Introduction Although REM sleep plays an important role in neural maturation, developmental aspec... more Introduction Although REM sleep plays an important role in neural maturation, developmental aspects of dream research are relatively neglected compared to studies focusing on adults. Adult research found that REM sleep and dreams take certain roles in emotional adaptation, including the processing of emotional events, consolidation of emotional memories and the downregulation of reactions to dysphoric stimuli. These findings, however, are rarely discussed in a developmental perspective. Aims We aim to test the neurocognitive dream theory developed by Nielsen and Levine (2007) by investigating the associations among abilities of waking emotional processing, behavioral manifestations of emotional problems and the emotional aspects of dreaming in children. Methods We analyzed 349 dream reports of 40 children between the ages of 4 to 8 years. Dream emotions, emotional dream quality and the dreams’ effect on daytime’s mood were self-reported by the children. Wakeful emotional processing ...
Jelen tanulmany a kognitiv kepessegek es az agy alvas kozben feltarulkozo osszefuggeseivel foglal... more Jelen tanulmany a kognitiv kepessegek es az agy alvas kozben feltarulkozo osszefuggeseivel foglalkozik. Celunk bemutatni a temaban osszegyűlt fontosabb felfedezeseket es ujitasokat, kulonos tekintettel az alvasi orsozas es intelligencia kapcsolatara. Az alvasi EEG (elektro-enkefalografia) orsoszerű kepletei ujjlenyomatszerűen jellemzik az egyent, mely jelenseg főkent a NREM alvas 2. stadiumaban eszlehető. Az alvasi orso egyedspecifikussaga reven kapcsolatban allhat egyeb kognitiv teruletekkel, mint peldaul a tanulas kulonboző fajtaival, a memoria konszolidaciojaval es az intelligenciaval. Bemutatjuk a SE Magatartastudomanyi Intezeteben műkodő alvaskutato csoport alvas EEG-t feltaro munkajat es eredmenyeit, melyeket az intelligencia es az alvasi orsozas relaciojaban kapott, es amely eredmenyek ravilagithatnak az intelligencia viselkedeses es szemelyisegbeli valtozoira.
Sleep spindles act as a powerful marker of individual differences in cognitive ability. Sleep spi... more Sleep spindles act as a powerful marker of individual differences in cognitive ability. Sleep spindle parameters correlate with both age-related changes in cognitive abilities and with the age-independent concept of IQ. While some studies have specifically demonstrated the relationship between sleep spindles and intelligence in young children, our previous work in older subjects revealed sex differences in the sleep spindle correlates of IQ, which was never investigated in small children before. We investigated the relationship between age, Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) scores and sleep spindles in 28 young children (age 4-8 years, 15 girls). We specifically investigated sex differences in the psychometric correlates of sleep spindles. We also aimed to separate the correlates of sleep spindles that are because of age-related maturation from other effects that reflect an age-independent relationship between sleep spindles and general intelligence. Our results revealed a mo...
Psychiatria Hungarica a Magyar Pszichiatriai Tarsasag Tudomanyos Folyoirata, 2014
Examining children&#3... more Examining children's dream development is a significant challenge for researchers. Results from studies on children's dreaming may enlighten us on the nature and role of dreaming as well as broaden our knowledge of consciousness and cognitive development. This review summarizes the main questions and historical progress in developmental dream research, with the aim of shedding light on the advantages, disadvantages and effects of different settings and methods on research outcomes. A typical example would be the dreams of 3 to 5 year-olds: they are simple and static, with a relative absence of emotions and active self participation according to laboratory studies; studies using different methodology however found them to be vivid, rich in emotions, with the self as an active participant. Questions about the validity of different methods arise, and are considered within this review. Given that methodological differences can result in highly divergent outcomes, it is strongly recommended for future research to select methodology and treat results more carefully.
Psychiatria Hungarica: A Magyar Pszichiatriai Tarsasag tudomanyos folyoirata
Examining children's dream development is a significant challenge for researchers. Results fr... more Examining children's dream development is a significant challenge for researchers. Results from studies on children's dreaming may enlighten us on the nature and role of dreaming as well as broaden our knowledge of consciousness and cognitive development. This review summarizes the main questions and historical progress in developmental dream research, with the aim of shedding light on the advantages, disadvantages and effects of different settings and methods on research outcomes. A typical example would be the dreams of 3 to 5 year-olds: they are simple and static, with a relative absence of emotions and active self participation according to laboratory studies; studies using different methodology however found them to be vivid, rich in emotions, with the self as an active participant. Questions about the validity of different methods arise, and are considered within this review. Given that methodological differences can result in highly divergent outcomes, it is strongly ...
Females and males differ in several features of their spindle oscillations, as well as in the hem... more Females and males differ in several features of their spindle oscillations, as well as in the hemispheric lateralization of their neurocognitive processes. In addition, the hemispheric lateralization of cognitive functions was shown to vary in an age-dependent manner. In spite of the above knowledge, data on the hemispheric lateralization of these oscillatory phenomena are scarce and no sex differences or age effects in the hemispheric lateralization of sleep spindles were reported. Here, we aim to fill this gap by the description of the hemispheric lateralization of sleep spindles in healthy human subjects. Data sets from three research groups were unified (N = 251, age range: 4−69 years, 122 females) in this retrospective multicenter study. The amplitude, density, and duration of slow (frontally dominant) and fast (centroparietally dominant) spindles were analyzed using the individual adjustment method. Hemispheric lateraliza-tion was quantified by the (L − R)/mean (L, R) index. Orbitofronto-temporo-occipital and parietal fast sleep spindle measures are left lateralized, while prefrontal spindle amplitude is characterized by right hemispheric dominance. Left lateralization of fast spindle density and duration in the temporal and orbitofrontal regions, respectively, increases as a function of age in males, but not in females. In turn, females are characterized by higher left hemispheric dominance in occipitally measured fast spindle durations as compared with males. Sleep spindles are asymmetrically distributed over the two hemispheres. This phenomenon is sexually dimorphic and region-specific perhaps indexing sex differences in neurocognitive architectures.
The role of dreaming in childhood and in adulthood are still equally enigmatic fields yet to be f... more The role of dreaming in childhood and in adulthood are still equally enigmatic fields yet to be fully explored. However, while there is a consensus at least about the typical content and formal characteristics of adult dream reports, these features are still a matter of debate in the case of young children. Longitudinal developmental laboratory studies concluded that preschoolers' dreams usually depict static images about mostly animals and body states of the dreamer but they basically lack the active representation of the self, human characters, social interactions, dream emotions and motion imagery. Due to methodological arguments these results became the reference points in the literature of developmental dream research, in spite of the significantly different results of numerous recent and relevant studies using extra-laboratory settings. This study aims to establish a methodologically well-controlled and valid way to collect children's dreams for a representative period of time in a familiar home setting to serve as a comparison to the laboratory method. Pre trained parents acted as interviewers in the course of a 6 week-period of dream collection upon morning awakenings. Our results suggest that even preschoolers are likely to represent their own self in an active role (70%) in their mostly kinematic (82%) dream narratives. Their dream reports contain more human, than animal characters (70 and 7% of all dream characters respectively), and social interactions, self-initiated actions, and emotions are usual part of these dreams. These results are rather similar to those of recent extra-laboratory studies, suggesting that methodological issues may strongly interfere with research outcomes especially in the case of preschoolers' dream narratives. We suggest that nighttime awakenings in the laboratory setting could be crucial in understanding the contradictory results of dream studies in case of young children.
Introduction Although REM sleep plays an important role in neural maturation, developmental aspec... more Introduction Although REM sleep plays an important role in neural maturation, developmental aspects of dream research are relatively neglected compared to studies focusing on adults. Adult research found that REM sleep and dreams take certain roles in emotional adaptation, including the processing of emotional events, consolidation of emotional memories and the downregulation of reactions to dysphoric stimuli. These findings, however, are rarely discussed in a developmental perspective. Aims We aim to test the neurocognitive dream theory developed by Nielsen and Levine (2007) by investigating the associations among abilities of waking emotional processing, behavioral manifestations of emotional problems and the emotional aspects of dreaming in children. Methods We analyzed 349 dream reports of 40 children between the ages of 4 to 8 years. Dream emotions, emotional dream quality and the dreams’ effect on daytime’s mood were self-reported by the children. Wakeful emotional processing ...
Jelen tanulmany a kognitiv kepessegek es az agy alvas kozben feltarulkozo osszefuggeseivel foglal... more Jelen tanulmany a kognitiv kepessegek es az agy alvas kozben feltarulkozo osszefuggeseivel foglalkozik. Celunk bemutatni a temaban osszegyűlt fontosabb felfedezeseket es ujitasokat, kulonos tekintettel az alvasi orsozas es intelligencia kapcsolatara. Az alvasi EEG (elektro-enkefalografia) orsoszerű kepletei ujjlenyomatszerűen jellemzik az egyent, mely jelenseg főkent a NREM alvas 2. stadiumaban eszlehető. Az alvasi orso egyedspecifikussaga reven kapcsolatban allhat egyeb kognitiv teruletekkel, mint peldaul a tanulas kulonboző fajtaival, a memoria konszolidaciojaval es az intelligenciaval. Bemutatjuk a SE Magatartastudomanyi Intezeteben műkodő alvaskutato csoport alvas EEG-t feltaro munkajat es eredmenyeit, melyeket az intelligencia es az alvasi orsozas relaciojaban kapott, es amely eredmenyek ravilagithatnak az intelligencia viselkedeses es szemelyisegbeli valtozoira.
Sleep spindles act as a powerful marker of individual differences in cognitive ability. Sleep spi... more Sleep spindles act as a powerful marker of individual differences in cognitive ability. Sleep spindle parameters correlate with both age-related changes in cognitive abilities and with the age-independent concept of IQ. While some studies have specifically demonstrated the relationship between sleep spindles and intelligence in young children, our previous work in older subjects revealed sex differences in the sleep spindle correlates of IQ, which was never investigated in small children before. We investigated the relationship between age, Raven Colored Progressive Matrices (CPM) scores and sleep spindles in 28 young children (age 4-8 years, 15 girls). We specifically investigated sex differences in the psychometric correlates of sleep spindles. We also aimed to separate the correlates of sleep spindles that are because of age-related maturation from other effects that reflect an age-independent relationship between sleep spindles and general intelligence. Our results revealed a mo...
Psychiatria Hungarica a Magyar Pszichiatriai Tarsasag Tudomanyos Folyoirata, 2014
Examining children&#3... more Examining children's dream development is a significant challenge for researchers. Results from studies on children's dreaming may enlighten us on the nature and role of dreaming as well as broaden our knowledge of consciousness and cognitive development. This review summarizes the main questions and historical progress in developmental dream research, with the aim of shedding light on the advantages, disadvantages and effects of different settings and methods on research outcomes. A typical example would be the dreams of 3 to 5 year-olds: they are simple and static, with a relative absence of emotions and active self participation according to laboratory studies; studies using different methodology however found them to be vivid, rich in emotions, with the self as an active participant. Questions about the validity of different methods arise, and are considered within this review. Given that methodological differences can result in highly divergent outcomes, it is strongly recommended for future research to select methodology and treat results more carefully.
Psychiatria Hungarica: A Magyar Pszichiatriai Tarsasag tudomanyos folyoirata
Examining children's dream development is a significant challenge for researchers. Results fr... more Examining children's dream development is a significant challenge for researchers. Results from studies on children's dreaming may enlighten us on the nature and role of dreaming as well as broaden our knowledge of consciousness and cognitive development. This review summarizes the main questions and historical progress in developmental dream research, with the aim of shedding light on the advantages, disadvantages and effects of different settings and methods on research outcomes. A typical example would be the dreams of 3 to 5 year-olds: they are simple and static, with a relative absence of emotions and active self participation according to laboratory studies; studies using different methodology however found them to be vivid, rich in emotions, with the self as an active participant. Questions about the validity of different methods arise, and are considered within this review. Given that methodological differences can result in highly divergent outcomes, it is strongly ...
Females and males differ in several features of their spindle oscillations, as well as in the hem... more Females and males differ in several features of their spindle oscillations, as well as in the hemispheric lateralization of their neurocognitive processes. In addition, the hemispheric lateralization of cognitive functions was shown to vary in an age-dependent manner. In spite of the above knowledge, data on the hemispheric lateralization of these oscillatory phenomena are scarce and no sex differences or age effects in the hemispheric lateralization of sleep spindles were reported. Here, we aim to fill this gap by the description of the hemispheric lateralization of sleep spindles in healthy human subjects. Data sets from three research groups were unified (N = 251, age range: 4−69 years, 122 females) in this retrospective multicenter study. The amplitude, density, and duration of slow (frontally dominant) and fast (centroparietally dominant) spindles were analyzed using the individual adjustment method. Hemispheric lateraliza-tion was quantified by the (L − R)/mean (L, R) index. Orbitofronto-temporo-occipital and parietal fast sleep spindle measures are left lateralized, while prefrontal spindle amplitude is characterized by right hemispheric dominance. Left lateralization of fast spindle density and duration in the temporal and orbitofrontal regions, respectively, increases as a function of age in males, but not in females. In turn, females are characterized by higher left hemispheric dominance in occipitally measured fast spindle durations as compared with males. Sleep spindles are asymmetrically distributed over the two hemispheres. This phenomenon is sexually dimorphic and region-specific perhaps indexing sex differences in neurocognitive architectures.
The role of dreaming in childhood and in adulthood are still equally enigmatic fields yet to be f... more The role of dreaming in childhood and in adulthood are still equally enigmatic fields yet to be fully explored. However, while there is a consensus at least about the typical content and formal characteristics of adult dream reports, these features are still a matter of debate in the case of young children. Longitudinal developmental laboratory studies concluded that preschoolers' dreams usually depict static images about mostly animals and body states of the dreamer but they basically lack the active representation of the self, human characters, social interactions, dream emotions and motion imagery. Due to methodological arguments these results became the reference points in the literature of developmental dream research, in spite of the significantly different results of numerous recent and relevant studies using extra-laboratory settings. This study aims to establish a methodologically well-controlled and valid way to collect children's dreams for a representative period of time in a familiar home setting to serve as a comparison to the laboratory method. Pre trained parents acted as interviewers in the course of a 6 week-period of dream collection upon morning awakenings. Our results suggest that even preschoolers are likely to represent their own self in an active role (70%) in their mostly kinematic (82%) dream narratives. Their dream reports contain more human, than animal characters (70 and 7% of all dream characters respectively), and social interactions, self-initiated actions, and emotions are usual part of these dreams. These results are rather similar to those of recent extra-laboratory studies, suggesting that methodological issues may strongly interfere with research outcomes especially in the case of preschoolers' dream narratives. We suggest that nighttime awakenings in the laboratory setting could be crucial in understanding the contradictory results of dream studies in case of young children.
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