Psychopathology
January 1, 2023
Joanna Szczotka, Michał Wierzchoń
4 citations
Heautoscopy is a rare experience where a person sees a double of their own body while feeling uncertain about where their self is located and sensing that the illusory body belongs to them. It occurs in diverse conditions like schizophrenia, brain tumors, migraine, epilepsy, and depression. A review of over 140 case studies found only 9 that met strict criteria for heautoscopy, distinguishing it from similar phenomena such as autoscopy and out-of-body experiences, which are often mislabeled. From the patient's perspective, heautoscopy feels like a bodily illusion rather than a false belief. The sense of being in two places at once arises from shifting self-location and expanded body ownership, not from having two viewpoints. The phenomenon offers insight into how the brain constructs bodily boundaries and spatial perspective.
Psychophysiology
July 1, 2025
Kinga Ciupińska, Marcin Koculak, Michał Bola et al.
2 citations
Comparing brain signals for visual and auditory conscious awareness in the same people shows that early awareness negativity (VAN and AAN) relates to awareness in both senses, but late positivity (LP) relates to awareness only for vision. Visual components also reach consciousness faster than auditory ones. No correlations between modalities in perceptual thresholds or ERP latencies and amplitudes suggest visual and auditory awareness mechanisms are largely separate and modality-specific, not tracking consciousness independently of content.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
April 2, 2026
Maja Wójcik, Paweł Orłowski, Stanisław Adamczyk et al.
Long-term naturalistic psychedelic users who had abstained for at least 30 days showed largely no significant differences in brain oscillatory power, signal complexity, or network connectivity compared to non-users, contrary to patterns seen in acute administration studies. Complexity was unexpectedly lower in users during eyes-open conditions. Effective connectivity within and between key brain networks (Default Mode, Salience, Central Executive) showed no group differences after correction. These null findings suggest that repeated psychedelic use may not produce lasting neurophysiological changes detectable in resting-state EEG during abstinence, possibly due to homeostatic adaptation or individual variability.