The cloud of unknowing: Cognitive dedifferentiation in whole-body perceptual deprivation.
Michele Pellegrino, Joseph Glicksohn, Fabio Marson, Francesco Ferraiuolo, Tal Dotan Ben-Soussan
Progress in brain research January 1, 2023 DOI: 10.1016/bs.pbr.2022.12.004 via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractImmersion in the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber, a homogeneous sensory environment, consistently produces positively connotated, bodily-oriented, and cognitively dedifferentiated subjective states in most people. Semi-structured interviews with 32 participants, analyzed by three independent evaluators, showed significant consensus on experiences such as softened boundaries across time and sensory modalities. These subjective findings align with prior electrophysiological results that reported increased delta and beta activity in the left inferior frontal cortex and left insula during immersion.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Qualitative study Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 32 |
| Population | Participants immersed in the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Keywords | Cognitive dedifferentiation Ganzfeld Ovo-wbpd Space perception |
| Citations | 3 |
| Key finding | The OVO-WBPD chamber consistently elicits positively connotated, bodily-oriented, and cognitively dedifferentiated subjective states of consciousness in the majority of participants. |
Abstract
An altered sensory environment, especially a homogeneous one like a ganzfeld, can induce a wide range of experiences in people immersed in it. The ganzfeld of our current focus is the OVO Whole-Body Perceptual Deprivation chamber (OVO-WBPD). Previous literature has found this specific immersive environment to be capable of softening and dissolving perception of boundaries across time and sensory modalities, among other domains. Since recent published electrophysiological results demonstrated that immersion in the OVO-WBPD significantly increased delta and beta activity, in the left inferior frontal cortex and in the left insula, we sought to better understand the subjective experiences of participants utilizing this altered sensory environment via semi-qualitative methodology. Consequently, semi-structured interviews of participants were analyzed by three independent evaluators focusing on several domains of experience often reported in perceptual deprivation environments. We found a significantly shared consensus on the presence of experiences belonging to semantic domains of altered experience, demonstrating that the OVO-WBPD chamber consistently elicits positively connotated, bodily-oriented and cognitively dedifferentiated subjective states of consciousness in the majority of 32 examined participants.