The vestibular component in out-of-body experiences: a computational approach
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience January 1, 2008 Lars Schwabe 41 citations
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) may arise from disrupted vestibular processing in the brain. Using Bayesian modeling, the authors show that OBEs and associated illusory changes in self-location and movement can be explained as a misled inference: ambiguous signals from the vestibular otoliths in a supine position are integrated with a prior expectation for an upright body position, measured during natural head movements. This suggests that the brain's normal mechanisms for locating the self in space can be tricked by conflicting sensory and prior information. The findings point to ways to induce and study self-location and bodily self-consciousness experimentally in healthy individuals.