Scientists in Germany have found which centers of the brain become active when we are aware of ourselves, the so-called state of ‘metaconsciousness’. Their study, which appears online in the July issue of SLEEP, is the first to show visible evidence of the neural networks that underpin the human conscious state.

They identified them by comparing brain scans of a volunteer during ‘lucid dream’ episodes, to brain scans taken during normal dream states.

The areas they pinpointed as the seat of meta-consciousness belong to a network in the outer layer (cortical) of the brain that includes the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, the frontopolar regions and the precuneus.

Some people can have episodes of self-awareness while they sleep and dream. These ‘lucid dreamers’ are aware that they are dreaming, and are also able to control their dreams. During lucid dreaming episodes they can access their memories, perform actions and are aware of themselves, even though they are unmistakeably in a dream state and not awake.

First author Martin Dresler, from the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, explains:

‘In a normal dream, we have a very basal consciousness, we experience perceptions and emotions but we are not aware that we are only dreaming. It’s only […]