Learn how scientists induced an out-of-body experience in a human without using drugs; and Earth’s geological “pulse.” Scientists induced an out-of-body experience in mice and a human without using drugs by Grant Currin Scientists Say A Mind-Bending Rhythm In The Brain Can Act Like Ketamine. (2020, September 16). NPR.org. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/09/16/913565163/scientists-discover-way-to-induce-altered-state-of-mind-without-drugs Wells, S. (2020, October 3). Scientists Can Induce Out-Of-Body Experiences Without Drugs. Freethink. https://www.freethink.com/articles/uncovering-the-cause-of-dissociative-states-in-the-mind Stanford team pinpoints brain circuitry underlying dissociative experiences. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-09/sm-stp091520.php Vesuna, S., Kauvar, I. V., Richman, E., Gore, F., Oskotsky, T., Sava-Segal, C., Luo, L., Malenka, R. C., Henderson, J. M., Nuyujukian, P., Parvizi, J., & Deisseroth, K. (2020). Deep posteromedial cortical rhythm in dissociation. Nature, 586(7827), 87–94. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2731-9 The Earth has a geological "pulse" 27.5 million years long by Briana Brownell Masters, K. (2016). How often does the Sun pass through a spiral arm in the Milky Way? (Intermediate) - Curious About Astronomy? Ask an Astronomer. Cornell.edu. http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/our-solar-system/55-our-solar-system/the-sun/the-sun-in-the-milky-way/207-how-often-does-the-sun-pass-through-a-spiral-arm-in-the-milky-way-intermediate The Earth has a pulse -- a 27.5-million-year cycle of geological activity. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-06/nyu-teh061821.php Rampino, M. R., Caldeira, K., & Zhu, Y. (2021). A pulse of the Earth: A 27.5-Myr underlying cycle in coordinated geological events over the last 260 Myr. Geoscience Frontiers, 12(6), 101245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gsf.2021.101245 Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Learn how scientists induced an out-of-body experience in a human without using drugs; and Earth’s geological “pulse.”
Scientists induced an out-of-body experience in mice and a human without using drugs by Grant Currin
The Earth has a geological "pulse" 27.5 million years long by Briana Brownell
Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.
Find episode transcript here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/an-out-of-body-experience-without-drugs-and-earths-pulse
CODY: Hi! You’re about to get smarter in just a few minutes with Curiosity Daily from curiosity-dot-com. I’m Cody Gough.
ASHLEY: And I’m Ashley Hamer. Today, you’ll learn how scientists induced an out-of-body experience in mice and a human WITHOUT using drugs; and how major planetary events tend to coincide in what scientists are calling the Earth’s geological “pulse.”
CODY: Let’s satisfy some curiosity.
Researchers have figured out how to induce an out-of-body experience without drugs. And that could tell us more about this strange phenomenon, which is associated with everything from ketamine and PCP to epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The researchers were interested in an altered state of consciousness called dissociation, where you feel like you’re outside of your own body. As many as 10 percent of the population has experienced dissociation at least once, usually because of drugs, a neurological disease, or trauma. Nearly 75 percent of people who experienced something traumatic found themselves dissociating later on. It’s not that unusual, but scientists have very little idea what’s going on in the brain during this state.
That’s why it’s a big deal that researchers have finally begun unraveling the biology underneath the strange experience.
The research involved several mice and one human. First, the researchers found out what happens in a brain that was dissociating by giving mice a lot of drugs, some known to cause dissociation and others known not to. They noticed something distinctive happening in the brains of mice on dissociative drugs, in a region called the retrosplenial cortex. Neurons in a small part of that region started firing in sync, very slowly.
Then the researchers flipped the script. They took sober mice and stimulated the same bundles of neurons in their brains so they pulsed at the same rhythm. Now, the mice couldn’t tell the researchers if they were dissociating, but the researchers concluded they were because the mice acted like mice do when they’re on ketamine.
That was just in mice, but coincidentally, those researchers had a colleague who was caring for a human patient who they realized could help with the research. The patient had a form of epilepsy that sometimes caused them to dissociate right before having a seizure, and as a result, they had electrodes implanted in their brain. That let the mouse researchers watch the patient’s neurons while they had an out-of-body experience. Sure enough, the human’s brain showed the same rhythm of synchronized firing in the same bundles of neurons as in the mouse brain. And when the researchers used the electrodes to stimulate that brain region in the human, the patient reported having an out-of-body experience.
This kind of research is important for a few reasons, including the possibility of new therapies for people who suffer from intrusive dissociations. Out-of-body experiences aren’t dangerous in and of themselves. In fact, they might come with benefits for some, as long as they’re controlled. This research could give people better control over this strange experience.
There’s a mystery afoot: it turns out that major geologic events on Earth don’t happen at random. I’m talking everything from volcanic eruptions to mass extinctions. In fact, they seem to cluster around certain times. And now, new research from an American team shows just how predictable those clusters are: Earth has a 27.5 million year geological “pulse”. And the cause may not come from our planet.
The team mapped 89 major geological events from the past 260 million years, including extinction events, volcanic eruptions, sea level changes, and major tectonic shifts. New advances in the accuracy of dating methods made it possible to find patterns in these events.
And they did find an interesting pattern. The team showed that geological events cluster around certain times — and those times are about 27.5 million years apart. Scientists think we’re in the lull of this cycle now. The last peak was about 7 million years ago, and so the next one will be about 20 million years in the future.
So why does this pulse happen? It could be some pattern of the Earth itself, like plate tectonics or movement of the mantle. But the pattern also seems to line up with the ages of many impact craters. That could suggest the pattern might have an external cause.
Here’s where it gets wild: The “pulse” the research team found is close to the 32 million year oscillation of the solar system above and below the galactic plane — the horizontal midpoint of our disc-shaped galaxy. The solar system, and Earth, bounces up and down as it makes its journey around the galaxy, with a period of 60 to 70 million years. It hits the galactic plane twice during that time, and stays there for about 100,000 years each time. At that point, we’re in line with a lot more matter, and we’re bombarded with a huge extra dose of cosmic rays. And that energy would make the Earth and solar system hotter, possibly causing the clusters of geological events.
But some scientists also speculate that it might have something to do with that most mysterious substance in the universe: dark matter. The solar system also moves through various spiral arms of the galaxy in its 230-million-year journey. If Earth passes through a region that contains a lot of dark matter, it might cause our planet to absorb it and heat up.
Scientists are still speculating about these effects, and expect to take the research even further to see just how far back this pulse might go. But these possibilities are a good reminder that everything in the universe is connected.
Let’s do a quick recap of what we learned today
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ASHLEY: Today’s writers were Grant Currin and Briana Brownell.
CODY: Our managing editor is Ashley Hamer
ASHLEY: Our producer and audio editor is Cody Gough.
CODY: [AD LIB SOMETHING FUNNY] Join us again tomorrow to learn something new in just a few minutes.
ASHLEY: And until then, stay curious!