<p><a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763412000899">Modern science of sleep is starting to lean towards a viewpoint that dopamine has an important function in dreaming</a>, and that dopaminergic pathways - mesolimbic and mesocortical are activated during dreaming. </p>

<p>Here's what the list of functions that <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#In_the_brain">dopamine</a> is responsible for in the human brain: </p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Inside the brain, dopamine plays important roles in motor control,
  motivation, arousal, cognition, and reward, as well as a number of
  basic lower-level functions including lactation, sexual gratification,
  and nausea.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>With this in mind, I'm posing the following question: <strong>Can random activation of dopaminergic system during dreaming cause dreams of stimuli which activated dopaminergic system during waking state?</strong> In other words, if perceiving sexual stimuli triggers dopaminergic system activation, can similar activation during dreaming cause recollection of the sexual stimuli?</p>

<p>To simplify: </p>

<ul>
<li>Seeing erotic image -> causes dopaminergic system activation</li>
<li>Activation of dopaminergic system -> can it cause recall of erotic image or some other experience from the list above?</li>
</ul>

<p>Has there been any research into what happens when a person's dopaminergic system (mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways of Ventral Tegmental Area) is artificially stimulated (like during brain surgery) - does this cause recall of experiences, desires or cravings or other things people "want"? </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-18T18:20:18.463Z
How does one even activate the dopaminergic system non-invasively?
Seanny123
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-19T00:06:25.783Z
Apparently it gets activated as a part of the dreaming process
Alex Stone
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-19T19:00:16.257Z
I meant in terms of a non-invasive experimental procedure as a method to separate correlation from causation.
Seanny123
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-11-19T20:37:04.497Z
I originally meant invasive procedures, like brain surgery - from what I understand surgeons probe brain regions to make sure they are cutting the correct thing. Maybe at some point some surgeon poked parts of dopaminergic system and noticed the results. I also read of rats with artificially implanted electrodes stimulating those areas, but rats would not be able to relay subjective experience of those activations.
Alex Stone
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-06T06:16:59.253Z
I don't know much about how the brain works and I would rather not learn expert results about it because I may have the theoretical ability to sense them myself and would rather not get told them before I sense them on my own, ruining my ability to sense them for myself. I do realize a brain cannot have awareness of as much information as every single detail about itself which might be around 10^14 bits of information. I'm wondering if the reason why you asked about dopamine is because dopamine is involved in part of the process of a neuron firing and a neuron cannot fire at all in the absense
Timothy
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-02-06T06:17:36.743Z
of surrounding dopamine.
Timothy
<cognitive-psychology><cognitive-neuroscience><sleep><dreams><dopamine>
If stimulus triggers dopamine release, can dopamine release trigger memory recall of stimulus?
Alex Stone
# If stimulus triggers dopamine release, can dopamine release trigger memory recall of stimulus?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2014-11-18)

[Modern science of sleep is starting to lean towards a viewpoint that dopamine has an important function in dreaming](http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763412000899), and that dopaminergic pathways - mesolimbic and mesocortical are activated during dreaming.

Here's what the list of functions that [dopamine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine#In_the_brain) is responsible for in the human brain:

> Inside the brain, dopamine plays important roles in motor control,
> motivation, arousal, cognition, and reward, as well as a number of
> basic lower-level functions including lactation, sexual gratification,
> and nausea.

With this in mind, I'm posing the following question: **Can random activation of dopaminergic system during dreaming cause dreams of stimuli which activated dopaminergic system during waking state?** In other words, if perceiving sexual stimuli triggers dopaminergic system activation, can similar activation during dreaming cause recollection of the sexual stimuli?

To simplify:

* Seeing erotic image -> causes dopaminergic system activation
* Activation of dopaminergic system -> can it cause recall of erotic image or some other experience from the list above?

Has there been any research into what happens when a person's dopaminergic system (mesolimbic and mesocortical pathways of Ventral Tegmental Area) is artificially stimulated (like during brain surgery) - does this cause recall of experiences, desires or cravings or other things people "want"?

**Tags:** cognitive-psychology, cognitive-neuroscience, sleep, dreams, dopamine

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: How does one even activate the dopaminergic system non-invasively?  
> **username_0**: Apparently it gets activated as a part of the dreaming process  
> **username_1**: I meant in terms of a non-invasive experimental procedure as a method to separate correlation from causation.  
> **username_0**: I originally meant invasive procedures, like brain surgery - from what I understand surgeons probe brain regions to make sure they are cutting the correct thing. Maybe at some point some surgeon poked parts of dopaminergic system and noticed the results. I also read of rats with artificially implanted electrodes stimulating those areas, but rats would not be able to relay subjective experience of those activations.  
> **username_2**: I don't know much about how the brain works and I would rather not learn expert results about it because I may have the theoretical ability to sense them myself and would rather not get told them before I sense them on my own, ruining my ability to sense them for myself. I do realize a brain cannot have awareness of as much information as every single detail about itself which might be around 10^14 bits of information. I'm wondering if the reason why you asked about dopamine is because dopamine is involved in part of the process of a neuron firing and a neuron cannot fire at all in the absense  
> **username_2**: of surrounding dopamine.  

---

## 0 answers

