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Baland Jalal

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Baland Jalal
NationalityDanish
Alma materTrinity College, Cambridge (PhD)
OccupationNeuroscientist · author · science educator
Scientific career
Thesis“Vicarious Exposure”: Experimental Studies Towards Developing Novel Therapies for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (2020)
Doctoral advisorBarbara Sahakian, Trevor Robbins, V. S. Ramachandran (UC San Diego), Richard J. McNally (Harvard)
Websitebalandjalal.com

Baland Jalal is a Danish neuroscientist. His work spans clinical neuroscience, cultural psychology, and the biology of altered state of consciousness. He has authored over 50 scientific publications in these and related fields.

In 2020, Jalal co-authored the book Transdiagnostic Multiplex CBT for Muslim Cultural Groups: Treating Emotional Disorders, published by Cambridge University Press, alongside Devon Hinton of Harvard Medical School.[1]

Career

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Jalal is a neuroscientist at the Harvard University Department of Psychology. He previously served as a research consultant at McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital, and was a visiting researcher at the University of Cambridge, where he earned his Ph.D. from Trinity College.[2] At Cambridge, he conducted research under neuroscientists Barbara Sahakian and Trevor Robbins. Jalal has also been a long-time collaborator with V. S. Ramachandran, with whom he has co-authored ten scientific papers.[3]

Research and theory

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Sleep paralysis

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Sleep paralysis, is a condition in which individuals experience temporary paralysis upon waking or falling asleep, often accompanied by vivid hallucinations. Jalal has conducted studies exploring sleep paralysis in diverse populations, including samples from Egypt, Italy, Poland, Denmark, Turkey, the United States, and South Africa.[4] Jalal's findings have highlighted how cultural beliefs shape the experience, interpretation, and distress associated with sleep paralysis.[5][6][7]

In collaboration with V. S. Ramachandran, Jalal has proposed several hypotheses to explain why people experience hallucinations of ghosts and intruders during sleep paralysis.[8][9] Their theories explore the roles of the right superior parietal lobule, body image projection, mirror neurons, and the neuropharmacology of hallucinations.[10]

Jalal proposed a clinical intervention known as Meditation-Relaxation Therapy (MR Therapy) for managing recurrent sleep paralysis. In collaboration with researchers at the University of Bologna, Jalal co-authored the first published empirical pilot trial evaluating MR Therapy for sleep paralysis.[11][12]

Obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD)

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In 2015 Jalal, working with V. S. Ramachandran, conducted some of the first studies using the rubber hand illusion to examine body image in obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). They found that when a rubber hand was "contaminated" with fake feces during the illusion, healthy participants reported experiencing OCD-like disgust.[13] In 2019, collaborating with Richard J. McNally and V. S. Ramachandran, Jalal showed that OCD patients were more susceptible to the illusion—even when visual and tactile cues were misaligned—suggesting a more flexible body image. This research also proposed the illusion as a form of indirect exposure therapy for OCD.[14][15][16]

In a 2017 study, Jalal and Ramachandran found that individuals with OCD symptoms experienced disgust simply by watching an experimenter contaminate themselves, and relief when watching them wash.[17][18] In 2020, the findings were extended to a clinical OCD group with similar results.[19] In later work with Barbara Sahakian and Ramachandran, Jalal tested a digital self-observation technique in which participants with subclinical OCD watched daily smartphone videos of themselves touching fake feces or washing their hands. After one week, participants showed measurable improvements in symptoms.[20][21]

Popularizing science and press

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Jalal has been active in public science communication, appearing on podcasts such as The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, Science Vs[22], and others, where he discusses topics including sleep, dreams, nightmares, and related areas of neuroscience. He has delivered TEDx talks[23] and has lectured at public and academic institutions, including the University of Oxford and Harvard University.[24]

His writing has appeared in outlets such as TIME, Scientific American, Big Think, and The Boston Globe.[25][26][27]

Jalal’s work has been covered by media such as CNN, The Washington Post, Today, The Guardian, NBC News, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, Reuters, and Der Spiegel. He has appeared on NPR’s The Pulse and the BBC documentary Uncanny.[28][29]

Jalal teaches courses on neuroscience at the Peterson Academy, an online learning platform founded by Mikhaila Fuller and Jordan B Peterson.[30]

Selected publications

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  • Jalal, B., McNally, R. J., Elias, J., & Ramachandran, V. S. (2020). "Vicarious exposure"—"spooky action" at a distance in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2020.100567
  • Jalal, B., & Hinton, D. E. (2013). Rates and characteristics of sleep paralysis in the general population of Denmark and Egypt. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 37, 534–548. doi:10.1007/s11013-013-9327-0
  • Hinton, D. E., & Jalal, B. (2020). Transdiagnostic Multiplex CBT for Muslim Cultural Groups: Treating Emotional Disorders. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108772265
  • Jalal, B., Bruhl, A. B., O’Callaghan, C., Piercy, T., Cardinal, R. N., Ramachandran, V. S., & Sahakian, B. J. (2018). Novel smartphone interventions improve cognitive flexibility and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms in individuals with contamination fears. Scientific Reports. doi:10.1038/s41598-018-29393-2

References

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  1. ^ Hinton, Devon E.; Jalal, Baland (2020). Transdiagnostic Multiplex CBT for Muslim Cultural Groups: Treating Emotional Disorders. Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/9781108671217. ISBN 978-1-108-67121-7. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  2. ^ "Dr Baland Jalal". Cambridge Neuroscience. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  3. ^ "Baland Jalal". Harvard Department of Psychology. Retrieved 17 June 2025.
  4. ^ Jalal, Baland (2024-03-15). "Ghosts, Aliens, and Black Magic: Sleep Paralysis Looks Different in Different Places". TIME. Retrieved 2025-06-23.
  5. ^ "Spukerscheinungen: Was steckt hinter dem unheimlichen Phänomen?". Der Spiegel. 2023-04-21. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  6. ^ Baraniuk, Chris (2023-04-20). "The nightmares that paralyse you in your sleep". BBC Future. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  7. ^ Jalal, Baland (2015-10-30). "Vampires, ghosts and demons: the nightmare of sleep paralysis". The Guardian. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  8. ^ "Episode 6: Sleep and the supernatural". Vox. 5 August 2022. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  9. ^ Smyth, Lucinda (28 October 2018). "Suffering from sleep paralysis? This is what's going on in your brain". The Telegraph. Retrieved 2025-06-22.
  10. ^ Jalal, Baland (2021). ""Men fear most what they cannot see." Sleep paralysis "ghost intruders" and faceless "shadow-people"—the role of the right hemisphere and economizing nature of vision". Medical Hypotheses. 152: 110613. doi:10.1016/j.mehy.2021.110613. PMC 8152198. PMID 34087613.
  11. ^ "Meditation-relaxation therapy may offer escape from the terror of sleep paralysis". University of Cambridge. 27 May 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  12. ^ "Sleep Paralysis: Causes and Treatments". CNN. 8 June 2025. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  13. ^ "To Study OCD, Scientists Get Their Rubber Hands Dirty". Discover Magazine. 22 September 2015. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  14. ^ "Feces-smeared fakes: Scientists use rubber hands in OCD therapy". Reuters. 30 December 2019. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  15. ^ Hamzelou, Jessica (2 January 2020). "Illusion involving fake poo and rubber hand tested on people with OCD". New Scientist. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  16. ^ "Cambridge researcher develops treatment for sleep paralysis". BBC News. 8 January 2020. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  17. ^ Jalal, B.; Ramachandran, V. S. (2017). ""I feel your disgust and relief": Can the action understanding system (mirror neuron system) be recruited to induce disgust and relief from contamination vicariously, in individuals with obsessive–compulsive disorder symptoms?". Neurocase. 23 (1): 31–35. doi:10.1080/03007995.2017.1310091. PMID 28323512.
  18. ^ "Watching others wash their hands may relieve OCD symptoms". New Scientist. 8 August 2017. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  19. ^ Jalal, B.; McNally, R. J.; Elias, J.; Ramachandran, V. S. (2020). ""Vicarious exposure"—"spooky action" at a distance in obsessive-compulsive disorder". Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders. 26: 100567. doi:10.1016/j.jocrd.2020.100567 (inactive 22 June 2025).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of June 2025 (link)
  20. ^ "Obsessive-compulsive disorder: The simple videos researchers hope will help people who scrub their hands until they bleed". The Washington Post. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  21. ^ "Brain training app helps reduce OCD symptoms, study finds". University of Cambridge. 10 August 2018. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  22. ^ "Ghosts: The Science of Spooky Encounters". Storytel. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  23. ^ "TEDxArendal 2023". TED. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  24. ^ "Baland Jalal". Harvard University Department of Psychology. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  25. ^ "Articles by Baland Jalal". TIME. 15 March 2024. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  26. ^ "Baland Jalal". Scientific American. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  27. ^ "Baland Jalal". Big Think. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  28. ^ "BBC Uncanny". BBC. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  29. ^ "Sleep paralysis: causes and treatments". CNN. 8 June 2025. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
  30. ^ "Baland Jalal – Instructor". Peterson Academy. Retrieved 22 June 2025.
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