iScience
January 19, 2024
Hsin-Ping Wu, Estelle Nakul, Sophie Betka et al.
9 citations
Out-of-body experiences (OBEs) involve feeling located outside one's own body, often looking down from above. These experiences have been linked to disrupted integration of bodily signals, particularly visual and vestibular information. In two experiments using mixed reality and a motion platform, congruent visual-vestibular stimulation in a self-centered reference frame induced an OBE-like illusion in healthy participants, characterized by elevated self-location and feelings of disembodiment and lightness. The strength of this illusion varied with individuals' visual field dependency, measured by the Rod and Frame Test. The findings suggest that OBEs arise from a mismatch between visual and vestibular cues related to gravity and self-motion.
NeuroImage
July 1, 2025
Hang Yang, Bruno Herbelin, Chuong Ngo et al.
6 citations
Experienced meditators often report feeling detached from their body and current concerns. This study used virtual reality to manipulate perspective during meditation in 23 participants, comparing a third-person perspective (3PP) with a first-person perspective (1PP). The 3PP condition produced stronger feelings of detachment and disconnection, reduced awareness of body boundaries, and less identification with the body. Neural recordings showed a more negative heartbeat-evoked potential in the 3PP condition, linked to activity in the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. These results connect changes in the sense of self during meditation to brain processes underlying bodily self-awareness, suggesting VR could help cultivate self-transcendent experiences.
bioRxiv
October 26, 2024
Hang Yang, Bruno Herbelin, Chuong Ngo et al.
preprint
Practicing meditation from a third-person perspective in virtual reality, compared with a first-person perspective, produces stronger feelings of detachment and disconnection, a less distinct sense of one's body boundary, and reduced identification with the body. These subjective changes are accompanied by a more negative heartbeat evoked potential amplitude and activation of the posterior cingulate cortex and medial prefrontal cortex. The findings link altered states of self during meditation to neural and behavioral measures of the bodily self, demonstrating that manipulating perspective in VR can modulate the sense of self during meditation.