From:
        Marcia Ian <[log in to unmask]>

9:35 AM
Hi Chris --

I haven't read the results of the study, but the news reports claim that this
just-published study of rats is the first to show what they dream about.  The
claim is that because the brain-scans (MRI's?) of the rats in REM sleep show
the same patterns as those done while the rats are running/learning mazes, this
shows that the rats are dreaming about running mazes.  If this is indeed the
claim, it does not seem to me proof but a rather liberal and hopeful
inference.  Too bad they can't hook movie projectors up those little brains. .
.

Marcia Ian



> From:
>         "chris erb" <[log in to unmask]>
>
> 5:51 PM
>
> An interesting note about this is the behavior that is exhibited by pets
> when owners say they "dream" (twitching, barking, meowing, etc).  My
> Rottweiler recently had a litter of puppies (12 to be exact), and they
> exhibit the same twitching behavior in their sleep, even though their eyes
> do not open until about 10 days after they are born, their ears 17 days.
>
> I am not really sure that this proves anything either way.  But it does beg
> the question, if they are dreaming in a classical sense, what on earth are
> blind and deaf three day olds dreaming about?  Odors? Physical contact
> perhaps?  And if this is what they are dreaming about, does this change our
> concept of the word in relation to the animals all together?  Or is the
> behavior of the dog really simply the firing of nerve endings in their
> bodies?
>
> regards,
>
> chris
>
> p.s.  If anyone is interested in purchasing a puppy (they are pure bred,
> soon to be AKC registered), please contact me off-list.

--
". . . each of us will be well advised, on some suitable occasion, to make a
low bow to the deeply moral nature of mankind; it will help us to be generally
popular and much will be forgiven us for it."

--Sigmund Freud