Increased spontaneous EEG signal diversity during stroboscopically-induced altered states of consciousness
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) January 4, 2019 David J. Schwartzman, Michael Schartner, Benjamin B. Ador et al. 31 citations preprint
Stroboscopic stimulation—flashing light—can induce altered states of consciousness without drugs, increasing the intensity and range of subjective experiences, including simple and complex visual hallucinations. These experiences were accompanied by rises in EEG signal diversity, measured by Lempel-Ziv complexity, that exceeded levels seen during wakeful rest. The results align with previous findings from psychedelic studies and support the idea that neural signal diversity reflects the richness of subjective experience across different states of consciousness.