Symptoms of schizophrenia reproduced in the laboratory

Scientists have made a significant discovery by reproducing the symptoms of schizophrenia in a controlled laboratory setting. While studying a 22-year-old epileptic patient, electrical stimulation of the left temporoparietal junction induced the illusion of an unknown person mimicking her movements. This phenomenon, previously observed in people with schizophrenia, may shed new light on the mechanisms involved in paranoia and self-perception. The researchers emphasize that understanding these processes could aid in the treatment of mental disorders.

Schizophrenics sometimes feel the presence of an unknown person behind them, mimicking their movements. Scientists have managed to recreate the same disturbing effect in a non-schizophrenic by electrically stimulating specific areas of their brain. This discovery may help scientists understand the processes responsible for delusions of paranoia, persecution, and alien control. Doctors inadvertently induced the delusion while examining a twenty-two-year-old epileptic woman for surgery.

Although the woman had no previous mental health problems, she repeatedly saw a "shadow person" behind her when doctors electrically stimulated an area of her brain called the left temporoparietal junction.

"Our data show, first of all, that paranoia may be associated with a distorted perception of the body, which in some cases can be recognized as the body of a stranger," said Olaf Blanke, a neuroscientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne.

The hallucination was temporary and disappeared when the stimulation stopped