Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7753
Authors: Windt, Jennifer M.
Harkness, Dominic
Lenggenhager, Bigna
Title: Tickle me, I think I might be dreaming! : Sensory attenuation, self-other distinction, and predictive processing in lucid dreams
Online publication date: 14-Sep-2022
Year of first publication: 2014
Language: english
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The contrast between self- and other-produced tickles, as a special case of sensory attenuation for self-produced actions, has long been a target of empirical research. While in standard wake states it is nearly impossible to tickle oneself, there are interesting exceptions. Notably, subjects awakened from REM (rapid eye movement-) sleep dreams are able to tickle themselves. So far, however, the question of whether it is possible to tickle oneself and be tickled by another in the dream state has not been investigated empirically or addressed from a theoretical perspective. Here, we report the results of an explorative web-based study in which participants were asked to rate their sensations during self-tickling and being tickled during wakefulness, imagination, and lucid dreaming. Our results, though highly preliminary, indicate that in the special case of lucid control dreams, the difference between self-tickling and being tickled by another is obliterated, suggesting that sensory attenuation for self-produced tickles spreads to those produced by non-self dream characters. These preliminary results provide the backdrop for a more general theoretical and metatheoretical discussion of tickling in lucid dreams in a predictive processing framework. We argue that the primary value of our study lies not so much in our results, which are subject to important limitations, but rather in the fact that they enable a new theoretical perspective on the relationship between sensory attenuation, the self-other distinction and agency, as well as suggest new questions for future research. In particular, the example of tickling during lucid dreaming raises the question of whether sensory attenuation and the self-other distinction can be simulated largely independently of external sensory input.
DDC: 100 Philosophie
100 Philosophy
Institution: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
Department: FB 05 Philosophie und Philologie
Place: Mainz
ROR: https://ror.org/023b0x485
DOI: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-7753
Version: Published version
Publication type: Zeitschriftenaufsatz
License: CC BY
Information on rights of use: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Journal: Frontiers in human neuroscience
8
Pages or article number: Art. 717
Publisher: Frontiers Research Foundation
Publisher place: Lausanne
Issue date: 2014
ISSN: 1662-5161
Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2014.00717
Publisher DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00717
Appears in collections:DFG-OA-Publizieren (2012 - 2017)

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