Enhancement of perceptual and cognitive functions in near-death experience: A perspective from embodiment theories.
Explore (New York, N.Y.) January 1, 2024 Omid Khatin-Zadeh, Zahra Eskandari, Danyal Farsani et al. 2 citations
People who have had a near-death experience (NDE) produce more iconic and metaphoric hand gestures when describing those events than when describing ordinary events. The gestures are interpreted as physical realizations of mentally simulated actions, indicating that NDE memories are more strongly embodied—that is, more tightly linked to sensorimotor systems—than memories of everyday experiences. The authors suggest that NDEs are perceived, recalled, and embodied through strong activation of sensorimotor systems during a state of perceptual and cognitive enhancement, even though those systems appear unresponsive to external sensory stimuli during the event itself. They conclude that the enhancement of cognitive functions during NDE results from enhanced perceptual functions.