Replicable Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence of Correlated Brain Signals Between Physically and Sensory Isolated Subjects
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Plain English Summary
Can one person's brain react to what another person is seeing, even when they're completely cut off from each other? This NIH-funded study used fMRI (brain scanning that tracks blood flow) to find out. Researchers picked one especially promising pair from a pool of 30 and put one partner in a sealed, shielded MRI scanner while the other watched a flashing checkerboard pattern from 10 meters away. Remarkably, the isolated partner's visual cortex (the part of the brain that processes sight) lit up in sync with the stimulus, and this happened across multiple sessions using both fMRI and EEG (brainwave recording). The fact that activations appeared specifically in visual areas is genuinely striking. However, the huge caveat: they cherry-picked their best-performing pair out of thirty, so we're really looking at a sample size of two people. Fascinating pilot work, but far too small to draw big conclusions.
Research Notes
One of the first fMRI studies of anomalous correlated brain signals, extending the Standish et al. 2003/2004 EEG paradigm from the same Bastyr/UW lab to hemodynamic neuroimaging. NIH/NCCAM funded (R21-AT00287). Visual-cortex specificity of activations is notable, but extreme pre-selection (1 pair from 30) and N=2 limit generalizability.
Experimental fMRI and EEG study investigating whether correlated neural signals can be detected between physically and sensorily isolated human subjects. A pre-selected pair (from 30 pairs in a prior EEG study) participated in fMRI sessions where the stimulated partner viewed a flickering checkerboard while the nonstimulated partner lay in a 1.5T MRI scanner 10 meters away, wearing sensory-isolating goggles in an EMF-shielded room. Subject DW showed significant BOLD activation in left visual cortex (BA 17/18/19) correlated with the partner's stimulus in both trials (p < 0.017, Bonferroni corrected). Subject CW showed significant activation in right BA 17/18 in the replication trial only. EEG confirmed correlated alpha-power changes in separate sessions (CW: chi-squared=455.4, p<.0001; DW: chi-squared=317.4, p<.005).
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Cites
- Extrasensory Electroencephalographic Induction between Identical Twins β Duane, T. D (1965)
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- Evidence for Correlations Between Distant Intentionality and Brain Function in Recipients: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Analysis β Achterberg, J (2005)
- Mental Connection at Distance: Useful for Solving Difficult Tasks? β Tressoldi, Patrizio E (2011)
- A fMRI Brain Imaging Study of Presentiment β Bierman, Dick J (2002)
- EEG Correlates of Social Interaction at Distance β Giroldini, William (2016)
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π Cite this paper
Richards, Todd L, Kozak, Leila, Johnson, L. Clark, Standish, Leanna J (2005). Replicable Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence of Correlated Brain Signals Between Physically and Sensory Isolated Subjects. The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1089/acm.2005.11.955
@article{richards_2005_replicable,
title = {Replicable Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Evidence of Correlated Brain Signals Between Physically and Sensory Isolated Subjects},
author = {Richards, Todd L and Kozak, Leila and Johnson, L. Clark and Standish, Leanna J},
year = {2005},
journal = {The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine},
doi = {10.1089/acm.2005.11.955},
}