When lab rats sleep, their brains revisit the maze they navigated during the day, according to a new study (1)_____ yesterday, offering some of the strongest evidence (2)_____ that animals do indeed dream. Experiments with sleeping rats found that cells in the animals' brains fire in a distinctive pattern (3)_____ the pattern that occurs when they are (4)_____ and trying to learn their way around a maze. Based on the results, the researchers concluded the rats were dreaming about the maze, (5)_____ reviewing what they had learned while awake to (6)_____ the memories. Researchers have long known that animals go (7)_____ the same types of sleep phases that people do, including rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep, which is when people dream. But (8)_____ the occasional twitching, growling or barking that any dog owner has (9)_____ in his or her sleeping pet, there's been (10)_____ direct evidence that animals (11)_____. If animals dream, it suggests they might have more (12)_____ mental functions than had been (13)_____. 'We have as humans felt that this (14)_____ of memory—our ability to recall sequences of experiences—was something that was (15)_____ human', Wilson said. 'The fact that we see this in rodents (16)_____ suggest they can evaluate their experience in a significant way. Animals may be (17)_____ about more than we had previously considered'. The findings also provide new support for a leading theory for (18)_____ humans sleep—to solidify new learning. 'People are now really nailing down the fact that the brain during sleep is (19)_____ its activity at least for the time immediately before sleep and almost undoubtedly using that review to (20)_____ or integrate those memories into more usable forms', said an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.