Memory and Dreams: The Creative Human Mind

Why do we dream? What are dreams? What is the relationship between dreams and creativity? How does the brain formulate memories and creative thoughts? What causes SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome)? These fundamental questions and many, many more are answered in this extraordinary and stimulating book from Perth's Dr George Christos. In 'Memory and Dreams,' Christos explains how memory is stored, retrieved and processed in the brain, and why human memory is fundamentally different from computer memory. He describes how the brain develops after birth, and explains why we forget. The book advances new and fascinating ideas on how the brain generates new ideas and creativity, and thinks, based on the way in which memories are stored in the brain. As a consequence of the brain's storage arrangement, the brain generates so-called 'spurious memories', which Christos argues are the basis of our creativity. He says spurious memories are actually also essential for new learning. Along the way, he comes up with an explanation of deja vu, based on the confusion of spurious memories with real memories. 'Memory and Dreams' also looks at what the brain may be doing during rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, the phase of sleep associated with dreaming. The function of dreaming is one of the main unsolved puzzles in neurobiology. Christos advances his own theory that dream sleep is required to generate more spurious memories, or roughness in our 'memory space', which allows the brain to be more adaptive and prepares it for new learning experiences. Finally, the book advances Christos's already controversial theory on SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome), which is currently receiving world-wide attention.