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研究者报导他们能够重复地且可靠地对一位为了抑制耳鸣植入电极的病患，造成一种灵魂出窍的体验。第一作者比利时安特卫普大学医院神经外科部Dirk De Ridder医师表示，我们可以刻意地重复制造出这种体验，且是以一种完全安慰剂控制的方式进行，因为该名病患无法得知什么时候刺激器是开着的。
这项研究报告发表在11月1日的新英格兰医学期刊。
作者指出，灵魂出窍的体验是一种短暂的主观感觉，此时你会感到你的自己离开你的躯体，可能会有或是没有从升起或较远距离看到自己躯体的印象。
这里所报导的是一位63岁来自丹麦的男性，他已经被转介到当地的机构，且接受植入电极，位置在右侧的颞顶叶交界处，目的是在压抑难以治疗的耳鸣。
De Ridder医师表示，他们使用一种新型且更具威力的刺激方法，发现病患接受这个刺激后会产生灵魂出窍的体验。
在该名病患的同意之下，他们能够准确地再现这种感觉，但只有在这些参数下才有这样的反应；他表示，当我们些微降低电压，即使只有1伏特，就不会发生这种现象。
因为这个经验大约持续17秒钟，他们能够在安慰剂控制的情况下进行正子摄影（PET）扫描，且定位到颞顶叶交界处的活化、或是更仔细地说，是角回与缘上回之间交界处，以及上颞回与右侧上颞沟；在右侧契前叶与后视丘在刺激之下也可以看到活化，会延展到小脑上蚓部。
他们指出，我们证实这些区域的活化与脱离形体神经上的关连，且这是灵魂出窍经验的一部份。
De Ridder医师表示，这些发现并不如濒死经验那样的有关联，自发性的灵魂出窍体验过去也曾于癫痫病患、偏头痛病患身上发现，且在最近的一项报告中，也曾在一位使用虚拟实境系统的健康自愿者身上看到，虽然并不是以像这样可靠的方法证实。
他指出，这是神经网路牵涉到灵魂出窍体验的一个简单的描述。
他表示，仍有许多植入电极于同样位置的病患，可能可以邀请他们加入往后的研究；De Ridder医师表示，机构的伦理委员会核准第一位病患的原因在于要检验植入电极的副作用、以及听觉皮质刺激的并发症，因此这项研究是技术上由该核准案涵盖的；若要在其他病患身上研究此种效应，则需要新的核准案。
作者表示对该文章没有相关资金上的冲突。
Brain Stimulation Produces "Out-of-Body" Experience
By Susan Jeffrey
Medscape Medical News
Researchers are reporting they were able to repeatedly and reliably elicit an "out-of-body" experience in a patient in whom electrodes had been implanted to suppress tinnitus.
"We were able to reproduce the effect at will and in a completely placebo-controlled way, because the patient was not able to tell when the stimulator was on," first author Dirk De Ridder MD, PhD, from the department of neurosurgery at the University Hospital Antwerp, in Belgium, told Medscape Neurology & Neurosurgery.
Their report appears in the November 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
An out-of-body experience is a brief subjective episode in which the self is perceived as being outside of the body, with or without the impression of seeing the body from an elevated and distanced perspective, the authors write.
The case reported here was of a 63-year-old man from Denmark who had been referred to their institution and received implanted electrodes overlying the temporoparietal junction on the right side in an attempt to suppress intractable tinnitus.
They had been using a new and more powerful method of stimulation and found the patient had an out-of-body experience with this method. "We stopped immediately and noted the exact parameters of the stimulation," Dr. De Ridder said.
With the patient's permission, they were able to exactly reproduce the sensation, but only at these certain parameters. "When we lowered the stimulation by just 1 V, it didn't happen," he noted.
Because the experiences lasted around 17 seconds, they were able to perform positron emission tomography (PET) scanning in a placebo-controlled way and locate the activation to the temporoparietal junction, or more specifically, the angular–supramarginal gyrus junction and the superior temporal gyrus–sulcus on the right side. Activation was also seen at the right precuneus and posterior thalamus with stimulation, extending into the superior vermis.
"We suggest that activation of these regions is the neural correlate of the disembodiment that is part of the out-of-body experience," they write.
These findings have no implications for the out-of-body experience as it relates to near-death experiences, Dr. De Ridder said. Spontaneous out-of-body experiences have also been previously reported in epileptic patients, those with migraine, and, in a recent report, have been induced in healthy volunteers using a virtual-reality system, although not in this kind of reliable way.
"This is simply a description of the neural network that's involved in the out-of-body experience," he said.
They have some other patients who have electrodes implanted in the same location and may approach them about participating in a further study of this effect, he said. The institutional review board approval for the first patient was to look at side effects and complications of auditory cortex stimulation, so this study was technically covered by that approval, Dr. De Ridder noted. To study this effect in other patients will require a new application.
The authors report no conflict of interest relevant to this article.
N Engl J Med. 2007;357;1829-1833. Abstract