Temporal integration and alpha oscillatory dynamics in individuals reporting persistent ESP-Like experiences

Reports of Extrasensory Perception (ESP)-like experiences have been associated with altered temporal sensitivity, sense of agency, and alpha-band neural activity. However, evidence for these associations has been drawn largely from clinical or clinically enriched samples, limiting understanding of whether similar processes characterize individuals recruited outside explicitly clinical contexts who report persistent ESP-like experiences. The present study compared an ESP-like experience group, comprising individuals reporting persistent ESP-like experiences and no self-reported psychiatric diagnosis, with a non-ESP comparison group, comprising participants who did not report such experiences. Participants completed behavioural measures of temporal sensitivity (double-flash illusion) and sense of agency (judgement of agency), together with resting-state Electroencephalography (EEG) measures of posterior alpha power and Individual Alpha Frequency (IAF). A subset of participants in the ESP-like experience group also completed EEG during a self-reported active ESP-like state. Relative to the non-ESP comparison group, the ESP-like experience group showed reduced temporal sensitivity and a broader SoA window, consistent with broader temporal integration across perceptual and agentive domains. Resting-state EEG further revealed higher posterior alpha power and higher IAF in the ESP-like experience group. Multivariate analyses indicated that temporal sensitivity uniquely predicted group membership, whereas alpha measures explained shared, but not independent, variance. Exploratory within-participant analyses additionally suggested state-dependent modulation of alpha dynamics, with higher IAF during the active ESP-like state than during rest. These findings indicate that persistent ESP-like experiences in a sample recruited outside explicitly clinical contexts are associated with altered temporal integration and alpha-band dynamics.