State Dissociation, Human Behavior, and Consciousness

Abstract

Sleep is clearly not only a whole-brain or global phenomenon, but can also be a local phenomenon. This accounts for the fact that the primary states of being (wakefulness, NREM sleep, and REM sleep) are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and components of these states may appear in various combinations, with fascinating clinical consequences. Examples include: sleep inertia, narcolepsy, sleep paralysis, lucid dreaming, REM sleep behavior disorder, sleepwalking, sleep terrors, out-of-body experiences, and reports of alien abduction. The incomplete declaration of state likewise has implications for consciousness - which also has fluid boundaries. Fluctuations in the degree of consciousness are likely explained by abnormalities of a "spatial and temporal binding rhythm" which normally results in a unified conscious experience. Dysfunctional binding may play a role in anesthetic states, autism, schizophrenia, and neurodegenerative disorders. Further study of the broad spectrum of dissociated states of sleep and wakefulness that are closely linked with states of consciousness and unconsciousness by basic neuroscientists, clinicians, and members of the legal profession will provide scientific, clinical and therapeutic insights, with forensic implications.

Disorders of Arousal

“…The author admitted that intra-psychic conflicts could play a role in inducing sleep changes underlying SW and ST, but stressed that there was no evidence to suggest that such conflicts per se caused these disorders. This notion was then confirmed in clinical/polysomnographic studies in SW/ST patients [6] and is considered a milestone that paved the way to the modern conceptualization of DOA as disorders of incomplete awakening and, more recently, dissociate state of being [7], which was confirmed by an ictal functional neuroimaging study [8•] and an in-depth electrophysiological brain study [9••], both demonstrating the coexistence of different local sleep and arousal states within the brain during DOA episodes.…”

Criminal Law and Parasomnias: Some Legal Clarifications

“…Instead, the argument maintains focus on the component necessary for conviction or acquittal-mens rea…a forensic analysis of the accused degree of consciousness. 1 We disagree with this statement. It is very important to determine the accused's level of consciousness during the episode because this helps the jury decide whether this is compatible with a parasomnic episode.…”

“…In criminal cases attempting to employ the "sleepwalking defense", the component involving actus reus is usually not under debate. 1 Unfortunately, this statement does not reflect the complexity of this area of criminal responsibility. Their statement is ambiguous-on the one hand, they appear to suggest that actus reus is not in question in most sleep walking cases.…”

Perchance to dream? Primordial motor activity patterns in vertebrates from fish to mammals: their prenatal origin, postnatal persistence during sleep, and pathological reemergence during REM sleep behavior disorder

“…Also, in the two studies just cited [89,90] , there were a very large number also in dogs and cats [27] . Furthermore, early developmental sleep neuromotor dysregulation may also predispose to the later emergence of a spectrum of other abnormal dissociated sleep-wake motor-behavioral states emerging as parasomnias, apart from RBD [91,92] .…”