Epilepsy & behavior : E&B
February 1, 2010
Christophe Lopez, Lukas Heydrich, Margitta Seeck et al.
We describe the case of a 33-year-old man with complex partial seizures characterized by the feeling of being projected outside his body, including dissociation of "mind and self from body" (disembodiment), followed by vestibular vertigo due to right frontal lobe epilepsy caused by an oligodendroglioma. We distinguish the patient's ictal symptoms with respect to autoscopic phenomena...
Cortex
October 31, 2008
Sally Easton, Olaf Blanke, Christine Mohr
56 citations
Self-processing has been related to the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and the temporo-parietal junction (TPJ) as well as to their connectivity. So far, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), impressive transient deviations of intact bodily self-integration, could be associated with the TPJ, but the mediation by the frontal lobe, and thus fronto-parietal connectivity, is yet unknown. Thus, we assessed...
Neurophysiologie clinique = Clinical neurophysiology
June 1, 2008
C Lopez, P Halje, O Blanke
Body ownership and embodiment are two fundamental mechanisms of self-consciousness. The present article reviews neurological data about paroxysmal illusions during which body ownership and embodiment are affected differentially: autoscopic phenomena (out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, autoscopic hallucination, feeling-of-a-presence) and the room tilt illusion. We suggest that autoscopic...
Science (New York, N.Y.)
August 24, 2007
Bigna Lenggenhager, Tej Tadi, Thomas Metzinger et al.
Humans normally experience the conscious self as localized within their bodily borders. This spatial unity may break down in certain neurological conditions such as out-of-body experiences, leading to a striking disturbance of bodily self-consciousness. On the basis of these clinical data, we designed an experiment that uses conflicting visual-somatosensory input in virtual reality to disrupt...
2007
Olaf Blanke, Gregor Thut
In an out-of-body experience (OBE), people seem to be awake and feel that their ‘self’,or centre of experience, is located outside of the physical body. It is from an elevatedextracorporal location that the subjects who undergo an OBE experience seeing theirbody and the world. The following example from Irwin
Reviews in the Neurosciences
2006
B Lenggenhager, S T Smith, O Blanke
Embodiment, the sense of being localized within one's physical body, is a fundamental aspect of the self. Recent research shows that self and body processing as well as embodiment require distinct brain mechanisms. Here, we review recent clinical and neuroimaging research on multisensory perception and integration as well as mental imagery, pointing out their importance for the coding of...
October 1, 2005
Shahar Arzy, Théodor Landis, Olaf Blanke
Under normal conditions, human subjects experience the self within the limits of the physical body and the limits of the present time. This unified experience of the self in space and time has been challenged by philosophers and physicists. The spatial unity between self and body has also been challenged by a well defined group of experiences called “autoscopic phenomena” (AP), during which...
Brain Research Reviews
July 13, 2005
Olaf Blanke, Christine Mohr
352 citations
Autoscopic phenomena (AP) are rare illusory visual experiences during which the subject has the impression of seeing a second own body in extrapersonal space. AP consist of out-of-body experience (OBE), autoscopic hallucination (AH), and heautoscopy (HAS). The present article reviews and statistically analyzes phenomenological, functional, and anatomical variables in AP of neurological origin...
Current Psychiatry Reports
June 1, 2005
Christine Mohr, Olaf Blanke
Autoscopic phenomena (AP) are rare, illusory visual experiences during which the subject has the impression of seeing a second own body in extrapersonal space. AP consist of out-of-body experience, autoscopic hallucination, and heautoscopy. Recent neurologic reports support the role of multisensory integration deficits of body-related information and vestibular dysfunctions in AP at the...
May 4, 2005
Olaf Blanke
Autoscopic phenomena are reduplicative experiences during which the subject has the impression of seeing a double in extracorporeal space either from an embodied or disembodied visuo-spatial perspective. Autoscopic phenomena include out-of-body experience (OBE), autoscopic hallucination (AH) and heautoscopy (HAS). In an out-of-body experience, subjects feel that their "self", or centre of...
Journal of Neuroscience
January 19, 2005
Olaf Blanke, Christine Mohr, Christoph M. Michel et al.
573 citations
The spatial unity of self and body is challenged by various philosophical considerations and several phenomena, perhaps most notoriously the "out-of-body experience" (OBE) during which one's visual perspective and one's self are experienced to have departed from their habitual position within one's body. Although researchers started examining isolated aspects of the self, the neurocognitive...
The Neuroscientist
January 4, 2005
Olaf Blanke, Shahar Arzy
468 citations
Folk psychology postulates a spatial unity of self and body, a "real me" that resides in one's body and is the subject of experience. The spatial unity of self and body has been challenged by various philosophical considerations but also by several phenomena, perhaps most notoriously the "out-of-body experience" (OBE) during which one's visuo-spatial perspective and one's self are experienced...
Medical Hypotheses
2005
Shahar Arzy, Moshé Idel, Théodor Landis et al.
The fundamental revelations to the founders of the three monotheistic religions, among many other revelation experiences, had occurred on a mountain. These three revelation experiences share many phenomenological components like feeling and hearing a presence, seeing a figure, seeing lights, and feeling of fear. In addition, similar experiences have been reported by non-mystic contemporary...
Progress in Brain Research
2005
Silvia Bünning, Olaf Blanke
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are defined as experiences in which a person seems to be awake and sees his body and the world from a location outside his physical body. More precisely, they can be defined by the presence of the following three phenomenological characteristics: (i) disembodiment (location of the self outside one's body); (ii) the impression of seeing the world from an elevated...
Brain
January 15, 2004
Olaf Blanke, Théodor Landis, Laurent Spinelli et al.
746 citations
During an out-of-body experience (OBE), the experient seems to be awake and to see his body and the world from a location outside the physical body. A closely related experience is autoscopy (AS), which is characterized by the experience of seeing one's body in extrapersonal space. Yet, despite great public interest and many case studies, systematic neurological studies of OBE and AS are...