El cerebro soñador

by Hobson J. Allan

Uno de los especialistas más connotados en la neuropsicofisiología estudia uno de los grandes misterios del el complejo mundo de los sueños. Analiza las relaciones entre ciencia y superstición a través de las teorías oníricas de Freud y la neurobiología.

Genres: Psychology, Science, Neuroscience

360 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

Reviews

[Aaron Michael]

The activation-synthesis model, proposed by Hobson and McCarley in the 1970s, asserts that during REM sleep, the brainstem generates spontaneous, random neural signals.
These signals activate various regions of the cortex, which then synthesize a narrative or storyline out of this activity. In essence, dreams are the brain's effort to impose meaning on otherwise chaotic neural firing. This model diverges from earlier theories that viewed dreams as direct reflections of subconscious desires; instead, dreams are seen as byproducts of brain activation.

[Lana Damian]

On bookshelf

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't decide whether to give this book one star or five stars, so 3 is a compromise. If judged by the accuracy of its claims, this book would not fare very well. However, this book, and Hobson's "Activation-Synthesis" theory of dreaming in general have been enormously influential in the field of sleep and dreaming, greatly shaping how we think about these issues today. Five stars for historical importance.

[Lazarus P Badpenny Esq · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The five cardinal characteristics of dream mentation may also be seen in the hallucinations, disorientations, bizarre thoughts, delusions, and amnesias of patients with mental illness. Thus, were it not for the fact that we are asleep when they occur, we would be obliged to say that our dreams are formally psychotic and that we are all, during dreaming, formally delirious and demented."