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Induction of an illusory shadow person

Nature volume 443, page 287 (2006) Cite this article

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Abstract

Stimulation of a site on the brain's left hemisphere prompts the creepy feeling that somebody is close by.

The strange sensation that somebody is nearby when no one is actually present has been described by psychiatric and neurological patients, as well as by healthy subjects, but it is not understood how the illusion is triggered by the brain1,2. Here we describe the repeated induction of this sensation in a patient who was undergoing presurgical evaluation for epilepsy treatment, as a result of focal electrical stimulation of the left temporoparietal junction: the illusory person closely 'shadowed' changes in the patient's body position and posture. These perceptions may have been due to a disturbance in the multisensory processing of body and self at the temporoparietal junction.

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Figure 1: Me and my shadow.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, 1015, Switzerland

    Shahar Arzy & Olaf Blanke

  2. Presurgical Epilepsy Evaluation Unit, University Hospital, Geneva, 1211, Switzerland

    Margitta Seeck & Laurent Spinelli

  3. Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Geneva, 1211, Switzerland

    Shahar Arzy, Margitta Seeck, Stephanie Ortigue & Olaf Blanke

  4. Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, Dartmouth College, Dartmouth, 03755, New Hampshire, USA

    Stephanie Ortigue

Authors
  1. Shahar Arzy
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  2. Margitta Seeck
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  3. Stephanie Ortigue
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  4. Laurent Spinelli
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  5. Olaf Blanke
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Olaf Blanke.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Arzy, S., Seeck, M., Ortigue, S. et al. Induction of an illusory shadow person. Nature 443, 287 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/443287a

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