Overview

It is important that persons seeking to theorize on the neural bases of dreaming be grounded in the most current findings on the neurobiology of sleep from the level of its molecular and cellular neurophysiology through the macroscopic regional activity patterns that more directly inform the study of its neuropsychology and phenomenology. In this volume, Hobson et al. have provided a primer on these neurobiological topics with a focus on the REM-NREM cycle and, in less detail, on the sleep-wake cycle. Hobson et al. (sections 3.1 & 3.2) review literature postdating the extensive reviews provided by Hobson and Steriade (1986) and Steriade and McCarley (1990) and approximately predating the year 2000. Far more extensive reviews focusing on specific neurochemical systems and anatomical networks can be found in the contributions to two recent books edited by Lydic and Baghdoyan (1999) and Mallick and Inoue (1999) as well as in the third edition of Kryger et al. (2000). An overview of more recent (approximately year 2000) literature can be found in Jones (2000), Pace-Schott and Hobson (2002), and Saper (2000). The current section is intended to briefly review the most recent (2000–2001) literature on the neurobiology of sleep most relevant to dream science in order to maximize the reference value of this volume for the contemporary (mid-2002) student of this discipline.

New findings on the cellular neurophysiology of sleep

Although the prominence of cholinergic and aminergic neuronal populations in the control of the REM-NREM cycle is well accepted, the intricate modulation of the physiological components of these cardinal sleep stages by a wide …