Reverse learning is a neurobiological theory of dreams. In 1983, in a paper published in the famous science journal Nature, Crick and Mitchison's reverse learning model likened the process of dreaming to a computer in that it was "off-line" during dreaming or the REM phase of sleep. During this phase, the brain supposedly sifts through information gathered throughout the day and throws out all unwanted material. According to the model, we dream in order to forget and this involves a process of 'reverse learning' or 'unlearning'. Reverse learning eliminates unwanted modes of neural network interaction acquired in the adult mammal's learning and also in the process of fetal brain growth; therefore, there is a possibility that abnormalities of reverse learning in the fetal brain might explain some aspects of the autistic syndromes or other neurodevelopmental disorders.
The cortex cannot cope with the vast amount of information received throughout the day without developing "parasitic" thoughts that would disrupt the efficient organisation of memory. During REM sleep, these unwanted connections in cortical networks are supposedly wiped out or damped down by the Crick-Mitchison process making use of impulses bombarding the cortex from sub-cortical areas.
The Crick-Mitchison theory is a variant upon Hobson and McCarley's activation-synthesis hypothesis, published in December 1977. Hobson and McCarley hypothesized that a brain stem neuronal mechanism sends pontine-geniculo-occipital (or PGO) waves that automatically activate the mammalian forebrain. By comparing information generated in specific brain areas with information stored in memory, the forebrain synthesizes dreams during REM sleep.
Read more about Reverse Learning: Crick verbatim On The Function of REM Sleep, Support For The Theory of Reverse Learning, Objections To The Theory of Reverse Learning, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words reverse and/or learning:
“We came home from the ridotto so late, or rather so early, that it was not possible for me to write. Indeed we did not go ... till past eleven o’clock: but nobody does. A terrible reverse of the order of nature! We sleep with the sun, and wake with the moon.”
—Frances Burney (1752–1840)
“Ignorance of what real learning is, and a consequent suspicion of it; materialism, and a consequent intellectual laxity—both of these have done destructive work in the colleges.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)