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Scientists say Freud's dream theory may be correct ANAHEIM, Calif. (January 25, 1999 11:38 p.m. EST http://www.nandotimes.com) - Sigmund Freud may have been right after all. Thirty years after dismissing his theory on dreams, some scientists now believe the founder of psychoanalysis was on the mark. Freud said dreams were inspired by a hidden wish, but that theory was scorned by scientists in the 1960s who discovered that the period of sleep most associated with dreams -- the rapid eye movement or REM period -- was controlled by a part of the brain that had nothing to do with mental functions. But on Monday scientists said that REM sleep and dreams were not associated. Mark Solms, a neurologist at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London and the Royal London Hospital, said recent research had shown that dreams stem from a part of the brain that releases dopamine neurons. Speaking at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Anaheim, Solms described findings based on 26 patients who had lesions on the part of the brain that controls REM sleep. While none of them was able to experience REM sleep, he said only one stopped dreaming. But a study of 350 patients with lesions on the brain's "dream center," a system of fibers in the frontal lobe, showed all of them had stopped dreaming when those lesions occurred. "Damage to this part of the brain leads to a cessation in dreaming," Solms said. He added that dopamine neurons -- located in the frontal lobe -- stimulated the mind's "seeking system, it's wanting system, it's motivational system. In short, the wishing system." And that brings one back to Freud. According to Freud, Solm said, the thought process continued during sleep. "He said the thought process was the entrepreneur of dreams, but that entrepreneurs need capitalists, and that the dream only kicks in when the capitalist, the unconscious wish, latches on to the thought process," Solm said. Another scientist, Yale University psychoanalyst Morton Reiser, said although Freud's theory had been considered obsolete and incompatible with contemporary neurobiology by some leading investigators, "there are other dream researchers who find aspects of his theory to be quite ... compatible with contemporary neurobiology." Dreams, Reiser said, could play a vital part in psychoanalysis. By MICHAEL MILLER Copyright 1999 Nando Media Copyright 1999 Reuters News Service http://www.nandotimes.com/noframes/story/0,2107,11270-19198-138811-0,00.html janet paterson - 51 now /41 dx /37 onset - almonte/ontario/canada http://www.newcountry.nu/pd/members/janet/index.htm [log in to unmask]