Download Group 13: Temporal Lobe Stimulation

Temporal Lobe Stimulation resulting in an ASC
Jeff Lynn
Ryan Brenes
Jeff Delshad
He remembered that during his epileptic fits, or rather
immediately preceding them, he had always experienced a
moment or two when his whole heart, and mind, and body
seemed to wake up with vigor and light; when he became filled
with joy and hope, and all his anxieties seemed to be swept
away for ever; these moments were but presentiments, as it
were, of the one final second…in which the fit came upon him.
That second, of course, was inexpressible.
Dostoyevsky’s The Idiot
Temporal lobe includes primary auditory
cortex
Medial temporal lobe includes areas like
hippocampus and amygdala
Persinger’s hypotheses
 Temporal lobe transient (TLT) releases memories
that were forgotten
 Memories are forgotten because temporal lobe
shifts its function over time
Brain Stimulation
 Transcrainial magnetic stimulation
– Motor cortex = different muscles contract
– Septum (near front of thalamus) = intense
pleasure
– Visual areas = color, motion, “seeing”
 If someone blind from birth and visual areas intact
 Temporal lobes stimulation
– Reports of experiencing God
The God Helmet
 Experimental device that simulates temporal
lobes creating “spiritual experience”
 80% of participants experience another
presence beside them
 Studies are controversial
Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
- Unlike focal seizures in motor cortex
- Muscle twitching
- Temporal lobe
- Connection to limbic system
- Emotional symptoms
- Spiritual experiences
- Divine presence, significance in everything, insight
“Temporal Lobe Personality”
 May alter patient’s personality (between
seizures)
– Heightened emotions
– Cosmic significance in the trivial
– Humorless
– Self absorbed, ego-centric, talk about own
feelings
– Hypergraphic – elaborate diaries w/ symbols
– Decreased libido, but still sexual rituals (flirting)
Possible Neural Mechanism for
Temporal Lobe Personality
 Kindling
– Frequent massive nerve impulses from
temporal lobe to limbic system
– May permanently strengthen / “facilitate” certain
pathways
– Permanently alters / enriches emotional life
– How to test this?
Galvanic Skin Response Test
 Two patients shown words & images of
– Ordinary inanimate objects
– Familiar faces (parents, etc)
– Unfamiliar faces
– Sexually explicit content (e.g. magazine pinups)
– Extreme violence and horror (e.g. alligator
eating person alive)
– Religious content (“God”, etc)
Galvanic Skin Response Test
 Hypothesis
– Kindling strengthens connections from temporal
lobe to limbic system
– Expect high response to all categories
– Unlike what would be expected in normal
 High response to violence, sex, familiar faces
 Low to no response to everything else
Results
 Heightened response to religious words and
images
 Response to other categories, including sex
and violence, decreased
– Compared to what is seen in normal people
 Thus, no general enhancement
– Selective amplification to religious content
– Decrease in everything else
Implications
 There exists neural circuits involved in
religious experience
– Become hyperactive in some left temporal
epileptics
 Did circuits evolve specifically for religion?
 ...Or do they generate emotions contributing
to such beliefs?
 Much more research needed...
Temporal lobe epilepsy as an ASC
 Can cause temporary and long-term
changes in personality
 Patients say they sometimes reach a state
of Nirvana
 Feelings after seizures are often compared
to use of LSD
Controversy
 Belief in a God gene (Hamer)
 Genes to help cultivate unity within a
population
 Culture plays the more dominant role
 Some think these personality traits are not
more frequent in epileptic patients
 Beliefs about God’s existence
References
 Persinger, Michael A. Ph.d. "Neuropsychological Bases of God Beliefs"
Praeger, 1987
 Persinger, Michael “Perceptual and Motor Skills”, 1983, 57, 12551262.
 Ramachandran, V.S., Blakeslee, Sandra “Phantoms in the Brain”,
1998, 174-188.
 Ramachandran, V.S., “God and the Temporal Lobes”
 Epilepsy.com: Temporal Lobe Epilepsy
 http://www.shaktitechnology.com/
 Time: “Is God in Our Genes?”, Jeffery Kluger, Oct. 2004
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_gene