid eye movement sleep sleep , the pattern of signaling in the brain is similar to that when we see , or imagine , a new image . The researchers fromTel Aviv Universityfound that there was a volley in theactivity of neurons that occurred just after the person ’s centre flicker . This bodily function mull over a change of concept or scene ( not image processing ) during sleep . The scientists demonstrated that this was the same brain activity that go on when awake patient were shown pictures , specially those related to memory .
“ About a 0.3 seconds after the picture appears , these neurons burst – they become vigorously alive , ” Dr. Yuval Nir , who co - authored the study write inNature Communications , explained toBBC News . “ This also take place when people just come together their eyes and imagine these pictures , or these construct . ”
This is important because it could go some manner to explain why unsighted hoi polloi still undergo rapid eye movement sleep nap . The center movement might not have in mind that someone is actually scanning a pipe dream ’s environment , but more moving onto the next scenery or conception . For example , a blind soul will comprehend a view through speech sound and emotions , and these will plain vary from one to the other . So when panorama change in a pipe dream , their eyes will flicker in the same way that happens with mass who can see .
The research was carry on over a menstruation of four age , using datum collected from those who support from epilepsy . The patient already had electrode implanted in their brain to try and help carry off their seizures , and this allowed Dr. Nir the perfect chance to measure the activity of around 40 individual neurons – principally within the median worldly lobe located towards the bottom of the genius – while the volunteers sleep .
It ’s hard to roll in the hay what the patient role were really dream about , and how the neural activity relate to what they were " seeing , " as they did n’t arouse them up to ask what they were woolgather about . “ But we are certain that the brain is alternating between unlike genial imagery , ” Dr. Nir toldNew Scientist . “ Every clock time you move your eyes , a fresh image forms in the mind ’s eye . ”
