Lucid dreams offer us the heady chance to shape our own fates in a fantasy world. In these dreams, sleepers realize they’re dreaming and can sometimes take over their dreams’ plots, allowing them to turn the tables on their enemies, soar into the sky, or embrace that special someone. Now, researchers in Germany have demonstrated that they can trigger lucid dreamsby zapping sleeping people’s brains with electricity.
The researchers used a non-invasive neural stimulation method called transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) to send low-intensity electricity through the frontal and temporal lobes of 27 sleepers’ brains. These portions of the cerebral cortex are associated with higher order cognitive functions, the researchers write, such as self-reflective awareness, abstract thinking, volition, and metacognition (thinking about thinking).
via IEEE Spectrum
Image: Randi Klett
