Ictal autoscopic phenomena and near death experiences: a study of five patients with ictal autoscopies
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Ictal autoscopic phenomena and near death experiences: a study of five patients with ictal autoscopies Robert Hoepner • Kirsten Labudda • Theodor W. May Martin Schoendienst • Friedrich G. Woermann • Christian G. Bien • Christian Brandt
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Received: 28 June 2012 / Revised: 1 September 2012 / Accepted: 25 September 2012 / Published online: 21 October 2012 Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012
Abstract Autoscopic phenomena in general may— among other conditions—occur during epileptic seizures and near death experiences. We set the hypothesis that ictal autoscopic phenomena and near death experiences have a similar semiology as measured by the Near Death Experience Questionnaire. We also investigated whether patients with aura before temporal lobe seizures with or without autoscopic phenomena could be distinguished by this questionnaire. For these purposes, we examined five patients with ictal autoscopy and 12 patients with aura before temporal lobe seizures without ictal autoscopy as controls. We used a cut-off of 7 points or higher on the Near Death Experience Questionnaire for indicating the semiology of a near death experience and for distinguishing patients with ictal autoscopy from controls. This cut-off separated patients with ictal autoscopic phenomena from aura before temporal lobe seizures without autoscopy (p = 0.0002, two-sided, exact Fisher’s Test; specificity: 100 % [CI95 % 77.9 and 100 %], sensitivity: 100 % [CI95 % 54.9 and 100 %]). Furthermore, all autoscopic patients (range 7–10) and none of the controls (range 0–5) had scores of 7 points or higher. Thus, the individual experiences during simple partial autoscopic seizures and
R. Hoepner M. Schoendienst F. G. Woermann C. G. Bien C. Brandt (&) Bethel Epilepsy Centre, Mara Hospital, Maraweg 17-21, 33617 Bielefeld, Germany e-mail: [email protected] K. Labudda Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany K. Labudda T. W. May Society for Epilepsy Research, Bielefeld, Germany
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near death experiences are similar, at least in some prominent aspects. These findings might be of particular interest for the pathophysiology of near death experiences, as all patients with ictal autoscopic phenomena had an epileptic dysfunction at the temporo-parietal junction or its neighboring regions. Therefore, a malfunction of this brain region might also be involved in near death experiences of other origins especially during states which could cause a near death experience and a cerebral excitability. Keywords Autoscopic phenomena Near death experience Out-of-body experience Temporo-parietal junction Epilepsy
Introduction: Near death experience Some people, coming close to death or fearing imminent death, report retrospectively on experiences occurring during the life-threatening event or during their mortal fear. These reports are called near death experiences (NDE) [1, 2]. Because of the different etiologies, some authors label the latter one ‘‘fear death experience’’, because of absence of
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