Visualizing Out-of-Body Experience in the Brain
New England Journal of Medicine October 31, 2007 Dirk de Ridder, Koen van Laere, Patrick Dupont et al. 225 citations
An out-of-body experience was repeatedly triggered by stimulating the posterior part of the right superior temporal gyrus in a patient with implanted electrodes for tinnitus. Brain scans showed activation at the right temporoparietal junction, specifically at the angular-supramarginal gyrus junction and the superior temporal gyrus-sulcus, as well as the right precuneus and posterior thalamus extending into the superior vermis. The authors suggest that activation in these regions is the neural basis for the feeling of disembodiment during an out-of-body experience.