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The brain rhythms that detach us from reality

The rhythmic activity of a single layer of neurons has now been shown to cause dissociation — an experience involving a feeling of disconnection from the surrounding world.
  1. Ken Solt

    1. Ken Solt is in the Department of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA, and the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

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  2. Oluwaseun Akeju

    1. Oluwaseun Akeju is in the Department of Anaesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA, and the Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.

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The state of dissociation is commonly described as feeling detached from reality or having an ‘out of body’ experience. This altered state of consciousness is often reported by people who have psychiatric disorders arising from devastating trauma or abuse. It is also evoked by a class of anaesthetic drug, and can occur in epilepsy. The neurological basis of dissociation has been a mystery, but writing in Nature, Vesuna et al.1 describe a localized brain rhythm that underlies this state. Their findings will have far-reaching implications for neuroscience.

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Nature 586, 31-32 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02505-z

References

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