Download brain activity during remote information access

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BRAIN ACTIVITY DURING REMOTE INFORMATION ACCESS.
Jérôme Daltrozzo,1 Boris Kotchoubey,2 Ahmed Karim2
1
CNRS UMR 5020, Claude Bernard University Lyon, France
2
Institut of Medical Psychology and Behavioral Neurobiology, Tübingen University,
Germany
Grant nº 54/08
Objective: The question of the independence of consciousness from brain activity can be
explored during the Out of Body Experience (OBE). Several tests of veridical perception
during OBE have already been performed since the late 1960's. However, they raise some
methodological concerns. The project proposes to follow a protocol designed to overcome
previous drawbacks.
Methods: The experiment includes participants, who report experiencing OBE after repetitive
transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) of the right temporoparietal junction (TPJ). During
OBE, participants frequently report seeing their body from above. Thus, hidden targets (2 to
5-digits random numbers) are displayed on a labtop screen out of sight of these participants
near the ceiling of the experimental room. The participants are asked to recall the displayed
number during their OBE. The test ends by the registration of the target number recalled by
the participant. The electroencephalography (EEG) is monitored before, during and after the
test. In case of a successful recall, the EEG spectrum is assessed at the time of the target
presentation.
Preliminary Results: Preliminary results on the first subjects revealed till now no report of
OBE. However, high-frequency rTMS of the right TPJ induced in some subjects remarkable
illusionary elongating sensations or distortion of subjective body parts perception. The
ongoing experiments using neuronavigated high- and low-frequency rTMS to modulate the
excitability of the TPJ is expected to further test the possibility of inducing OBE at the rTPJ
with a high spatial precision and to reveal the function of the TPJ in body sensations.