Ghosts exist
only in the mind, and scientists know just where to find them, an EPFL study
suggests. Patients suffering from neurological or psychiatric conditions have
often reported feeling a strange presence. EPFL researchers in Switzerland
have succeeded in recreating this so-called ghost illusion in the laboratory.
Ghost stories have been reported countless times by mountaineers, explorers,
and survivors, as well as by people who have been widowed, but also by patients
suffering from neurological or psychiatric disorders. They commonly describe a
presence that is felt but unseen, akin to a guardian angel or a demon.
Inexplicable, illusory, and persistent.
Researchers at
EPFL now unveiled this ghost. The team was able to recreate the illusion of a
similar presence in the laboratory and provide a simple explanation. They
showed that the feeling of a presence actually results from an alteration of
sensorimotor brain signals, which are involved in generating self-awareness by
integrating information from our movements and our body's position in space. In
their experiment, the team interfered with the sensorimotor input of
participants in such a way that their brains no longer identified such signals
as belonging to their own body, but instead interpreted them as those of
someone else.
More
information: