Anne Felsenheimer
Transcript:
Hi, I’m Anne Felsenheimer — a medical doctor and PhD at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL and the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive and Behavioural Brain Sciences.
At this year’s Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society, I’m presenting my work on interoception and the feeling of presence, conducted in collaboration with Sohee Park’s Lab during my time as an International Fulbright Scholar.
Sometimes we're just sitting in a room, maybe working on the next presentation...
... and suddenly we get this strange feeling that there is someone else in the room with us.
We might even turn around and realise that no, actually we are still alone. This feeling of someone being there when they are not called felt presence. Why do we have this feeling?
One idea is, that we indeed sense something that is there - such as our heartbeat.
But instead of attributing it to our own body, we think this sensation is coming from someone else.
Although there is a lot of stigma attached to it, the feeling of presence is actually quite common. It's not always unsettling - sometimes it can feel like a comforting presence, even like a guardian angel. But it is also associated with a higher risk of psychosis, where the felt presence is often more distressing. One might ask: are there different mechanisms at work?
By studying felt presence, we can gain new insights of how perception and consciousness works on a general level.
But this research also helps us distinguish between harmless and potentially high-risk experiences, develop targeted interventions and reduce the stigma surrounding these mysterious sensations.
