The study of out-of-body experiences promises to help answer a profound question in neuroscience and philosophy: how does self-consciousness emerge?

Out-of-body experiences arise when the temporoparietal junction (TPJ) region of the brain fails (from neurological disorders or brain surgery) to integrate visual and touch signals, balance and spatial information from the inner ear, and the proprioceptive sensations from joints, tendons and muscles that tell us where our body parts are in relation to one another, researchers at Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and University Hospital Antwerp.