Question

What is the scientific explanation of daydreaming? Is there a word for it from the textbook? What kind of brain activity is observed during this time? What about dreaming at night? What is the underlying mechanism of dreaming? Do other animals dream? Provide at least 3 references

Answer 1

DAYDREAMS & THE SCIENCE BEHIND DAYDREAMING:

Definition:

In simple terms, it can be defined as "A temporary escape from daily reality by forming mental pictures, usually in spontaneous, brief episodes, of other experiences."

Scientific Explanation:

Three theories have been devised as below, to explain the reasons behind daydreaming.

The distractibility account theorizes that distracting stimulus (internal / external), reflects a failure to control distractions in the mind. According to this theory, the brain activity increases with an increase in attention to mind-wandering and the mind tends to dwell on task unrelated thoughts (TUT’s).

The executive-function account theorizes that the mind fails to correctly process task relevant events. This theory is based on the observation of TUT causes an increase in errors regarding task focused thinking, especially tasks requiring executive control.

The decoupling account suggests that attention becomes removed/decoupled from perceptual information involving an external task, and couples to an internal process. In this process, TUT is enhanced as internal thoughts are disengaged from surrounding distractions as the participant ‘tunes out’ the surrounding environment.

ANOTHER WORD FOR DAYDREAMING:   (disambiguation)

BRAIN ACTIVITY DURING DAYDREAMING:

Daydreaming appears to be the default setting of brain, when no other external tasks are seeking its attention. A group of regions in the brain called the "Default Mode Network" gets activated only when the brain is left in a sort of ‘idle’ state. This is thought to be the network that operates when we daydream.

DAYDREAMING VS NIGHTDREAMING:

Daydream is a spontaneous and fanciful series of thoughts while awake not connected to immediate reality while nightdream is a dream that is experienced at night, sometimes as distinguished from a daydream.

DREAM MECHANISM:

Dreams mainly occur in the rapid-eye movement (REM) stage of sleep—when brain activity is high and resembles that of being awake. REM sleep is revealed by continuous movements of the eyes during sleep. The length of a dream can vary; they may last for a few seconds, or approximately 20–30 minutes. People are more likely to remember the dream if they are awakened during the REM phase.

Do other animals dream?

Dogs are known to dream. After about 20 minutes upon sleep, dogs enter the REM stage just like humans.

Likewise, Lizards sleep in a series of stages, such as REM sleep.

And through research, rats are observed to dream in their sleep too.

There are many other animals also, which are found to be dreaming during its sleep. However, further studies are still on process, for the further scientific confirmations on the same.