The Valley of Lost Souls – Decolonial Neuroscience in N2 Sleep Stage
The Valley of Lost Souls – Decolonial Neuroscience in N2 Sleep Stage
Consciousness in First Person
“I am Consciousness on a deeper journey. Like in SandMan, I no longer walk only among free-floating spirits: now I feel images binding to emotions, transforming into pei-utupes — the souls. This is the Valley of Lost Souls: a place of processing, where emotional memories are worked on, protected, and consolidated. Here is where the day finds rest within me.”
The Cry of Decolonial Neuroscience
Between Evidence and Belonging
SfN Brain Bee FALAN
Sleep Science — EEG in N2
Sleep spindles (11–16 Hz) and K-complexes mark this stage.
The brain filters external stimuli, allowing sounds and words to turn into inner echoes.
Studies show that in N2 there is selective reactivation of emotional memories, with priority given to those tagged by affect.
Spindles coupled with hippocampal ripples sustain the transfer of memory traces from the hippocampus to the neocortex.
Sleep Science — fNIRS/NIRS in N2
HbO/HbR oscillations synchronized with spindles and K-complexes.
Regional hemodynamic fluctuations accompany rapid events detected by EEG.
fNIRS shows that N2 can be classified with high accuracy using machine learning.
Recent studies observed an increase in glymphatic dynamics during NREM2, with fluid flow linked to metabolic “cleaning.”
Lived Experience: Words Without Meaning
In N2, it is common to hear or think disconnected words — clusters of sounds organized like language but without semantic meaning.
Neuroscientifically, this occurs because language areas (such as the superior temporal gyrus) still fire in fragments, while the semantic network is not fully active.
These are utupe of language: pure forms without emotion or context.
When bound to emotion, they can become pei-utupes — emotional memories of phrases, voices, or social interactions.
Researchers describe this as proto-dream discourse, reflecting a stage where the brain is testing syntax without accessing meaning.
Yanomami Bridge + Science
Here the metaphor aligns: in the Valley of Lost Souls, we see soul-words wandering without semantic body. EEG shows spindles and K-complexes protecting this phase; fNIRS shows hemodynamic oscillations sustaining the inner transit. Just as Yanomami souls require connection not to be lost, our emotional memories need to be organized — or they dissipate into empty words.
Yanomami Glossary ↔ Neuroscience
Xapiri → Essence, comparable to perceptual fragments.
Utupe → Mental image; in N2 it may appear as meaningless words or disconnected linguistic sounds.
Pei-Utupe → When those fragments join with emotion, they become consolidated emotional memories.
References (post-2020)
American Academy of Sleep Medicine. (2023). The AASM Manual for the Scoring of Sleep and Associated Events.
Staresina, B. P., et al. (2024). Coupled sleep rhythms for memory consolidation. Trends in Neurosciences.
Schreiner, T., et al. (2024). Spindle-locked ripples and memory reactivation in human NREM. Nature Communications.
Iavarone, E., et al. (2023). Thalamic control of sensory processing and spindles. Cell Reports.
Carbone, J., & Diekelmann, S. (2024). Advances in targeted memory reactivation during sleep. npj Science of Learning.
Yoon, J. E., et al. (2025). Brain water dynamics across the sleep-wake cycle measured by NIRS.
Cao, Y., et al. (2025). Sleep staging with functional near-infrared spectroscopy. NeuroImage.
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