REM & ACTIVATION SYNTHESIS
The Activation-Synthesis theory was conceived by Harvard professors Allan Hobson (left) and Robert McCarley (right) in the 1970s. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarley discovered that during REM sleep electrical signals, called EEGs, pass through the brain. These circuits in the brain stem are activated during sleep, and once they are activated areas of the limbic system involved in emotions, sensations, and memories, including the amygdala and hippocampus, became active. when this activity goes on, the brain synthesizes and interrupts this activity going on internally and attempts to create meaning from these signals. This is what would then create dreaming. Allan Hobson and Robert McCarey came to that conclusion, that the brain naturally reacts, and tries to make sense of the random stimulus. Thus drawing their theory that dreams had no intrinsic meaning, and that they were just a side effect of the brain’s normal activity. Since this, the continual advancement of technology has led to tremendous revision of this theory.
