Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking
It has been argued that hallucinations which appear to involve shifts in egocentric perspective (i.e., the out-of-body experience: OBE) reflect specific biases in exocentric perspective-taking processes. Via a newly devised perspective-taking task, we examined whether such biases in perspective-tak...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2013-10-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
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| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00719/full |
| _version_ | 1811217241565298688 |
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| author | Jason eBraithwaite Kelly eJames Hayley eDewe Nick eMedford Chie eTakahashi Klaus eKessler |
| author_facet | Jason eBraithwaite Kelly eJames Hayley eDewe Nick eMedford Chie eTakahashi Klaus eKessler |
| author_sort | Jason eBraithwaite |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | It has been argued that hallucinations which appear to involve shifts in egocentric perspective (i.e., the out-of-body experience: OBE) reflect specific biases in exocentric perspective-taking processes. Via a newly devised perspective-taking task, we examined whether such biases in perspective-taking were present in relation to specific dissociative anomalous body experiences – namely the OBE. Participants also completed the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (CDS, Sierra & Berrios, 2000) which provided measures of additional embodied anomalous-bodily experiences (unreality of self) and measures of derealization (unreality of surroundings). There were no reliable differences in the level of anomalous bodily experiences, emotional numbing, and anomalies in sensory recall reported between the OBE and control group as measured by the corresponding CDS subscales. In contrast, the OBE group did provide significantly elevated measures of derealization (alienation from surroundings CDS subscale) relative to the control group. At the same time we also found that the OBE group was significantly more efficient at completing all aspects of the perspective-taking task relative to controls. Collectively, the current findings support fractionating the typically unitary notion of dissociation by proposing a distinction between embodied dissociative experiences and disembodied dissociative experiences - with only the latter being associated with exocentric perspective-taking mechanisms. Our findings - obtained with an ecologically valid task and a homogeneous OBE group - also call for a re-evaluation of the relationship between OBE and perspective taking in terms of facilitated disembodied experiences. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T06:52:06Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-da398917191d486da4ace317017183ba |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1662-5161 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T06:52:06Z |
| publishDate | 2013-10-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Human Neuroscience |
| spelling | doaj.art-da398917191d486da4ace317017183ba2022-12-22T03:43:18ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Human Neuroscience1662-51612013-10-01710.3389/fnhum.2013.0071960563Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-takingJason eBraithwaite0Kelly eJames1Hayley eDewe2Nick eMedford3Chie eTakahashi4Klaus eKessler5University of BirminghamUniversity of BirminghamUniversity of BirminghamUniversity of SussexUniversity of BirminghamUniversity of AstonIt has been argued that hallucinations which appear to involve shifts in egocentric perspective (i.e., the out-of-body experience: OBE) reflect specific biases in exocentric perspective-taking processes. Via a newly devised perspective-taking task, we examined whether such biases in perspective-taking were present in relation to specific dissociative anomalous body experiences – namely the OBE. Participants also completed the Cambridge Depersonalization Scale (CDS, Sierra & Berrios, 2000) which provided measures of additional embodied anomalous-bodily experiences (unreality of self) and measures of derealization (unreality of surroundings). There were no reliable differences in the level of anomalous bodily experiences, emotional numbing, and anomalies in sensory recall reported between the OBE and control group as measured by the corresponding CDS subscales. In contrast, the OBE group did provide significantly elevated measures of derealization (alienation from surroundings CDS subscale) relative to the control group. At the same time we also found that the OBE group was significantly more efficient at completing all aspects of the perspective-taking task relative to controls. Collectively, the current findings support fractionating the typically unitary notion of dissociation by proposing a distinction between embodied dissociative experiences and disembodied dissociative experiences - with only the latter being associated with exocentric perspective-taking mechanisms. Our findings - obtained with an ecologically valid task and a homogeneous OBE group - also call for a re-evaluation of the relationship between OBE and perspective taking in terms of facilitated disembodied experiences.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00719/fullDepersonalizationHallucinationsPerspective-takingEmbodied Cognitiondissociationout-of-body experience |
| spellingShingle | Jason eBraithwaite Kelly eJames Hayley eDewe Nick eMedford Chie eTakahashi Klaus eKessler Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking Frontiers in Human Neuroscience Depersonalization Hallucinations Perspective-taking Embodied Cognition dissociation out-of-body experience |
| title | Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking |
| title_full | Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking |
| title_fullStr | Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking |
| title_full_unstemmed | Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking |
| title_short | Fractionating the Unitary Notion of Dissociation: Disembodied but not Embodied Dissociative Experiences are Associated with Exocentric Perspective-taking |
| title_sort | fractionating the unitary notion of dissociation disembodied but not embodied dissociative experiences are associated with exocentric perspective taking |
| topic | Depersonalization Hallucinations Perspective-taking Embodied Cognition dissociation out-of-body experience |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00719/full |
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