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The threat simulation theory of the evolutionary function of dreaming: Evidence from dreams of traumatized children
Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku, Finland.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-5133-8664
Department of Philosophy, Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Turku, Finland.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-2771-1588
Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland.
Erbil Teaching Hospital and College of Medicine, University of Salahaddin, Erbil, Iraq.
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2005 (English)In: Consciousness and Cognition, ISSN 1053-8100, E-ISSN 1090-2376, Vol. 14, no 1, p. 188-218Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The threat simulation theory of dreaming (TST) () states that dream consciousness is essentially an ancient biological defence mechanism, evolutionarily selected for its capacity to repeatedly simulate threatening events. Threat simulation during dreaming rehearses the cognitive mechanisms required for efficient threat perception and threat avoidance, leading to increased probability of reproductive success during human evolution. One hypothesis drawn from TST is that real threatening events encountered by the individual during wakefulness should lead to an increased activation of the system, a threat simulation response, and therefore, to an increased frequency and severity of threatening events in dreams. Consequently, children who live in an environment in which their physical and psychological well-being is constantly threatened should have a highly activated dream production and threat simulation system, whereas children living in a safe environment that is relatively free of such threat cues should have a weakly activated system. We tested this hypothesis by analysing the content of dream reports from severely traumatized and less traumatized Kurdish children and ordinary, non-traumatized Finnish children. Our results give support for most of the predictions drawn from TST. The severely traumatized children reported a significantly greater number of dreams and their dreams included a higher number of threatening dream events. The dream threats of traumatized children were also more severe in nature than the threats of less traumatized or non-traumatized children.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Elsevier, 2005. Vol. 14, no 1, p. 188-218
National Category
Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-19389DOI: 10.1016/S1053-8100(03)00019-9ISI: 000227897700011PubMedID: 15766897Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-14844282095OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-19389DiVA, id: diva2:1517487
Note

Preliminary results of this study were presented at Association for the Study of Dreams: A Dream Odyssey, Santa Cruz, CA, July 2001, & Dreams and Cultures, Boston, MA, 2002, at Toward a Science of consciousness, Skövde, Sweden, August 2001, and at Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness: Dreams and Language, Barcelona, 2002. This research has been supported by the Alfred Kordelin Foundation, the Academy of Finland (project 45704), and the Signe and Ane Gyllenberg Foundation. We wish to thank Jay Fournier for his assistance and want to express our gratitude to Gideon Gitai and Adil Salah Abdallah for their excellent help in collecting children's dreams and in translation. PSETC-center in Dohuk also provided us support in our efforts.

Available from: 2021-01-14 Created: 2021-01-14 Last updated: 2021-01-14Bibliographically approved

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Valli, KatjaRevonsuo, Antti

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