Out-of-Body Experience During Awake Craniotomy.
World neurosurgery August 1, 2016 Eelke M Bos, Jochem K H Spoor, Marion Smits et al.
An out-of-body experience (OBE)—feeling as if one is spatially separated from one's physical body—was repeatedly triggered in a patient undergoing awake brain surgery for a low-grade glioma. Electrical stimulation of subcortical white matter near the left temporoparietal junction (TPJ) during the craniotomy caused the patient to feel as if she were floating above the operating table looking down at herself. Diffusion tensor imaging tractography suggested that the posterior thalamic radiation may be involved in such autoscopic phenomena. These findings support the TPJ's role in generating OBEs and point to specific white-matter pathways as possible neural substrates.