Kohnstamm effect
The Kohnstamm effect (or the Kohnstamm phenomenon ) describes an involuntary tension of the muscles after previous intense mental tension. The term goes back to the German neurologist and psychiatrist Oskar Kohnstamm (1871-1917), who introduced it in 1915. During a concentrated thought process or meditation, muscles can perform the smallest jerks and twitches, which are unconsciously coordinated with thought contents and ideas . The smallest muscular movements are easy to measure and can also be felt by individuals.
The kohnstamm effect, together with the carpenter effect, may play a role in creating the movements of dowsing rods in dowsers .
The Kohnstamm effect primarily means the post-contraction of a muscle after prolonged exercise of muscle strength (psychomotor). Example: Stand sideways against a wall and press the back of your hand on this side with your arm hanging against the wall for 30 seconds with full force. If you then step to the side, the arm rises as if by itself. The phenomenon is often used in Qigong lessons to illustrate the particularly relaxed quality of arm lifting movements in Qigong.
literature
- C. Duclos: Cerebral correlates of the “Kohnstamm phenomenon”: An fMRI study. In: NeuroImage. Vol 34, Issue 2, Jan 15, 2007, pp. 774-783.
- J. Mathis: Facilitation of motor evoked potentials by postcontraction response (Kohnstamm phenomenon). In: Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. August 1996.
Individual evidence
- ^ O. Kohnstamm: Demonstration of a Katatoni-like appearance in healthy people (Katatonusversuch). In: Neurol. Zentral Bl. 34S, 1915, pp. 290-291.