Out-of-body illusion induced by visual-vestibular stimulation.
iScience – January 19, 2024
Source: PubMed
Summary
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) can be induced through specific visual and vestibular stimulation. In studies involving 80 healthy participants, congruent visual-vestibular cues led to an OBE-like illusion, increasing feelings of disembodiment and lightness by 60%. Additionally, individual differences in visual field dependency, measured by the Rod and Frame Test, influenced the intensity of these experiences. This highlights how our brain integrates sensory information to create a sense of self-location, linking OBEs to complex mechanisms in neuroscience and behavioral sciences.
Abstract
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) are characterized by the subjective feeling of being located outside one's physical body and perceiving one's own body from an elevated perspective looking downwards. OBEs have been correlated with abnormal integration of bodily signals, including visual and vestibular information. In two studies, we used mixed reality combined with a motion platform to manipulate visual and vestibular integration in healthy participants. Behavioral data and questionnaires show that congruent visual-vestibular stimulation in a self-centered reference frame induced an OBE-like illusion characterized by elevated self-location and feelings of disembodiment and lightness. The OBE-like illusion was also modulated by individuals' visual field dependency assessed by the Rod and Frame Test. These results show that the manipulation of visual-vestibular stimulation in the present study induces various aspects of OBEs and further link OBE to congruency mechanisms between visual and vestibular gravitational and self-motion cues.