Eye Movements, Attention and Dreaming in Subjects with Lifelong Blindness*

This study was carried out for two purposes: 1) to determine whether subjects with lifelong blindness will demonstrate increases in REM rate during states of heightened attention; 2) to investigate patterns of eye movements in the sleep of subjects wich lifelong blindness. REM rates in three subjects were compared under two conditions: rest and states of ‘heightened attention. The latter was secured in the context of a word association test. The results showed a greater than twofold increased in REM rate during attention as compared to rest, lending support to Amadeo & Shagass’ previous findings on normally sighted subjects. Seven out of eight subjects had REMs during their cyclically recurring EOG sleep Stage 1. The general pattern of electro-oculographic activity during sleep was described; compared to the EOG patterns already described in normally sighted subjects, we found differences in terms of over-all EOG configuration, REM frequency, amplitude and conjugateness. The relevance of our combined findings to current hypotheses concerning the relationship between REMs and dreaming was discussed.