Near-Death Experiences in patients with locked-in syndrome: Not always a blissful journey

[en] Memories of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs) most often are recounted as emotionally positive events. At present, no satisfactory explanatory model exists to fully account for the rich phenomenology of NDEs following a severe acute brain injury. The particular population of patients with locked-in syndrome (LIS) provides a unique opportunity to study NDEs following infratentorial brain lesions. We here retrospectively characterized the content of NDEs in 8 patients with LIS caused by an acute brainstem lesion (i.e., ‘‘LIS NDEs’’) and 23 NDE experiencers after coma with supratentorial lesions (i.e., ‘‘classical NDEs’’). Compared to ‘‘classical NDEs’’, ‘‘LIS NDEs’’ less frequently experienced a feeling of peacefulness or well-being. It could be hypothesized that NDEs containing less positive emotions might have a specific neuroanatomical substrate related to impaired pontine/paralimbic connectivity or alternatively might be related to the emotional distress caused by the presence of conscious awareness in a paralyzed body.

Research center :

GIGA CRC (Cyclotron Research Center) In vivo Imaging-Aging & Memory - ULiège

Disciplines :

Neurosciences & behavior

Author, co-author :

Charland-Verville, Vanessa ; Université de Liège > Centre de recherches du cyclotron

Lugo, Zulay; Université de Liège - ULiège > Centre de recherches du Cyclotron

Jourdan, Jean-Pierre; International Association For Near Death Studies

Donneau, Anne-Françoise ; Université de Liège > Département des sciences de la santé publique > Santé publique : aspects spécifiques

Laureys, Steven ; Université de Liège > Centre de recherches du cyclotron

Language :

English

Title :

Near-Death Experiences in patients with locked-in syndrome: Not always a blissful journey

Publication date :

30 March 2015

Journal title :

Consciousness and Cognition

ISSN :

1053-8100

eISSN :

1090-2376

Publisher :

Academic Press, San Diego, United States - California

Volume :

Pages :

28-32

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810015000604
[fr] http://reflexions.ulg.ac.be/NDELIS
[en] http://reflexions.ulg.ac.be/en/NDELIS

Funders :

F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
DG RDT - Commission Européenne. Direction Générale de la Recherche et de l'Innovation [BE]
JSMF - James S McDonnell Foundation [US-MO]
Fondation Mind Science
French Speaking Community Concerted Research Action

Available on ORBi :

since 07 April 2015

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