Stimulating illusory own-body perceptions.
'Out-of-body' experiences (OBEs) are curious, usually brief sensations in which a person's consciousness seems to become detached from the body and take up a remote viewing position. Here we describe the repeated induction of this experience by focal electrical stimulation of the brain's right angular gyrus in a patient who was undergoing evaluation for epilepsy treatment. Stimulation at this site also elicited illusory transformations of the patient's arm and legs (complex somatosensory responses) and whole-body displacements (vestibular responses), indicating that out-of-body experiences may reflect a failure by the brain to integrate complex somatosensory and vestibular information.
Blanke
Olaf
O
Laboratory of Presurgical Epilepsy Evaluation, Program of Functional Neurology and Neurosurgery, University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva 1211, Switzerland. olaf.blanke@hcuge.ch
Ortigue
Stéphanie
S
Landis
Theodor
T
Seeck
Margitta
M
D000328:Adult; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003702:Delusions / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004827:Epilepsy / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012640:Seizures / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology