The Sleeping Gypsy (1897) by Henri Rousseau. Courtesy MoMA/Wikipedia
The Sleeping Gypsy (1897) by Henri Rousseau. Courtesy MoMA/Wikipedia
In recent decades, a flurry of research has helped to shed light on the cognitive experience of nonhuman animals. The results have often closed perceived gaps between human and nonhuman intelligence, while hinting at rich inner worlds and an array sensory abilities that can be peculiar – and perhaps often impossible – for us to fathom. But what, if anything, can be gleaned about how nonhuman animals might dream? In this video from the interview series Closer to Truth, the US author and psychologist Deirdre Barrett contextualises what we know about the rapid eye movements and brain structures of other mammals with high cognitive capacities – including cetaceans like whales and dolphins, and other primates – to detail the fascinating ways in which their dreamworlds might differ from our own.
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