Version 1
: Received: 11 March 2024 / Approved: 12 March 2024 / Online: 12 March 2024 (10:20:11 CET)
How to cite:
Deperrois, N.; Petrovici, M.A.; Jordan, J.; Huber, L.S.; Senn, W. How Rapid-Eye-Movement Dreams May Facilitate Learning and Creativity. Preprints2024, 2024030684. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0684.v1
Deperrois, N.; Petrovici, M.A.; Jordan, J.; Huber, L.S.; Senn, W. How Rapid-Eye-Movement Dreams May Facilitate Learning and Creativity. Preprints 2024, 2024030684. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0684.v1
Deperrois, N.; Petrovici, M.A.; Jordan, J.; Huber, L.S.; Senn, W. How Rapid-Eye-Movement Dreams May Facilitate Learning and Creativity. Preprints2024, 2024030684. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0684.v1
APA Style
Deperrois, N., Petrovici, M.A., Jordan, J., Huber, L.S., & Senn, W. (2024). How Rapid-Eye-Movement Dreams May Facilitate Learning and Creativity. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0684.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Deperrois, N., Lukas S. Huber and Walter Senn. 2024 "How Rapid-Eye-Movement Dreams May Facilitate Learning and Creativity" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202403.0684.v1
Abstract
The importance of sleep for healthy brain function is widely acknowledged. However, it re- mains mysterious how the sleeping brain, disconnected from the outside world and plunged into the fantastic experiences of dreams, is actively learning. In this perspective article, we review a computational approach inspired by modern artificial intelligence that suggests a role of dreams occurring during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. REM dreams are characterized by an adver- sarial process between feedforward and feedback pathways generating new virtual experiences from the combination of old memories. Such an adversarial dreaming process is shown to facilitate the emergence of semantic, cortical representations. We further discuss the potential contributions of adversarial dreaming beyond learning, such as maintaining a balance between fantasy and reality, and facilitating the occurrence of creative insights. Finally, we characterize non-REM (NREM) dreams, replaying individual memories, that may serve a complementary role by improving the robustness of cortical representations to environmental perturbations.
Keywords
rapid-eye-movement; sleep; learning
Subject
Medicine and Pharmacology, Neuroscience and Neurology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
