19 August,2010 04:31 PM IST | | Agencies
A man in Oregonu00a0has suffered a 'love attack' that left him temporary paralysed.
Matt Frerking's brain malady causes body to freeze when he has loving thoughts. Although he can hear and feel everything around him, he can't open his eyes and can't move.
According to experts, Frerking suffers from narcolepsy with cataplexy, a rare cousin of the better-known disease that causes sudden sleep attacks.
Even thinking about his feelings for others or watching strangers express love can trigger an episode of paralysis.
"I have to limit those things very carefully,'''' ABC News quoted him as telling "Nightline's" Cynthia McFadden, in the first episode of a new "Nightline" series, "Secrets of Your Mind: Why We Do What We Do".
u00a0"The brain is behaving as if it's asleep while Matt is awake," said Carol Ash, a sleep specialist.u00a0
"[It] inhibits the muscles at night so that you can't get up and start running in your sleep, turns on during wakefulness and suddenly you''re paralysed,'' said Ash. "And so in someone like Matt, strong emotions are flipping a switch," she added.
The faulty "switch" in question is located in the brain's hyphothalamus region and the reason for the condition is yet unknown.
