#DISSOCIATION VS DEPERSONALIZATION HOW TO#

Doing so at rhythms of 3 hertz could induce dissociative behavior in drug-free animals, the researchers found. The researchers used optogenetics, a technology enabling scientists to stimulate or inhibit neuronal activity using light, to stimulate neurons in mice’s equivalent of a posteromedial cortex. Inducing dissociative behavior with optogenetics

But they acted as if they didn’t care enough to do what they would ordinarily do voluntarily in such situations: lick their paws to cool them off. When placed on an uncomfortably warm surface, the mice indicated they could feel the heat they responded reflexively to it, flicking their paws. But at the right ketamine dose, they behaved in a way that suggested they were experiencing a kind of dissociation - a disconnect between perception of incoming sensations and a more complex emotional response to those sensations. The drug is known to induce dissociative states in humans. The scientists probed the effects of ketamine in mice. And when this region was stimulated electrically, the patient experienced the dissociative aura without having a seizure. This activity was characterized by an oscillating signal generated by nerve cells firing in coordination at 3 hertz, or three cycles per second. Whenever the patient was about to have a seizure, the study’s authors discovered, it was preceded not only by the dissociative aura but also by a particular pattern of electrical activity localized within the patient’s posteromedial cortex. The researchers recorded electrical signals from the patient’s cerebral cortex and stimulated it electrically to try to determine the point of origin of the seizures. Beyond its potential medical implications, it gets at the question, ‘What is the self?'

(Such a pre-seizure sensation is called an aura.) The patient described this aura as feeling like being “outside the pilot’s chair, looking at, but not controlling, the gauges,” Deisseroth said. The patient had reported experiencing a feeling of dissociation immediately before each seizure. The researchers mapped out this brain-mind connection not only by observing the brains and behavior of mice but also in the course of treating a patient with chronic seizures at the Stanford Comprehensive Epilepsy Program. The findings, which implicate a particular protein in a particular set of cells as crucial to the feeling of dissociation, could lead to better-targeted therapies for conditions such as PTSD and other disorders in which dissociation can happen, such as borderline personality disorder and epilepsy.

Former graduate students Sam Vesuna, PhD, and Isaac Kauvar, PhD, share lead authorship of the study. Chen Professor and a practicing psychiatrist, is the study’s senior author. “Beyond its potential medical implications, it gets at the question, ‘What is the self?’ That’s a big one in law and literature, and important even for our own introspections.”ĭeisseroth, the D. “This study has identified brain circuitry that plays a role in a well-defined subjective experience,” Deisseroth said. 16 in Nature, Deisseroth and his colleagues at Stanford University have revealed molecular underpinnings and brain-circuit dynamics underlying dissociation. “In order to develop treatments, and to understand the biology, we needed to know more,” Deisseroth said.

#DISSOCIATION VS DEPERSONALIZATION HOW TO#

But dissociation can become chronic and highly disruptive - for example, in post-traumatic stress disorder and other neuropsychiatric conditions.īecause no one knows what’s going on inside the brain to trigger or sustain dissociation, it’s hard to know how to stop it. For most people, these dissociative experiences subside on their own within a few weeks of the trauma. Nearly three of every four individuals who have experienced a traumatic event will enter a dissociative state during the event or in the hours, days and weeks that follow, Deisseroth said. “This state often manifests as the perception of being on the outside looking in at the cockpit of the plane that’s your body or mind - and what you’re seeing you just don’t consider to be yourself,” Deisseroth said. But it’s disconcerting when feeling transported becomes so intense as to seem that one is literally separated from one’s mind or body.īetween 2% and 10% of the population will experience the mysterious phenomenon known as dissociation during their lifetimes, said Karl Deisseroth, MD, PhD, professor of bioengineering and of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, as well as a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.

It’s neither uncommon nor especially worrisome for people to lose themselves in a great book or a daydream.

Dissociation vs depersonalization