This seems true to me. Correlation doesn't imply causation, but I've had my fair share of bizarre dreams where two completely separate concepts try to wedge themselves together in interlocking dream logic. No examples to speak of directly, as even holding them together after awakening is almost impossible.
The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
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Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#62> Notably, the techniques that researchers employ to rescue overfitted artificial neural networks generally involve sampling from an out-of-distribution or randomized dataset. The overfitted brain hypothesis is that the brains of organisms similarly face the challenge of fitting too well to their daily distribution of stimuli, causing overfitting and poor generalization. By hallucinating out-of-distribution sensory s…
And if the brain is overfitted, how can it generate out-of-distribution samples? Seems like wildly cyclical reasoning.
Maybe something like turning up the exploration vs exploitation parameter for tree search AI algorithms.
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#63My pet theory is a bit similar to the article but in a more computer-architecture way. I tend to think that sleep is our brain performing "GC" our experiences, i.e. choosing what information to retain and what to discard. Since we don't have a separate circuit to do that, we basically reuse the same one (processor and its "bus") for a different purpose, by redirecting its output to /dev/null, and that's a dream. This kinda explains why we don't remember much of it because the result is meant to be discarded. There's no scientific evidence to this but it's quite fun to think this way.
edit: the GC theory also explains why we have a better memory after sleep!
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#64Read something recently theorizing dreams are to prevent the visual processing part of the brain from being repurposed when we sleep...
Yeah, I think that's David Eagleman's idea.
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#65Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did Google and found a source contradicting your claim, as well as nothing supporting it. As I've explained, I bring those up as examples that the sleep system is not 100% reliable, so I think it's a mistake to go from the general case of "most motor control is shut down during REM sleep" to "nobody in any species ever twitches during a dream".
I think you need to work on your reading comprehension skills because I never said anything like that. Maybe your people interaction skills too. If my initial comment wasn't clear your free to ask for clarification instead of putting words in my mouth. Ill recap for you, The parent post wonders if his dog is barking at things it dreams about I join in after remembering that were paralyzed during rem, the stage when w…
Given the ad hominems and the repeated misunderstanding of what seemed like a simple request to me, I don't see a lot of value in trying to explain my question to you yet again.
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#67Read something recently theorizing dreams are to prevent the visual processing part of the brain from being repurposed when we sleep...
Related article: https://time.com/5925206/why-do-we-dream/
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#68> Sleep loss, specifically dream loss, leads to an overfitted brain that can still memorize and learn but fails to generalize appropriately Curious where this claim came from. Obviously a lack of sleep will degrade your day-to-day performance, but I almost never have dreams.
From what I recall, everybody dreams an approximately equal amount of time every night, the only major difference is how much of it is forgotten when you wake up. I wish I recalled (..or saved) the paper, but waking up releases a chemical in the brain that makes you actively and quickly forget what you just dreamed about.
That’s interesting. I’ve noticed that if I forget a dream and then meditate later in the day it often comes back or at least bits and pieces do some 5-15 minutes into the meditation.
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I thought dreams only happen durring rem and you are paralyzed durring rem stages. So you wouldn't be physically reacting to anything. I think those movements only happen in other stages of sleep
My understanding is that dogs and some other mammals don't experience the same extent of paralysis as humans during REM sleep. I don't know the reason for it, but dogs flail in REM sleep. Scared the crap out of me when we first adopted our dog. I've only ever owned cats and I thought she was having a seizure.
I had a cat crawl under the covers and sleep next to me. Once I woke up because it was.. dream running or something?!?
The feet twitched back and forth along my ribs and I am quite ticklish!
I was amused and glad it wasn't claws out dream fighting!
So I think cats can't be ruled out regards moving while asleep too. :-)
Re: The overfitted brain: Dreams evolved to assist generalization
#70All I know is my dog sometimes yips in his sleep, and it can be fairly loud-- I will forever wonder what he's yipping at, or how that behavior could possibly be selected for. Brains are weird.
I noticed mine seems to have vivid dreams with barking after being woken up at night. Interestingly, the paper claims: > It is notable that approximately 50% to 70% of the time subjects report having a dream upon a sudden waking during sleep.
That's interesting. I keep a dream journal and most of my entries are on days where I had interrupted sleep.