TRANSFER OF NEURAL ENERGY BETWEEN HUMAN SUBJECTS

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

The long-term goal of this project is to develop and utilize neurophysiological techniques to evaluate hypotheses emerging from the field of mind-body medicine; specifically, the possibility that conscious states can exert biological effects at a distance (i.e., "distant healing"). The purpose is to attempt to replicate the EEG findings of Grinberg-Zylberbaum et al. (1994) suggesting that visual evoked potentials generated in one human brain (Subject A) by photostimulation can generate a correlated EEG signal in the brain of another human subject (subject B) who is located at a distance (14.5 meters) and who is not visually stimulated. The project will occur in three stages. First we will identify pairs of subjects who have cross- correlated evoked potentials during photostimulation to Subject A at the p less than .01 level of significance. If no pairs can be identified we will continue to enroll and test up to 50 pairs of subjects. If pairs of subjects that demonstrate the phenomenon cannot be identified using this p value by the end of the project time line we will reject the hypothesis that remote transfer of neural energy occurs and report failure to replicate the original study. If we detect greater than or equal to 5 pairs of subjects who meet the criteria we will attempt to replicate in those pairs using a higher criteria of p less than .001. If Grinberg- Zylberbaum et al.'s experiment can be replicated at both stages, the project team will go to stage 3 to investigate the same phenomenon in the identified pairs of human subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a second independent neurophysiological measure of transfer of information between two human brains. We will record fMRIs (occiptal, temporal, frontal and parietal) in the remote individual while their counterpart, located in a separate chamber, is receiving light stimulation in an on-off pattern. We will determine if there are statistically significant differences in digitized fMRI during lights on vs lights off conditions. The main outcome measures for this project will be the binary (yes-no) output from statistical analysis using cross-correlational and zscore testing for the detection of a transferred evoked signal (in both EEG and fMRI experiments) in Subject B. Appropriate controls will be used. If replicated, this study will provide a useful technology and method to quantitatively investigate the characteristics and neural mechanisms of remote effects of "mental events." Such experimental methods will assist in the investigation of basic mechanisms involved in "mind-body medicine."