Hi Peter,
"Peter F." <effectivespamblock at ozemail.com.au> wrote in message
news:b_rPb.327$X97.7015 at nnrp1.ozemail.com.au...
> It is rather obvious that there has never existed
> a significant selective pressure against flailing-
> around with the eyes under one's closed eye-lids;
> and that this is also is a very good reason for why
> the we (our brain and our genophenotype) have
> become 'sloppy' about how we (during REM or
> paradoxical sleep) put a stop to this aspect ('eye
> moving aspect') of the generally intensified motor
> output along normal neural channels.
>> Here is something I found:
> Brain Circuits Underlying Paradoxical Sleep
> Barbara E. Jones
> McGill University, Montreal Neurological Institute
> <snip>
> Fifth, the PnO reticular neurons give rise to descending
> projections into the medullary reticular formation as
> well as the spinal cord, where other GABAergic (and
> glycinergic) neurons are located and participate in the
> direct inhibition of motor neurons during PS.<snip>
>> Against the hightened excitation during REM sleep, this
> is at least one specific inhibitiory mechanisms that is
> "sloppy" as far as our sight-organ is concerned.
>> Web source:
>http://sommeil.univ-lyon1.fr/jouvet2003/abstracts/db/abstracts_j2003.fp5$RET
> RIEVE?serial=71&html=pg.html
>> P
You and Dag have brought up [each within larger discussions]
the same stuff - the motor activity that occurs during REM
sleep.
I like your point with respect to the dirth of evolutionary
pressure ["makes sense"] - 'blindly'-automated TD E/I-
minimization with respect to it, =and= with respect to
other loosely-coupled activation, =could= be how dream's
imagery is converged-upon. The 'wildness' of dreams
is commensurate with that sort of 'looseness', and the
sometimes-waking-consciousness-relevance of dream
content can also be construed as being commensurate
with 'blindly'-automated TD E/I-minimization during
sleeping-consciousness.
This 'relevance' would, for instance, be 'correlated', if
a days' experience imposes a lot of the whole-memory-
to-day's-experience-cross-correlation, that I discussed
last week, upon the 'database-walking' with respect to
particularly-intense [or 'traumatic'] days' events.
That is, if a 'day's experience crams-in a lot of inform-
ation, then, if that information is to become integrated
within "experiential total", the "database walking" would,
necessarily, be relatively 'on a theme' that's correlated
with the database-walking that's occurring with respect
to the 'day's relatively-large information intake.
Get it?
I'll have to pay attention to this within my own experience.
D=ream-content is relatively-focussed, but it corresponds
to the abstract= problem of database-walking through
which "experiential total" is maintained, not directly to this
or that which Classical Psychiatry 'interprets' the dream
imagery to 'mean'. [I've always viewed such Classical
interpretations as a 'Rorshach Test' that Psychiatrists
were administering to themselves :-] But there is this pos-
sible, but abstract, correlation to the "database-walking",
and the relative focus of the 'day's information-content
that's being integrated.
But neither of the above hypotheses with respect to dream's
often-vivid imagery is commensurate with my hypothesis
that the image stays on the retina - =unless= there's some
active feed-forward to the retina during sleep, and, to
have visual 'coherence' [be that as it is in dream imagery]
this feed-forward to the retina would have to(?) be 'con-
nected' to the TD E/I-minimization mechanisms.
So I 'need' to answer this Q, with respect to feed-forward
to the retina, if my image-stays-at-retina hypothesis is to
be sustained. [I'm not in a rush, but expect I'll get around
to looking-into this].
Also, it's flat-out obvious that dream-content is at least
loosely, but significantly, coupled to the affective mechanisms.
Generally, I've viewed 'dreaming' as a form of 'entertain-
ment' that 'comforts' the organism while the =massive=
work of "experiential total" maintenance is, in fact, being
accomplished - which makes it not only endurable, but
something to look forward to as waking-consciousness
becomes 'exhausted'.
It's a way that the nervous system 'loves' [cares for] itself :-]
[Remember, it evolved before folks could stay up all night
watching TV :-]
Cheers, Peter, ken [k. p. collins]
