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Out-of-Body Experiences and Related Phenomena in Migraine Art

Klaus Podoll, D Robinson

Cephalalgia December 1, 1999 DOI: 10.1046/j.1468-2982.1999.1910886.x (opens in new tab)

Study at a glance

AI-extracted from the abstract
Characteristics Review Peer reviewed
Sample size 562
Population Migraine art pictures
Keywords Migraine Neuropsychology Aura Cognitive psychology Mind–body problem Cognition
Citations 40
Key findings Out-of-body experiences can occur as a migraine aura symptom, supporting the notion that they represent a preformed functional response of the brain.

Abstract

In a collection of 562 migraine art pictures, seven pieces illustrate various elements of out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and related phenomena, including the somesthetic sensations of a duplicate or parasomatic body and the visual experiences of perceiving the own body, i.e. autoscopy, and its environment from a vantage point out of the body. Phenomenological features of the OBEs depicted are compared with 17 similar case reports reviewed from the literature. It is concluded that OBEs can occur as migraine aura symptom, which supports the notion that OBEs represent a preformed functional response of the brain. This neuropsychological theory supplements existing psychological theories of OBEs, which consider the said phenomena as representing hallucinatory experiences based on imagination and memory.

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