Scholarlink

<p>Every studied animal species exhibits some form of sleep, a state evolved under the sustained influence of prey and predator behaviors. Dreams have been proposed to have evolved as offline mental simulations able to warn against impending threats from the environment, such as predators. To assess how the ecological roles of prey and predator interact with sleep and dreaming, we used a first-person shooter game as a proxy for predator-prey confrontations. Electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) signals were simultaneously recorded from 30 human adults paired while (1) playing a video game round against each other, (2) taking a nap, (3) reporting dreams and/or thoughts, and (4) playing another round. We found that the participants in the prey role were highly affected by sleep and dreaming. Their score gains were positively correlated with slow wave activity during the nap, with how much the dreams were related to the game, and with heart rate variability during the first round. In contrast, no significant correlations were found for participants in the predator role. The results suggest that slow wave activity and task-related dream content predict the post-sleep performance of individuals under stressful, low-agency, prey-like situations.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Dream content and slow waves benefit prey against predator in a video game confrontation

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

    开放获取

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月13日

查看全文
  • Daniel S. Brandão,
  • Rafael N. B. Scott,
  • Ernesto S. Soares,
  • Natália B. Mota,
  • Sidarta Ribeiro

摘要

Every studied animal species exhibits some form of sleep, a state evolved under the sustained influence of prey and predator behaviors. Dreams have been proposed to have evolved as offline mental simulations able to warn against impending threats from the environment, such as predators. To assess how the ecological roles of prey and predator interact with sleep and dreaming, we used a first-person shooter game as a proxy for predator-prey confrontations. Electroencephalographic (EEG) and electrocardiographic (ECG) signals were simultaneously recorded from 30 human adults paired while (1) playing a video game round against each other, (2) taking a nap, (3) reporting dreams and/or thoughts, and (4) playing another round. We found that the participants in the prey role were highly affected by sleep and dreaming. Their score gains were positively correlated with slow wave activity during the nap, with how much the dreams were related to the game, and with heart rate variability during the first round. In contrast, no significant correlations were found for participants in the predator role. The results suggest that slow wave activity and task-related dream content predict the post-sleep performance of individuals under stressful, low-agency, prey-like situations.