Brain stimulation produces creepy shadow feeling

[Et in Arcadia ego]

<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060921/od_nm/science_illusion_dc">news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060921/od_nm/science_illusion_dc</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--><br><br>LONDON (Reuters) - Stimulating a certain area of the brain can produce a creepy feeling that someone is watching you when no one is, scientists said Wednesday.<br><br>Swiss researchers made the discovery while evaluating a young woman for surgery to treat epilepsy. They believe their finding could help explain feelings such as paranoia which afflict patients suffering from schizophrenia.<br><br>When they electrically stimulated the left temporoparietal junction in her brain, which is linked to self-other distinction and self-processing, she thought someone was standing behind her.<br><br>If they repeated the stimulus while she leaned forward and grabbed her knees she had an unpleasant sensation that the shadowy figure was embracing her.<br><br>"Our findings may be a step toward understanding the mechanisms behind psychiatric manifestations such as paranoia, persecution and alien control," said Olaf Blanke, of the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, in the journal Nature.<br><br>The feeling that someone is lurking nearby has been described by patients suffering from psychological and neurological problems. The researchers believe the woman was experiencing a perception of her own body.<br><br>"Although our patient was aware of the similarity between her own postural and positional features and those of the illusory person, she did not recognize that that person was an illusion of her own body, like many deluded schizophrenia patients," Blanke added. <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=etinarcadiaego@rigorousintuition>et in Arcadia ego</A>  <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.sickle666.com/images/Arcadia.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 9/23/06 9:14 am<br></i>

[Et in Arcadia ego]

FWIW, I've had 'shadow' feelings before, and was told I had a rare and mild form of epilepsy, but the two major experiences I had in my life were both ones that pulled me from my sleep and occured within a month of each other.<br><br>Haven't experienced anything like it in years. One other odd thing about it was that was one of the only periods in time for years before or after when I lived exclusively alone.<br><br>Solitary individuals produce richer Garmonbozia, maybe? <p>____________________<br>Some are born to sweet delight, some are born to endless night.</p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=etinarcadiaego@rigorousintuition>et in Arcadia ego</A>  <IMG HEIGHT=10 WIDTH=10 SRC="http://www.sickle666.com/images/Arcadia.jpg" BORDER=0> at: 9/23/06 9:19 am<br></i>

[RaftingBear]

It seems to me the point of interest is not whether an illness can produce a feeling of being observed, but that there's a place in the brain that produces that feeling at all.

Obviously, that spot is there for a reason...a reason not hard to guess when one examines our origins.

So, then, the question becomes: Why is this facility dormant in so many people? Given the faculty exists at all, it would seem to be of nothing but benefit to keep it active.

[Wombaticus Rex]

Reminds me of Persinger's work:

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/7.11 ... er_pr.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/20 ... rain.shtml

http://atheism.about.com/b/a/206203.htm

[Enki-][]

This reminds me of hypnagogia -- and of course hypnagogic states can be generated by scalp stimulation or by binaural entrainment since they occur as part of the transition between alpha and theta wave states.

I do not know if the mechanism described is qualitatively similar.