Does the arousal system contribute to near death experience?

Nelson, Kevin R.; Mattingly, Michelle; Lee, Sherman A.; Schmitt, Frederick A.

doi:10.1212/01.wnl.0000204296.15607.37

Cited by 98 publications

(132 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…The resulting state (partial awareness combined with abnormal somatosensory and motor signals) has been proposed as a main pathomechanism for awareness during general anesthesia (Blacher, 1975;Moermann et al, 1993;Sandin et al, 2000;Spitellie et al, 2002) and might also account for OBEs in these circumstances (Bü nning and Blanke, 2005). Thus, disturbed somatosensory and sensorimotor signals from large parts of the body in (1) tetraplegia with severe somatosensory loss (as in our patient), (2) during general anesthesia (Moermann et al, 1993), and (3) during sleep paralysis (Nelson et al, 2006;Girard et al, 2007;Cheyne and Girard, 2009, this issue) seem to disturb integration of multisensory body-related information in personal space due to interference with brainstem, spinal cord and peripheral nervous system signalling information from the somatosensory and motor systems. As REM intrusions or sleep paralysis have been linked to damage or interference with brainstem mechanisms, the present observation suggests the implication of mechanisms in the cervical spinal cord.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Accordingly, it has been hypothesised that generalized paralysis during REM-sleep dreams might be a precipitating factor of such OBEs (Bü nning and Blanke, 2005). The data of Girard et al (2007) also show that OBEs and autoscopic hallucinations are related to sleep paralysis and recent studies found that subjects with near death experiences that include OBEs more commonly have sleep paralysis (Nelson et al, 2006(Nelson et al, , 2007; see also Blanke and Dieguez, in press). More studies are needed to investigate the association between OBEs, dreaming, REM phase, and sleep paralysis in greater detail.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

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Deficient mental own-body imagery in a neurological patient with out-of-body experiences due to cannabis use

Overney

Arzy

Blanke

2009

Cortex

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Mental imagery Body Drug use a b s t r a c tIn the present work, we report repeated out-of-body experiences (OBEs) in a patient with tetraplegia and severe somatosensory loss due to multiple sclerosis and predominant involvement of the cervical spinal cord. OBEs were experienced on a daily basis and induced by cannabis treatment that was started for severe spasticity with painful cramps and cloni.In order to investigate the link between OBEs and mental own-body imagery, the patient was asked to imagine himself in the position and visual perspective that is generally reported during OBEs, using front-and back-facing schematic human stimuli. Performance was measured before and after cannabis consumption. First, our data reveal that the patient was less accurate for back-facing than front-facing stimuli. This was found before and after cannabis consumption and is the opposite pattern to what is generally observed in healthy participants and in our control subjects (who did not use cannabis). We refer to this as lesion effect and argue that this relative facilitation for stimuli reflecting the position and visual perspective that is generally reported during OBEs might be due to recurrent and spontaneous own-body transformations during the patient's frequent OBEs. Secondly, we found a cannabis effect, namely a performance improvement in the back-facing condition while performance in the front-facing condition remained unchanged, after cannabis administration. We argue that cannabis administration may interfere with own-body imagery when reflecting the actual body position and only when associated with brain damage. Based on these data we propose an extended neurological model for own-body illusions including multisensory and sensorimotor mechanisms, cannabis consumption, and cortical and subcortical processing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Deficient mental own-body imagery in a neurological patient with out-of-body experiences due to cannabis use

Overney

Arzy

Blanke

2009

Cortex

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“…NDEs have also been associated speculatively with intrusion into waking consciousness of thought patterns typical of dream sleep [85]. However, NDEs typically occur under conditions that inhibit dream sleep, such as general anesthesia [86], and dream sleep is actually reduced in near-death experiencers [73].…”

Section: Physiological Explanationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Western Scientific Approaches to Near-Death Experiences

Greyson

2015

Humanities

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Near-death experiences (NDEs) are vivid experiences that often occur in life-threatening conditions, usually characterized by a transcendent tone and clear perceptions of leaving the body and being in a different spatiotemporal dimension. Such experiences have been reported throughout history in diverse cultures, and are reported today by 10% to 20% of people who have come close to death. Although cultural expectations and parameters of the brush with death influence the content of some NDEs, near-death phenomenology is invariant across cultures. That invariance may reflect universal psychological defenses, neurophysiological processes, or actual experience of a transcendent or mystical domain. Research into these alternative explanations has been hampered by the unpredictable occurrence of NDEs. Regardless of the causes or interpretations of NDEs, however, they are consistently associated with profound and long-lasting aftereffects on experiencers, and may have important implications for non-experiencers as well.

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“…The American Psychiatric Association (2000) appeared to distinguish REM intrusion, that is, visual and auditory hallucinations and sleep paralysis, from cataplexy. However, Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt (2006) included cataplexy as a form of REM intrusion.…”

Section: Rem Intrusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does the arousal system contribute to near-death and out-of-body experiences? A summary and response.

2007

JNDS

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In April 2006, an important article appeared in a respected medical journal suggesting a relationship between near-death experiences (NDEs) and the body's arousal system, specifically the phenomenon of rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion. In March 2007, the same authors published another article in the same journal, expanding on the previous article's findings and suggesting a relationship between out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and the arousal system. These articles presented lines of evidence and a study to support the hypothesized relationship. In this paper, we acknowledge the viability and potential value of the hypothesis underlying both articles, but identify substantial weaknesses in both the presented lines of evidence and the studies. We conclude with recommendations for future research that would address the hypothesis and would promote a better overall understanding of NDEs and OBEs. Neurology is one of the largest and most respected journals devoted to medical research on the human nervous system. Nelson, the first author of both articles, is a nationally known neurologist. The articles received a lot of media coverage, and despite the authors' diligent efforts to present their study's findings in a balanced manner, the media often inflated those findings beyond what Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt claimed, especially after publication of the first article. For these reasons, a clear understanding of the articles is important both to interested members of the public and to the scholarly field of near-death studies.These articles and their findings were somewhat complex. To help explain them, we first provide some important background information, including a summary of the articles, and then provide our response to them.The first article, by Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt, addressing a possible relationship between near-death experiences (NDEs) and rapid eye movement (REM) intrusion, was longer and more detailed, and its concepts underlay the conclusions of the second article. That extensive first article included some detailed discussions of neurological pathways, listing 91 references. We will not address the neurological pathway discussions. Instead, we will focus primarily on those points we consider most relevant to an understanding of the relationship between NDEs, out-of-body experiences (OBEs), and REM intrusion, a phenomenon we will explain below.We want to say at the outset that we respect and appreciate the contribution Nelson, Mattingly, Lee, and Schmitt have made to the field of near-death studies. They raised a plausible hypothesis. Although we found much to criticize in their methods and findings, we do not want that criticism to be interpreted as lack of regard for them or their efforts. Our heartfelt goal is to encourage future excellent research on NDEs and to encourage open and respectful dialogue.Journal of Near-Death Studies ndst-25-03-02.3d 18/4

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Does the arousal system contribute to near death experience?

Cited by 98 publications

References 82 publications

Deficient mental own-body imagery in a neurological patient with out-of-body experiences due to cannabis use

Deficient mental own-body imagery in a neurological patient with out-of-body experiences due to cannabis use

Western Scientific Approaches to Near-Death Experiences

Does the arousal system contribute to near-death and out-of-body experiences? A summary and response.

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