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Shadow Person Lurks in Brain
Sense of Shadowy Presence
Tied to Specific Spot in Brain.
By Miranda Hitti
WebMD
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Stimulating a certain spot in the
brain with electricity may make people feel like a
shadow person is hovering nearby.
Doctors in Switzerland documented the
startling sensation in a 22-year-old woman with no
history of psychiatric problems.
The researchers stumbled upon the
discovery while evaluating the woman for epilepsy
surgery.
During the checkup, the doctors
electrically stimulated the left temporoparietal
junction in the woman's brain.
Out of the blue, the woman reported
having "the impression that someone was behind her,"
write Shahar Arzy, MD, and colleagues in Nature.
Arzy works at the Laboratory of Cognitive
Neuroscience at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de
Lausanne in Lausanne, Switzerland.
'He Is Behind Me'
The woman described the shadow person
as young, silent, and mirroring her position as she
lay on her back. "He is behind me, almost at my
body, but I do not feel it," she said, according to
the doctors.
Next, the researchers stimulated the
same spot in the woman's brain as she sat up with
her arms wrapped around her knees.
Again, the woman sensed the shadow
presence. This time she said the man was sitting
behind her and had his arms around her.
Lastly, the woman sat up, holding a
card in her right hand, for another brain test that
involved stimulating the same brain area. She once
more sensed the shadow person.
"He wants to take the card. He
doesn't want me to read," the woman reportedly said.
Of course, there was no such person
present during the tests. But the shadow person
apparently seemed very real to the woman.
"The sensation of a presence, as
reported by this patient, has been described by
people with psychiatric and neurological disorders,"
the researchers write.
The left temporoparietal junction may
play a role in those disorders, judging by the
woman's experience, note Arzy and colleagues.
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