Brain electric correlates of strong belief in paranormal phenomena: intracerebral EEG source and regional Omega complexity analyses

Pizzagalli, Diego; Lehmann, Dietrich; Gianotti, Lorena; Koenig, Thomas; Tanaka, Hideaki; Wackermann, Jiri; Brugger, Peter (2000). Brain electric correlates of strong belief in paranormal phenomena: intracerebral EEG source and regional Omega complexity analyses. Psychiatry research: Neuroimaging, 100(3), pp. 139-154. Elsevier 10.1016/S0925-4927(00)00070-6

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The neurocognitive processes underlying the formation and maintenance of paranormal beliefs are important for understanding schizotypal ideation. Behavioral studies indicated that both schizotypal and paranormal ideation are based on an overreliance on the right hemisphere, whose coarse rather than focussed semantic processing may favor the emergence of 'loose' and 'uncommon' associations. To elucidate the electrophysiological basis of these behavioral observations, 35-channel resting EEG was recorded in pre-screened female strong believers and disbelievers during resting baseline. EEG data were subjected to FFT-Dipole-Approximation analysis, a reference-free frequency-domain dipole source modeling, and Regional (hemispheric) Omega Complexity analysis, a linear approach estimating the complexity of the trajectories of momentary EEG map series in state space. Compared to disbelievers, believers showed: more right-located sources of the beta2 band (18.5-21 Hz, excitatory activity); reduced interhemispheric differences in Omega complexity values; higher scores on the Magical Ideation scale; more general negative affect; and more hypnagogic-like reveries after a 4-min eyes-closed resting period. Thus, subjects differing in their declared paranormal belief displayed different active, cerebral neural populations during resting, task-free conditions. As hypothesized, believers showed relatively higher right hemispheric activation and reduced hemispheric asymmetry of functional complexity. These markers may constitute the neurophysiological basis for paranormal and schizotypal ideation.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Psychiatric Neurophysiology [discontinued]
07 Faculty of Human Sciences > Institute of Psychology > Social Neuroscience and Social Psychology

UniBE Contributor:

Gianotti, Lorena, König, Thomas

Subjects:

300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health

ISSN:

0925-4927

Publisher:

Elsevier

Language:

English

Submitter:

Thomas König

Date Deposited:

18 Aug 2014 09:30

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 14:27

Publisher DOI:

10.1016/S0925-4927(00)00070-6

PubMed ID:

11120441

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.39755

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/39755

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