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We discussed in class today that the I function is active during dreams, and that personality is encompassed in the I-function but also in other parts of the nervous system.

 When I dream, what I would normally consider bizarre things, occur. At one instance, I will be in one place, and then magically and all of a sudden the next instance I will be in a completely different scenario with different people. Furthermore, the people in my dreams are sometimes really random in that I don't really know this person well or practically at all, or havent seen this person in a very long time. And also, I would never be in that situation with those people, e.g. my dad sitting in class with me. These are illogical, senseless, things that occur in my dreams, and if they ever occured in my reality I would instantly question them. But in my dreams they seem completely normal to me. It has to be until after I wake up to realize how ridiculous my dreams seem. Does that mean that logic is in a different part of the nervous system that is not being activated.

But wait, in my dreams, I'm still acting somewhat logically e.g. I had a dream when I was younger that someone was chasing me and I started to run but saw my bike available and stopped thought to myself that the bike is faster and hopped on my bike. So there is logical behavior in my dreams. How come we very rarely question the abnormalities (relative to the waking reality) of our dreams, while we are dreaming?

Also, we have to have knowledge of the concepts of the things we dream about. I can't dream about a bike, or being in a house, etc. unless I know what these are and have seen them. So I'm wondering, people who have been blind from birth, what are their dreams like? They must be different because they do not have concrete concepts of what things look like? Or am i wrong? Does this mean their I function is different, works in a different way?  

Another characteristic about dreams is that sometimes if their are sounds in the surrounding environment of where I am sleeping, like a train whistle, they get incorporated into my dreams as something else. This is an illustration of how our nervous system and I-function are intertangled, and also that how our I-function is making up a story from reality. Expanding on this interaction between I-function and nervous system, today in class we discussed how our personality is located not only in the I function, but in the rest of the nervous system.

 I think that we each have patterns of motor symphonies, and innate central pattern generators located in our nervous system apart from our I function. I say this because distinct personality traits are seen as early as birth. Some babies cry much more than others. Or even in kindergarten, some kids talk more, or laugh more, get scared more easily etc.  I think these patterns stay stable over the course of a lifetime and that explains why our personalities our so consistent. It is our I function that is constantly evolving. Our I-function is in control of what aspects of our personality are active,  capable of monitoring how we are acting, capable of being in control of changing the way we act temporarily.

However, given these central pattern generators in the nervous system, and theyre stability, is it possible to change who we are? For example relating personality to walking, I feel like I have a baseline speed of walking, and I walk at this laid back speed when I am not consciously thinking about walking. However, i could temporarily increase or decrease this speed if I chose to, but at the end of the day, when im not thinking about walking Im back at baseline. Is there a way to change this baseline?