Exploring the neural mechanisms of learning, this book delves into song memorization in canaries and the impact of sleep on memory consolidation in rats. It reveals how a specific forebrain nucleus encodes syllabic patterns influenced by experience and attention. Additionally, it examines how sleep can alter gene expression based on prior stimuli. The final chapter proposes a hypothesis about the nature of thoughts as electrical activity waves in the brain, tracing the evolutionary relationship between brains and thoughts from ancient times to today.
*THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER* What is a dream? Why do we dream? How do our bodies and minds use dreams? These questions are the starting point for this unprecedented, astonishing study of the role and significance of dreams, from the beginning of human history. An investigation on the grand scale, encompassing literature, anthropology, religion, and science, it articulates the essential place dreams occupy in human culture, and how they functioned as the catalyst that compelled us to transform our earthly habitat into a human world. From the earliest cave paintings - where the author finds a key to humankind's first dreams, which contributed to our capacity to perceive past and future - to cutting-edge scientific research, Ribeiro arrives at startling and revolutionary conclusions about the role of dreams in human existence and evolution. He explores the advances that contemporary neuroscience, biochemistry and psychology have made into the connections between sleep, dreams, and learning, before revealing what dreams have taught us about the neural basis of memory and the transformation of memory in recall. And he makes clear that the earliest insight into dreams as oracular has been confirmed by contemporary research. Accessible, authoritative, and fascinating from first to last, The Oracle of Night gives us a wholly new way to understand this most basic of human experiences.
Exploring the evolution of the human mind, this book examines the significance of dreams from ancient times to modern science. It highlights how dreams have shaped our identities and influenced the world around us, offering insights into the interplay between our subconscious experiences and our understanding of reality. The narrative weaves together historical accounts and contemporary research, revealing the profound impact of dreams on human development and culture.
