Science & Technology

Scientists trace out-of-body experiences

By T.K. Randall
May 5, 2015 ·  16 comments

Some people have reported the feeling of leaving their own body. Image Credit: CC BY-SA 3.0 Rad el Baluvar An out-of-body experience (OBE) is defined as the sensation of floating outside of one's body and has been known to occur in cases of brain trauma, sensory deprivation, medical conditions and on rare occasions, near-death experiences.

To help them better understand what happens during the sensation of existing outside of one's physical self, scientists have been using an MRI scanner to observe which regions of the brain are active at the time someone is having an out-of-body experience.

Volunteers participating in the study were placed inside the scanner while wearing a special head-mounted display that was set up to relay the feed from a camera positioned to show the body of another person who was lying in a different part of the room.To induce an experience, a rod was used to touch both the volunteer and the other person at the same time in the same place, producing the illusion that the participant's body was somewhere else.

"It's a very fascinating experience," said neuroscientist Dr. Arvid Guterstam. "It takes a couple of touches, and suddenly you actually feel like you're located in another part of the room. "

The results of the experiment indicated that the brain's hippocampus is responsible for determining where the body is while another area of the brain known as the posterior cingulate cortex is integral to binding a sense of self to the sensation of owning a body.

It is hoped that, in addition to shedding light on out-of-body experiences, the research could help to better understand what happens in the brain of patients suffering from epilepsy.

Source: Live Science | Comments (16)

Tags: OBE, Out of Body Experience