Neural correlates of dreaming during N2 sleep: Spatial and phenomenological characteristics
Abstract
Previous studies on the neural correlates of dreaming using high-density EEG (hdEEG) and the serial awakening paradigm have identified posterior brain regions related to dreaming, with maximal activity over occipital areas. Here, we first aimed to extend these findings by examining EEG activity associated with dreaming during N2 sleep in a larger sample and using improved analytical methods. Second, we investigated whether EEG activity was associated with continuous ratings of perceptual and thought-related experiences. We have applied hdEEG (256 electrodes) with source localization and the serial awakening paradigm in N2 sleep of 39 participants to study the neural activity during different time windows preceding each awakening. We found that having a conscious experience with recall (CE) compared to no experience (NE) is related to increased beta/gamma frequencies in a widely distributed part of the cortex, with peak T-values in posterior occipital-temporal regions in the longer time window (30 s), and in parietal regions in the shorter time window (20 s). Exploratory regression analyses revealed significant associations between EEG activity and thought-related experience, but not perceptual experience. These findings highlight the need to distinguish between the neural correlates of different dimensions of dream experience and to investigate their temporal characteristics and variations across sleep stages.
Related
- Multimodal neural correlates of cognitive awareness in aging and Alzheimer’s disease
- Adversity severity shapes caregiving predictors and neural correlates of infant social behavior
- Misophonia in adolescents: clinical correlates and associations with autism-related behavioral characteristics within a clinical context.
- A choice disinhibition paradigm to reveal neural correlates of behavioral disinhibition in Frontotemporal dementia
- Neural correlates of perceptual consciousness from within: a narrative review of human intracranial research
BibTeX
@misc{rochas2026neural,
title = {{Neural correlates of dreaming during N2 sleep: Spatial and phenomenological characteristics}},
author = {Vincent Rochas and Kevin Mammeri and Laurence Bayer and Giulio Tononi and Lampros Perogamvros},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/qbwnf_v4},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/qbwnf_v4/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Neural correlates of dreaming during N2 sleep: Spatial and phenomenological characteristics
AU - Vincent Rochas
AU - Kevin Mammeri
AU - Laurence Bayer
AU - Giulio Tononi
AU - Lampros Perogamvros
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/qbwnf_v4
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/qbwnf_v4/
AB - Previous studies on the neural correlates of dreaming using high-density EEG (hdEEG) and the serial awakening paradigm have identified posterior brain regions related to dreaming, with maximal activity over occipital areas. Here, we first aimed to extend these findings by examining EEG activity associated with dreaming during N2 sleep in a larger sample and using improved analytical methods. Second, we investigated whether EEG activity was associated with continuous ratings of perceptual and thought-related experiences. We have applied hdEEG (256 electrodes) with source localization and the serial awakening paradigm in N2 sleep of 39 participants to study the neural activity during different time windows preceding each awakening. We found that having a conscious experience with recall (CE) compared to no experience (NE) is related to increased beta/gamma frequencies in a widely distributed part of the cortex, with peak T-values in posterior occipital-temporal regions in the longer time window (30 s), and in parietal regions in the shorter time window (20 s). Exploratory regression analyses revealed significant associations between EEG activity and thought-related experience, but not perceptual experience. These findings highlight the need to distinguish between the neural correlates of different dimensions of dream experience and to investigate their temporal characteristics and variations across sleep stages.
ER -