for - paper - title - Memory, Sleep, Dreams, and Consciousness: A Perspective Based on the Memory Theory of Consciousness - author - Andrew E. Budson, Ken A Paller - adjacency - memories - sleep - dreams - Memory Theory of Consciousness - MToC

summary - The authors present a theory of dreaming and sleep that I resonate with, that sleep is a time in which the brain performs unconscious processing of memories, consolidating them by taking advantage of consciousnesss down time to perform massive parallel processing to connect memories together. - dreams are seen as a small conscious byproduct of the massive parallel processing task, and their meaning may have value depending on how we interpret them.

for - example - MToC - When I wake in the morning, it is memory that allows me to experience myself as the same person who went to bed the night before. - I can remember my past experiences and what they mean in the sense of a sequence defining my existence spreading out over time. - Episodic memory enables me to remember - why I set the alarm 30 minutes earlier than usual (a plane to catch) and - why I am wearing these ridiculous pajamas (packed the usual pair for the trip). - Semantic memory maintains my sense of self, including that I am - a professor, - a spouse, and - a parent. -The next morning, when I wake in a hotel room, - episodic memory enables me to recall - my arrival to the hotel, - the city I am in now, and - the face of my new grandchild that I saw yesterday for the first time.

for - MToC emphasizes - bottom-up sensory memory - top-down episodic and semantic memories - lead to conscious perceptual experience

for - comparison Multiple Draft Theory - vs - MToC - similar - unconscious bottom-up and top down processes produce memory that produce consciousness - different - no waiting til experience is reported before consciousness - similar to sleep based unconscious memory consolidation of MToC

for - comparison - neuroscience - perceptual reality monitoring - vs - MToC - PRM focuses on veracity while MToC focuses on the instantaneous subjective experiences of reality

for - MToC claim - purpose of consciousness - same as - purpose of memory - understand the present - imagine possible futures - plan accordingly - adjacency - MToC - memory - consciousness

for - definition - Memory Theory of Consciousness (MToC) - The very awareness we have of sensory analysis, of perception, is based on the operation of this memory system. - In other words, the sensory information that constitutes an event is assembled at encoding and consequently can be remembered later.