Scientists Are Researching a Device That Can Induce Lucid Dreams on Demand（科學家正在研究一種可以按照需要誘導清醒夢的設備）
Scientists Are Researching a Device That Can Induce Lucid Dreams on Demand（科學家正在研究一種可以按照需要誘導清醒夢的設備）
來源：VICE
作者：Becky Ferreira（貝基·費雷拉）
2023 年 11 月 3 日
The startup behind Halo is aiming for a future where a wearable headband can give people the experience of awakening in a lucid dream.
Halo（光環）背後的新創公司的目標是在未來透過穿戴式頭帶讓人們體驗在清醒夢境中醒來的感覺。
Have you ever had the bizarre experience of seemingly waking up inside your own dream? You can tell you’re not fully conscious—there’s a dreamscape all around you, after all—but you’re aware enough to be able to control parts of the phantasm.
你有沒有經歷過在自己的夢中醒來的奇怪經歷？你可以看出你沒有完全意識到——畢竟，你周圍有一個夢境——但你有足夠的意識，能夠控制幻覺的一部分。
These so-called “lucid dreams” can be extremely meaningful and transformative moments for the roughly half of adults who report having them at least once in their lifetime. That’s why a new tech startup, Prophetic, aims to bring lucid dreams to a much wider audience by developing a wearable device designed to spark the experience when desired.
對於大約一半的成年人來說，這些所謂的「清醒夢」可能是非常有意義和變革性的時刻，他們一生中至少做過一次。這就是為什麼一家名為 Prophetic（先知）的新科技新創公司旨在透過開發一種可穿戴設備，在需要時激發清醒夢的體驗，將清醒夢帶給更廣泛的受眾。
Prophetic is the brainchild of Eric Wollberg, its chief executive officer, and Wesley Louis Berry III, its chief technology officer. The pair co-founded the company earlier this year with the goal of combining technologies, such as ultrasound and machine learning models, “to detect when dreamers are in REM to induce and stabilize lucid dreams” with a device called the Halo according to the company’s website.
Prophetic（先知）是執行長埃里克-沃爾伯格（Eric Wollberg）和首席技術長韋斯利-路易斯-貝里三世（Wesley Louis Berry III）的心血結晶。根據該公司網站的介紹，他們在今年早些時候共同創立了這家公司，目標是將超音波和機器學習模型等技術結合起來，"檢測做夢者何時進入快速眼動期，從而誘導和穩定清醒夢境"。
“It's an extraordinary thing to become aware in your own mind and in your own dreams; it's a surreal and spiritual-esque experience,” said Wollberg, who has had lucid dreams since he was 12, in a call with Motherboard. “Recreationally, it's the ultimate VR experience. You can fly, you can make a building rise out of the ground, you can talk to dream characters, and you can explore.”
沃爾伯格（Wollberg）在與 Motherboard 的通話中說：「在自己的腦海和夢境中意識到這是一件非同尋常的事情；這是一種超現實的精神體驗。」沃爾伯格從12歲起就做過清醒夢。“從娛樂角度來說，這是一種終極的 VR 體驗。你可以飛行，你可以讓一座建築拔地而起，你可以與夢想中的角色交談，你可以探索。”
“The list of benefits of lucid dreaming is long,” noted Berry in the same call. “There’s everything from helping with PTSD, reducing anxiety, and improving mood, confidence, motor skills, and creativity. The benefits are really outstanding.”
貝裡（Berry）在同一電話中指出：「清醒夢的好處清單很長。」。“從幫助治療創傷後應激障礙（PTSD）、減少焦慮、改善情緒、信心、運動技能和創造力，一切都有。這些好處真的很突出。”
Prophetic does not make any medical claims about its forthcoming products—Halo is tentatively slated for a 2025 release—though Wollberg and Berry both expressed optimism about broader scientific research that suggests lucid dreams can reduce PTSD-related nightmares, promote mindfulness, and open new windows into the mysterious nature of consciousness.
Prophetic（先知）並未對其即將推出的產品做出任何醫學聲明（Halo〔光環〕暫定於2025 年發布），儘管 Wollberg 和 Berry 都對更廣泛的科學研究表示樂觀，這些科學研究表明清醒夢可以減少與PTSD（創傷後壓力症候群）相關的惡夢、促進正念並打開新視窗進入意識的神秘本質。
To explore those links further, Prophetic has partnered with the Donders Institute, a research center at Radboud University in the Netherlands that is focused on neuroscience and cognition, to generate the largest dataset of electroencephalogram (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) observations of lucid dreamers, according to the company.
據該公司稱，為了進一步探索這些聯繫，Prophetic 與荷蘭拉德布大學專注於神經科學和認知的研究中心唐德斯研究所合作，產生了清醒做夢者腦電圖（EEG）和功能性磁振造影（fMRI）觀測的最大數據集。
The collaboration will also explore one of central technologies behind Prophetic’s vision, known as transcranial focused ultrasound (TUS). This non-invasive technique uses low-intensity ultrasound pulses to probe the brain, and interact with neural activity, with a depth and precision that cannot be achieved with previous methods, such as transcranial electrical stimulation or transcranial magnetic stimulation.
該合作還將探討 Prophetic 願景背後的核心技術之一，即經顱聚焦超音波（TUS）。這種非侵入性科技使用低強度超聲波脈衝來探測大腦，並與神經活動相互作用，其深度和精度是以前的方法所不能達到的，如經顱電刺激或經顱磁刺激。
“It is great to see and support the development of lucid dreaming devices for home use that implement potent technologies such as transcranial ultrasound,” said Nico Adelhöfer, a researcher at Donders’s Sleep & Memory Lab who is working with Prophetic, in an email to Motherboard. “While high-density studies in the lab are necessary to fully describe lucid dreaming, the ultimate goal of this research is broad applicability. This cannot be achieved when subjects have to come to the lab to experience them.”
Donders 睡眠與記憶實驗室的研究員 Nico Adelhöfer 在給 Motherboard 的一封電子郵件中說：「很高興看到並支持開發家用清醒夢設備，這些設備可以實現經顱超聲等強大的科技。」。「雖然實驗室中的高密度研究對於全面描述清醒夢是必要的，但這項研究的最終目標是廣泛的適用性。當受試者必須來到實驗室體驗清醒夢時，這是無法實現的。”
“Home devices to improve sleep experience including lucid dream induction have been around for quite a few years, but they were rather bulky and had rather low induction rates,” he added. “Safe focused neuromodulation is a recent technological development that has huge potential not only for lucid dream induction but to flexibly alter other parameters of sleep and cognition as well. It is exciting to see what will be possible and what the limits may be.”
他補充說：「包括清醒夢誘導在內的改善睡眠體驗的家用設備已經存在了好幾年，但它們相當笨重，誘導率也相當低。」。「安全專注的神經調控是一項最新的科技發展，不僅在清醒夢誘導方面具有巨大潛力，而且在靈活改變睡眠和認知的其他參數方面也具有巨大潛力。看到什麼是可能的以及限制是什麼，令人興奮。”
At this point, both the possibilities and limits of Prophetic’s concept remain unclear. While ultrasound devices have been widely used in medicine for decades, the process of stimulating parts of the brain with TUS is a relatively new development. Within the past few years, scientists have shown that TUS “has the potential to be used both as a scientific instrument to investigate brain function and as a therapeutic modality to modulate brain activity,” according to a 2019 study, and “could be a useful tool in the treatment of clinical disorders characterized by negative mood states, like depression and anxiety disorders,” according to a 2020 study.
目前，"Prophetic"概念的可能性和局限性仍不明確。雖然超音波設備已在醫學領域廣泛應用了數十年，但用TUS刺激大腦部分區域還是相對較新的發展。根據2019 年的一項研究，科學家在過去幾年中已經證明，TUS"既有可能用作研究大腦功能的科學儀器，也有可能用作調節大腦活動的治療方式"；根據2020年的一項研究，TUS"可能成為治療以負面情緒狀態為特徵的臨床疾病（如憂鬱症和焦慮症）的有用工具"。
What is not known, yet, is whether TUS can induce or stabilize lucid dreams, though the Prophetic team is banking on a positive answer to this open question. Its wearable headband prototype, the Halo, was developed with the company Card79 and can currently read EEG data of users. Over the next year, Prophetic aims to use the dataset from their partnership with the Donders Institute to train machine learning models that will stimulate targeted neural activity in users with ultrasound transducers as a means of inducing lucid dreams.
現時尚不清楚TUS是否能誘發或穩定清醒夢，儘管預言團隊希望能對這個懸而未決的問題給出積極的答案。其穿戴式頭帶原型 Halo 是由 Card79 公司開發的，現時可以讀取用戶的腦電圖數據。在接下來的一年裏，Prophetic 的目標是使用他們與唐德斯研究所合作的數據集來訓練機器學習模型，這些模型將刺激使用超聲波換能器的用戶的定向神經活動，作為誘發清醒夢的一種手段。
“Ideally, the user would not notice the device at all, but would see effects only in slight changes in dream experiences that appear natural and non-artificial,” explained Adelhöfer, who is himself a longtime lucid dreamer. “The direction of change in dreaming depends on the exact parameter settings. An insight moment might be triggered, leading to a questioning of the current (dream) reality by the dreamer, and consequently to a lucid dream, which, when combined with full perceptual immersion, is easily one of the most curious and exhilarating experiences for humans to have.”
Adelhöfer 解釋道：「理想情況下，用戶根本不會注意到這個設備，但只會在夢境體驗的微小變化中看到效果，這些變化看起來是自然的和非人工的。」。「做夢的變化方向取決於確切的參數設置。可能會觸發一個頓悟時刻，導致做夢者對當前（夢）現實的質疑，從而產生清醒夢，當與完全的感知沉浸相結合時，這很容易成為人類最好奇和最令人振奮的經歷之一。”
“Depending on the device specifics and steering range of its ultrasound transducers, it is further conceivable that the emotional tone of the dream might also be modulated, for example reducing negative emotions, which may be possible via targeting the amygdala located deep within the brain,” he continued. “Sleep studies for this specific target are still underway. Modulating specific content of dreams with technology might be possible in the future with ultrasound as well, but would need quite a few more hardware iterations to achieve the high resolution and reliability required for this task.”
他繼續說：「根據設備的具體情況和超聲波換能器的操縱範圍，可以進一步想像，夢的情緒基調也可能受到調節，例如減少負面情緒，這可能是通過瞄準大腦深處的杏仁核來實現的。」。「針對這一特定目標的睡眠研究仍在進行中。未來，用超聲波科技調製夢境的特定內容可能也是可能的，但需要更多的硬件反复運算才能實現這項任務所需的高分辨率和可靠性。”
Wollberg and Berry expressed confidence that their approach will work based in part on the successful induction of lucid dreams by other methods, including a 2014 study that found “stimulation in the lower gamma band during REM sleep influences ongoing brain activity and induces self-reflective awareness in dreams.”
沃爾伯格（Wollberg）和貝裡（Berry）表示相信，他們的方法將在一定程度上基於其他方法成功誘導清醒夢，包括2014年的一項研究，該研究發現「快速眼動睡眠期間較低伽馬帶的刺激會影響正在進行的大腦活動，並在夢中誘導自我反思意識。”
It remains to be seen whether future iterations of the Halo could use TUS to achieve a similar, and perhaps more powerful, outcome. It’s a concept that naturally evokes some of the most memorable pop culture stories about the manipulation of dreams, such as Inception, The Matrix, and "Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace," which is for my money the scariest Treehouse of Horror story in The Simpsons canon.
Halo 的未來重複運算是否可以使用TUS來實現類似的，也許更強大的結果，還有待觀察。這個概念很自然地喚起了一些關於操縱夢想的最令人難忘的流行文化故事，例如《盜夢空間》、《駭客帝國》和《常青臺上的噩夢》，就我而言，這是《辛普森家庭》經典中最恐怖的恐怖樹屋故事。
Obviously, most of these fictional works generate drama from the worst imagined outcomes of messing with dreams, and scientific verisimilitude tends to be a much lower priority for storytellers. That said, the Prophetic team is cognizant of safety and privacy concerns that people might have about these emerging techniques, which are addressed in their technology roadmap. Adelhöfer also noted that safety is a key issue for all kinds of research avenues into sleep and dream modulation.
顯然，大多數虛構作品都是透過對夢境最糟糕的想像來產生戲劇性的效果，而科學的真實性對於說故事的人來說往往不是那麼重要。儘管如此，Prophetic（先知）團隊還是意識到了人們對這些新興技術可能存在的安全和隱私方面的擔憂，並在他們的技術路線圖中解決了這些問題。阿德爾霍費爾（Adelhöfer）也指出，安全是睡眠和夢境調控領域各種研究途徑的關鍵問題。
“Current technological developments suggest that high-level dream content control is fully within the realm of possibility in the medium-term future,” Adelhöfer said. “Unclear are the limits set by mental well-being when one intervenes with and constrains the dream generation process. No doubt the experimental modulations by novel techniques such as TUS will help cartograph these limits and understand the meaning of dreams.”
Adelhöfer說：「現時的科技發展表明，在中期的未來，高級夢境內容控制完全有可能。」。“當一個人干預和限制夢想的產生過程時，心理健康設定的極限是不清楚的。毫無疑問，TUS等新技術的實驗調節將有助於繪製這些極限圖，並理解夢想的意義。”
Prophetic hopes that the Halo could contribute to this quest to understand dreams and consciousness, assuming it is launched in the coming years. As an active lucid dreamer, Wollberg feels that this technology could help people harness their own dreams in ways that could enrich their lives even after they wake up.
Prophetic（先知）希望Halo（光環）能為理解夢想和意識的探索做出貢獻，假設它在未來幾年推出。作為一名活躍的清醒夢想家，Wollberg（沃爾伯格）認為這項科技可以幫助人們利用自己的夢想，即使在他們醒來後也能豐富他們的生活。
“One of the key things that lucid dreaming has given me in my waking life is that the world is more enchanted,” Wollberg said. “When you have experienced something so extraordinary, it really imbues life with a certain level of enchantment and mystery and profundity.”
Wollberg（沃爾伯格）說：「清醒夢在我清醒的生活中給了我一個關鍵的東西，那就是這個世界更迷人。」。“當你經歷了如此非凡的事情時，它真的會給生活注入一定程度的魅力、神秘和深刻。”
留言