{{Short description|Observance from outside the self}} '''Autoscopy''' is the experience in which one perceives one’s surrounding environment from a different perspective, from a position outside of one’s own body.<ref name="Blanke 2005">Blanke, O., Mohr, C. (2005). [http://lnco.epfl.ch/webdav/site/lnco/shared/publications/lnco/2005_Blanke_BRR_obe%20heautoscopy%20and%20autoscopic%20hallucination%20of%20neurological%20origin.pdf ''Out-of-body experience, heautoscopy, and autoscopic hallucination of neurological origin Implications for neurocognitive mechanisms of corporeal awareness and self consciousness''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140630195503/http://lnco.epfl.ch/webdav/site/lnco/shared/publications/lnco/2005_Blanke_BRR_obe%20heautoscopy%20and%20autoscopic%20hallucination%20of%20neurological%20origin.pdf |date=2014-06-30 }}. Brain Research Reviews 50: 184–199.{{dead link|date=January 2026}}</ref> Autoscopy comes from the ancient Greek {{transliteration|grc|autós}} ({{lang|grc|αὐτός}}, "self") and {{transliteration|grc|skopós}} ({{lang|grc|σκοπός}}, "watcher").
Autoscopy has been of interest to humanity from time immemorial and is abundant in the folklore, mythology, and spiritual narratives of most ancient and modern societies. Cases of autoscopy are commonly encountered in modern psychiatric practice.<ref>Dening, T. R., Berrios, G. E. (1994). ''Autoscopic phenomena''. ''British Journal of Psychiatry'' 165: 808–817.</ref> According to neurological research, autoscopic experiences are hallucinations.<ref name="Blanke 2005"/><ref>Brugger, P; Regard, M; Landis, T. (1997). ''Illusory reduplication of one's own body: phenomenology and classification of autoscopic phenomena''. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry 2: 19–38.</ref> Their root cause is unclear. Autoscopic experiences can include non-mirroring real-time images and the experiencer may be able to move.
== Factors == The autoscopic phenomenon is classified in the following six typologies: autoscopic hallucination, he-autoscopy or heautoscopic proper, feeling of a presence, out of body experience, negative and inner forms of autoscopy.<ref>{{cite journal|author=Francesca Anzellotti|author2=Valeria Onofrj|author3=Valerio Maruotti|author4= Leopoldo Ricciardi|author5= Raffaella Franciotti|author6=Laura Bonanni|author7=Astrid Thomas |author8=Marco Onofrj|url= |title=Autoscopic phenomena: case report and review of literature|journal=Behav Brain Funct|volume= 7|issue= 2|pmc=3032659|pmid=21219608|doi=10.1186/1744-9081-7-2|date=January 22, 2010|page=2|oclc=700286150 |doi-access=free }}</ref>
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, and Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Geneva, Switzerland, have reviewed some of the classical precipitating factors of autoscopy. These are sleep, drug abuse, and general anesthesia as well as neurobiology. They have compared them with recent findings on neurological and neurocognitive mechanisms of autoscopy; the reviewed data suggest that autoscopic experiences are due to functional disintegration of lower-level multisensory processing and abnormal higher-level self-processing at the temporoparietal junction.<ref name="Blanke 2005"/><ref>Blanke, O., Castillo, V. (2007). ''Clinical neuroimaging in epileptic patients with autoscopic hallucinations and out-of-body experiences''. Epileptologie 24: 90–96.</ref>
== Related disorders == Heautoscopy is a term used in psychiatry and neurology for the reduplicative hallucination of "seeing one's own body at a distance".<ref>{{cite journal |vauthors=Damas Mora JM, Jenner FA, Eacott SE | title=On heautoscopy or the phenomenon of the double: Case presentation and review of the literature| journal=Br J Med Psychol | year=1980 | volume=53 | pages= 75–83 | pmid=6989391 | issue=1 | doi=10.1111/j.2044-8341.1980.tb02871.x}}</ref> It can occur as a symptom in schizophrenia<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.susanblackmore.co.uk/Articles/JNMD86.htm | author=Blackmore S | title=Out-of-Body Experiences in Schizophrenia: A Questionnaire Survey| journal =Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease|year=1986|volume=174|pages=615–619 | doi=10.1097/00005053-198610000-00006 |pmid=3760852 |issue=10| s2cid=24509827 |url-access=subscription }}</ref> and epilepsy. Heautoscopy is considered a possible explanation for doppelgänger phenomena.<ref>Brugger, P; Agosti, R; Regard, M; Wieser, H. G; Landis, T. (1994). ''Heautoscopy, epilepsy, and suicide''. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgergy and Psychiatry 57: 838–839.</ref>
The term polyopic heautoscopy refers to cases where more than one double is perceived. In 2006, Peter Brugger and his colleagues described the case of a man who experienced five doubles resulting from a tumor in the insular region of his left temporal lobe.<ref>Brugger, P; Blanke, O; Regard, M; Bradford, D. T; Landis, T. (2006). ''Polyopic heautoscopy: Case report and review of the literature''. Cortex: 42 666–674.</ref>
Another related autoscopy disorder is known as negative autoscopy (or negative heautoscopy) a psychological phenomenon in which one does not see one’s reflection when looking in a mirror. Although the effected person’s image may be seen by others, the person claims not to see it.<ref name="Blanke 2005"/>
== See also == * {{anl|Syndrome of subjective doubles}}
== References == {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * Bhaskaran, R; Kumar, A; Nayar, K. K. (1990). ''Autoscopy in hemianopic field''. ''Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry'': 53 1016–1017. * Blanke, O; Landis, T; Seeck, M. (2004). ''Out-of-body experience and autoscopy of neurological origin''. ''Brain'' 127: 243–258. * Brugger, P. (2002). ''Reflective mirrors: Perspective-taking in autoscopic phenomena''. ''Cognitive Neuropsychiatry'' 7: 179–194. * Brugger, P; Regard, M; Landis, T. (1996). ''Unilaterally felt "presences": the neuropsychiatry of one's invisible doppelgänger''. ''Neuropsychiatry, Neuropsychology, and Behavioral Neurology'' 9: 114–122. * Devinsky, O., Feldmann, E., Burrowes, K; Bromfield, E. (1989). ''Autoscopic phenomena with seizures''. ''Archives of Neurology'' 46: 1080–1088. * Lukianowicz, N. (1958). ''Autoscopic phenomena''. ''Archives of Neurology and Psychiatry'' 80: 199–220.
== External links == * [http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/2007/0823out_of_body.shtml Topic and releases – website]
Category:Epilepsy Category:Neurology Category:Schizophrenia Category:Symptoms and signs of mental disorders