Neuroanatomical correlates of dreaming: The supramarginal gyrus controversy (dream work)

Abstract

This paper aims to resolve the contradictory findings between PET and human lesion methods concerning the role of the inferior parietal lobule (supramarginal gyrus) in the functional architecture of dreaming, and to provide a more comprehensive neuro scientific justification for its presumed psychoanalytic counterpart, dream work, a mechanism that has long been considered to be the sine qua non of the Freudian dream model. In contrast to prevailing belief the author argues that the classical psychoanalytic notion of this dream mechanism is compatible with, and also supported by, the most recent neurobiological findings. New psychoanalytic insights and refinement are also drawn, based on neuroscientific evidence, which breathe new life into the Freudian theory of dreaming.