Voluntary Out-of-Body Experience: An fMRI Study

Abstract

The present single-case study examined functional brain imaging patterns in a participant that reported being able, at will, to produce somatosensory sensations that are experienced as her body moving outside the boundaries of her physical body all the while remaining aware of her unmoving physical body. We found that the brain functional changes associated with the reported extra-corporeal experience (ECE) were different than those observed in motor imagery. Activations were mainly left-sided and involved the left supplementary motor area and supramarginal and posterior superior temporal gyri, the last two overlapping with the temporal parietal junction that has been associated with out-of-body experiences. The cerebellum also showed activation that is consistent with the participant's report of the impression of movement during the ECE. There was also left middle and superior orbital frontal gyri activity, regions often associated with action monitoring. The results suggest that the ECE reported here represents an unusual type of kinesthetic imagery.

Keywords: body representation; cerebellum; kinesthetic imagery; motor imagery; out-of-body experiences; somatosensory systems; temporal parietal junction.

Figure 1

Rendered image of significantly activated regions of the brain while the participant was having extra-corporeal experiences. Most significantly activated regions are lateralized to the left side and include the supplementary motor area (F), the cerebellum (B,D,E), the supramarginal gyrus (D,F), the inferior temporal gyrus (B,D,F), the middle and superior orbitofrontal gyri (A,C,D,E). The p-value was set at 0.001 uncorrected for this image with the cluster threshold at 200 significant voxels.

Figure 2

Areas of reduced activity during the ECEs compared to rest. The visual cortex is particularly impacted. (A) Representation of the right side; (B) activity on the left. The p-value for this image was set at 0.05 FWE corrected.

Figure 3

Results from visualizing herself doing the same action she performed in the first ECE vs. visualizing another person performing the same movement. (A) Bilateral lingual gyrus differences in activity and (B) the left cerebellar differences. The p-value for this image was set at 0.001 uncorrected.

Figure 4

Results from visualizing herself performing jumping jacks compared to rest. (A) Right hemisphere; (B) dorsal view of the SMA activity; and (C) left hemisphere activation. The p-value for this image was set to 0.001 uncorrected with the cluster threshold at 100 significant voxels.

Figure 5

There was significantly more activation during the visualization of finger movement compared to the actual movement. Each letter represents a different view of the brain (A) anterior view, (B) posterior view, (C) right lateral view, (D) left lateral view, (E) ventral view, and (F) dorsal view. The p-value for this image was set to 0.001 uncorrected with the cluster threshold at 100 significant voxels.

Figure 6

Motor areas significantly activated more during movement of her fingers to thumb compared with visualizing the same movement. (A) Representation of the left primary motor cortex; (B) representation of the right cerebellum. The p-value for this image was set to 0.001 uncorrected with the cluster threshold at 100 significant voxels.