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The seahorse, the almond, and the night-mare: Elaborative encoding during sleep-paralysis hallucinations?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2013

Todd A. Girard
Todd A. Girard*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Ryerson University, Toronto, ON M5B 2K3, Canada. tgirard@psych.ryerson.cahttp://www.ryerson.ca/psychology/faculty/girard/
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Abstract

Llewellyn's proposal that rapid eye movement (REM) dreaming reflects elaborative encoding mediated by the hippocampus (“seahorse”) offers an interesting perspective for understanding hallucinations accompanying sleep paralysis (SP; “night-mare”). SP arises from anomalous intrusion of REM processes into waking consciousness, including threat-detection systems mediated by the amygdala (“almond”). Unique aspects of SP hallucinations offer additional prospects for investigation of Llewellyn's theory of elaborative encoding.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 36 , Issue 6 , December 2013 , pp. 618 - 619
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013 

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