Signs of increased cortical hyperexcitability selectively associated with spontaneous anomalous bodily experiences in a nonclinical population

Jason Braithwaite, Emma Broglia, Oliver Brincat, Louise Stapley, Arnold J Wilkins, Chie Takahashi

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

13 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Introduction. The current study examined the presence of cortical hyperexcitability, in nonclinical hallucinators, reporting different forms of anomalous bodily experiences (ABEs). Groups reporting visual out-of-body experiences and nonvisual sensed-presence experiences were examined. It was hypothesised that only those hallucinators whose experiences contained visual elements would show increased signs of visual cortical hyperexcitability. Methods. One hundred and eighty-two participants completed the "Pattern-glare task" (involving the viewing of striped gratings with spatial frequencies irritable to visual cortex)-a task known to reflect degrees of cortical hyperexcitability associated with hallucinatory/aura experiences in neurological samples. Participants also completed questionnaire measures of anomalous "temporal-lobe experience" and predisposition to anomalous visual experiences. Results. Those reporting increased levels of anomalous bodily experiences provided significantly elevated scores on measures of temporal-lobe experience. Only the visual OBE group reported significantly elevated levels of cortical hyperexcitability as assessed by the pattern-glare task. Conclusions. Collectively, the results are consistent with there being an increased degree of background cortical hyperexcitability in the cortices of individuals predisposed to some ABE-type hallucinations, even in the nonclinical population. The present study also establishes the clinical utility of the pattern-glare task for examining signs of aberrant visual connectivity in relation to visual hallucinations.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)549-573
JournalCognitive Neuropsychiatry
Volume18
Issue number6
Early online date26 Feb 2013
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2013

Keywords

  • Anomalous body experiences
  • Cortical hyperexcitability
  • Embodiment
  • Hallucinations

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