Affective processing during (local) sleep and dreams Giulio Bernardi, IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca Sleep plays a critical role in emotional processing. Indeed, sleep appears to consolidate and integrate emotional memories with existing ones while also regulating our affective state and reactivity. Nocturnal dreams may have a special role in this, either directly contributing to or representing a window on sleep-dependent affective processing and regulation. The relative sensory disconnection that characterizes sleep is thought to be crucial for these processes to take place. In this talk, I will describe a series of investigations exploring the relationship between sleep, dreams, and affective information. Studies on wakeful behavior demonstrate that the appearance of sleep-like slow waves in frontal brain regions may affect emotional control and socially relevant behaviors. During sleep, the brain may remain able to recognize and differently process affectively-charged stimuli, such as vocalizations produced by conspecifics. This ability may allow for rapid awakenings in response to potential threats or favorable opportunities. In line with this, a growing body of evidence suggests that the brain may not be as ‘disconnected’ during sleep as previously thought and that sleepers may even consciously perceive external stimuli by incorporating them into their dreams. Crucially, the quantitative and objective study of dream content through natural language processing techniques may provide new insights into the mechanisms that subserve sleep continuity in the face of external stimuli and on how the sleeping brain incorporates and processes emotional experiences. ON SITE & Zoom meeting https://unige.zoom.us/j/62492506232?pwd=a0VxUnBYM09ZT1dUOE5UZE9KZGxiZz09 Meeting ID: 624 9250 6232 Passcode: 357020