title: Out-of-Body Experience During Awake Craniotomy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The out-of-body experience (OBE), during which a person feels as if he or she is spatially removed from the physical body, is a mystical phenomenon because of its association with near-death experiences. Literature implicates the cortex at the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) as the possible anatomic substrate for OBE.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present a patient who had an out-of-body experience during an awake craniotomy for resection of low-grade glioma. During surgery, stimulation of subcortical white matter in the left TPJ repetitively induced OBEs, in which the patient felt as if she was floating above the operating table looking down on herself.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We repetitively induced OBE by subcortical stimulation near the left TPJ during awake craniotomy. Diffusion tensor imaging tractography implicated the posterior thalamic radiation as a possible substrate for autoscopic phenomena.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Electronic address: e.bos@erasmusmc.nl.
authors.forename: Eelke M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Bos
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jochem K H
authors.initials: JKH
authors.lastname: Spoor
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Marion
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Smits
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Joost W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Schouten
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Arnaud J P E
authors.initials: AJPE
authors.lastname: Vincent
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D003399:Craniotomy / Q000009:adverse effects*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D005910:Glioma / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000601:surgery; D006212:Hallucinations / Q000209:etiology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013704:Temporomandibular Joint / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D013788:Thalamus / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014851:Wakefulness
keywords: Autoscopy; Awake craniotomy; Diffusion tensor imaging; Low-grade glioma; Out-of-body experience; Posterior thalamic radiation; Temporoparietal junction