Ratan Singh, K. S. Chew, and F. Tanggong*
Abstract
Present work tests: Is REM essential for volitional/cortical regulation of autonomic function. Ten subjects underwent single-session experiment. They were instructed to increase their finger temperature by imagery. Results, even without statistics, reveal that the subjects who had REM also achieved the stipulated increase in finger temperature, but the subjects who did not show REM in the session could not increase finger temperature. Two subjects did not conform to this trend. The results support the dream-work theory of psychopathology of psychosomatic symptoms, help explain mind-body phenomena such as hypnosis, biofeedback, which presumably involve imagery as intervening variable between mind and body.
Cite as: Singh R, Chew KS and Tanggong F Identification of Waking State REM as Mediator in Volitional Regulation of Autonomic Function. Int J Psychopath Psychopharmacol Psychother 1996, 1 (1). URL http://www.psycom.net/ijppp.v1n1.html
Objective of the present experiment was to test if, in waking state, REM was critical in volitional increase of finger temperature. Ten undergraduate medical students volunteered for the experiment, each receiving one 20-minute session for the purpose of increasing their finger temperature by imagery. Hypothesis was deemed confirmed if both REM and finger temperature increase occrred or if both did not occur in the session. The hypothesis was confirmed in 8 of the 10 subjects. This work privides direct evidence for neuro-psychological mechanism underneath all mind-body phenomena which, like in the present work, may be working through imagery/REM.
How thought metamorphises into physical change in body has been perennial problem of philosophy in the form of mind body problem. Whereas no claim is made to solve this problem, discovery of one possible link mediating the two events is reported in this paper. Singh(1986, 1987) was the first to report data on rapid eye movement (REM) in volitional regulation of autonomic function, although crucial role of imagery in autonomic regulation was theoretically proposed by others (e.g. Green and Green )and there was anecdotal report by Schwartz (1986, 1987) who reported of one subject who could for the first time raise temperature of her big toe when the biofeedback apparatus accidentally broke and her imagery drifted to her lying on the beach and white patch cloud lazily floating in the blue sky.
Autonomic body changes, including rapid heart beat, respiration, penile erection are known to occur during REM sleep. However, there was no sleep involved in the present experiments because the purpose was to produce the stipulated autonomic change volitionally.
The objective of the present paper is to report the discovery of a rapid eye movement (REM) state which, unlike REM-sleep state, is not a sleep state and yet, like REM-sleep state, is accompanied with autonomic change. However, the uniqueness of the presently reported REM state is that it is accompanied with the stipulated or desired change in the autonomic function depending on the content of imagery. In normal REM-sleep, body surface temperature would fall but, in the presently reported REM state, the finger tip temperature rose because that was the autonomic change stipulated at the start of the experiment. Present paper checks for the critical role of REM during volitional regulation of finger tip temperature which is normally supposed to be due to increased blood flow to the target organ namely the finger. Previously Singh (1986, 1987) reported REM in volitional increase of finger temperature. The purpose of the present work was to again test the finding of REM as critical factor mediating mind-body interaction but this time using more subjects and different experimental procedure.
Subjects: Ten undergraduate medical and biotechnology students, age 20-21 years, 5 males and 5 females, right handed, volunteered for the experiment who were told that the purpose of the experiment was to increase finger temperature merely by thinking. The subjects volunteered out of curiosity.
Tools used: Thermometers that record room temperature but, in this case, filled with red alcohol and the bottom support of card cut so that the bulbar part was left hanging free to be attached to the subject's finger by tape were used. These thermometers had marks at 2 degree F intervals.
Instructions to the subjects: Each subject at a time was asked to go to toilet if needed so as to be ready to sit still for 20 minutes of experiment. The following instructions were given to each of them. "For the next 20 minutes, please sit comfortably, close your eyes, and relax. We will tell you when 20 minutes will be over. For the initial 5 minutes, just relax and do not imagine anything specific. We will tell you when the 5 minutes are over after which you try to increase your finger temperature by imagining. You can for example imagine yourself holding hot cup of coffee. You can try several imageries to increase your finger tip temperature. We will not ask you the content of your imagery. Two observers will record your finger temperature once every minute." The subjects were not told that their eye-ball movements would be observed.
Procedure: Each subject underwent one session of 20 minutes including the 5-minute baseline, in airconditioned room. One thermometer was attached to the index/first finger of each hand by scotch tape and a second thermometer was left near the subject to note the atmospheric change in temperature during the session.
Two observers simultaneously but independently recorded, once every minute, presence/absence of rapid eye movement (REM) and also the subject's finger temperature from both the hands. One-minute time sampling procedure was used to observe and record REM: For initial 30 seconds the observers observed the subject's eyeballs and, during the next 30 seconds, recorded their observations as REM present or absent and also recorded the finger temperature of both the hands. The percentage of agreement between the two observers observing the REM was then calculated for each session as follows: Number of agreements divided by the number of agreements plus disagreements for presence or absence of REM in each time-sample of observation in the session and multiplied by 100.
Each subject was asked to give introspective report at the end of the session without having to tell the content of their imagery/imageries.
Each subject underwent only one session of the procedure.
The session-by-session interobserver percentage of agreement for presence or absence of REM derived from observation time-samples of each session was: 65, 100, 75, 100, 80, 70, 100, 90,90, 90.
There was no change in temperature noted in the atmosphere before, during, and after any of the sessions.
Table 1 below shows that the hypothesis was confirmed as in eight of the ten subjects the stipulated temperature rise occurred when there was REM but the stipulated temperature change did not occur when the REM was absent in the session. Temperature was deemed to have increased if it increased in any of the two fingers of the two hands by at least two degree F over the 5-minute baseline stage. Only the peak temperature of the 5-minute baseline and the subsequent 15- minute session were taken for comparison. In all the subjects, either the temperature increased in both the hands' fingers or it did not rise in both the hands' fingers, except in one subject Me in whom the temperature rose in the left-hand finger, but not in her right-hand finger. She was right handed.
Regarding the two subjects in whom the hypothesis was not confirmed, the subject Ma was ill, having clinical fever, and the subject G, on his own accord, interrupted his imagery half-way through the session and started to think of a mathematical formula. Both were males and were the only subjects in whom the hypothesis was not confirmed.
Table 1.
Right finger Left finger REM Hypothesis
temp.in F. temp. in F. Present Confirmed
Subjects or not Or Not
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G(male) 84-88 84-89 Absent Not confirmed
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Me(female) 78-78 86-90 Present Confirmed
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L (male) 86-86 90-90 Absent Confirmed
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V(female) 88-90 86-88 Presen Confirmed
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K (male) 92-92 92-92 Absent Confirmed
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S(female) 78-78 78-78 Absent Confirmed
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C (male) 90-92 86-90 Present Confirmed
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P (male) 82-86 88-90 Present Confirmed
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Ma(male) 78-86 78-90 Absent Not confirmed
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T(female) 92-92 92-92 Absent Confirmed
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It seems that REM is essential in volitional regulation or control of autonomic function such as finger temperature. This finding discovered earlier (Singh 1986, 1987) in trained subjects was confirmed on the untrained subjects in the present experiment, that too using different experimental design. The results obtained in this experiment could not be due to chance because the temperature change in the finger-tips was of big magnitude, as shown in Table 1 and, except in two subjects, the temperature change did not occur in the subjects who could not generate REM.
The subjects were not doing horizontal eyeball movement consciously. Rapid eye movement (REM) is automatic activity of the muscles of the eyes known to occur during dream-sleep in mammals. Moreover, the subjects were not aware that their eyeball movement was under observation.
It needs to be emphasized that horizontal rapid eye movement of eyeballs is known to indicate dreaming, but such activity is not known to occur during waking state. Such activity of eyeballs is however being reported here during waking state. The subjects were not asleep as attested by themselves after the session. However, they might have been temporarily oblivious of the surrounding when deeply absorbed in imagery.
Data of one subject, G, are not explainable and do not conform to the general trend. If he could not sustain his imagery or could not get effective imagery, as evidenced by absence of REM in his session, then he should not have been able to produce the stipulated autonomic change. But the fact is that he could increase his right finger temperature by 4 degree F and his left finger temperature by 6 degree F. In view of this it must be accepted that there are other mechanisms than REM/imagery which can control autonomic function. One such mechanism is relaxation without REM.
The fact that one pre-selected autonomic function, namely rise of finger temperature, which is mediated by increased blood flow to finger due to decreased sympathetic arousal (arteries are primarily innervated by sympathetic rather than parasympathetic nerves), could be achieved by cortical activity such as deep imagery/REM is not a new discovery. Green and Green (1979) and others hadve already postulated the crucial role of imagery in volitional regulation of autonomic function. But data on imagery as occurring when stipulated autonomic change of finger temperature occurs were not previously reported, except by Singh (1986, 1987). Future research is needed to see if dream-like imagery is involved in volitional regulation of other autonomic functions such as blood pressure, sweating, and heart rate.
There are reports of significant increase in natural killer cells when the subjects were asked to imagine that their white blood cells were attacking and gobbling the alien cells (Hall, Longo & Dixon 1981) and Simontons are known to use imagery in the psychological treatment of cancer. However, it must be noted that in the controlled study by Hall, Longo, and Dixon (1981) statistically significant change in the natural killer cell activity occurred only in the highly hypnotizable subjects. It is also in the context here that one of the single most valid predictor of high hypnotizability is the subject's ability to generate theta in the vertex region during eyes open condition (Galbraith 1970). It is well known that theta brain wave is accompanied by creativity and imagery. In view of these and the present experiment it can be said that treatment by means of hypnosis would be successful in producing an autonomic bodily change only if accompanied by REM. This conclusion has direct bearing on relevance of dream to the entire field of psychopathology of psychosomatic symptoms.
It is known that right hemisphere is associated with imagery. Also, it is known that emotion is regulated by right hemisphere. Moreover, based on the result of the present experiment, it is tempting to generalize and propose, without having to accept the theory of Sigmund Freud, that dream-like process is involved in the genesis and treatment of psycho-somatic symptoms. Rapid eye movements, when occuring in waking state, as in the present study in eyes closed but waking state, indicates that some dream-like mechanism is in progress. Therefore it is proposed that dream-like imagery mechanism and the role of right hemisphere is crucial in the regulation of autonomic functions, both in the general sense of emotion and specific sense of a single function e.g. finger temperature.
It is however not the intention here to propose REM as the sole causative factor of autonomic changes. After all there can be weak reverie/imagery which need not generate REM, and there are known to exist ultradian rhythmes of reverie and right hemisphere dominance in waking hours all of which may be accompanied by autonomic change without apparent REM.
* This work was done by students of the university medical school as elective project under supervision of the first author.
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