Temporal lobe signs: electroencephalographic validity and enhanced scores in special populations

Internal and external validity tests were completed for an inventory that has been used to infer signs of temporal lobe lability. Strong, positive correlations were reported for a normal (reference) population between the numbers of responses that referred to paranormal experiences (including feelings of a "presence") and separately to religious beliefs and the numbers of spikes per minute within electroencephalographic recordings from the temporal lobe. Numbers of spikes were also correlated with the subjects' scores on the hysteria, schizophrenia, and psychasthenia scales from the MMPI. These clusters of items were not correlated with electrical activity from the occipital lobe (the comparison region). Numbers of responses to control clusters of mundane experiences were not correlated with the temporal lobe measures. A group of student poets scored higher on different subclusters of temporal lobe signs and on the schizophrenia and mania scales of the MMPI than the reference group. For both groups, there were positive correlations between the amount of alpha activity in the temporal lobe only and answers to items such as "hearing inner voices" and "feeling as if things were not real." These results demonstrate that quantitative measures of electrical changes in the temporal lobe are correlated with (or with the report of) specific experiences that are prevalent during surgical or epileptic stimulation of this brain region.