http://www.karlpribram.com/wp-content/uploads/pdf/D-114.pdf

EEG correlates of hypnotic susceptibility and hypnotic trance: spectral analysis and coherence.

Self-generated happy and sad emotions in low and highly hypnotizable persons during waking and hypnosis: laterality and regional EEG activity differences.

The clinical utility of hypnosis for controlling pain during burn wound debridement was investigated. Thirty hospitalized burn patients and their nurses submitted visual analog scales (VAS) for pain during 2 consecutive daily wound debridements. On the 1st day, patients and nurses submitted baseline VAS ratings. Before the next day's would debridement, Ss received hypnosis, attention and information, or no treatment. Only hypnotized Ss reported significant pain reductions relative to pretreatment baseline. This result was corroborated by nurse VAS ratings. Findings indicate that hypnosis is a viable adjunct treatment for burn pain. Theoretical and practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Hypnosis for the treatment of burn pain.

There is currently agreement that, in addition to the changes in external behaviour, suggestions presented in a hypnotic context may give rise to changes in subjective experience. Yet, there is no general agreement about the theoretical framework within which these changes in experience should be explained. Though different theories about hypnosis overlap in many respects, there is still disagreement on whether reference to a specific internal state of the individual is necessary in order to explain these changes. We place the explanatory task in the context of a multilevel framework of explanation, which reveals that the disagreement between the ‘state’ and ‘nonstate’ view is about the level of description at which the phenomenon ‘hypnosis’ should be conceptualized. We propose a novel approach using the multilevel explanation which helps to formulate empirically testable hypotheses about the nature of hypnosis. We will outline the basic elements of such an approach and hope that our proposition will help hypnosis research to integrate with the multidisciplinary research on other phenomena of consciousness.

http://archive.his.se/PageFiles/164770/Sakari_Kallio_1.pdf

Hypnotic phenomena and altered states of consciousness : A multilevel framework of description and explanation

This is the first MRI study to report differences in brain structure size between low and highly hypnotizable, healthy, right-handed young adults. Participants were stringently screened for hypnotic susceptibility with two standardized scales, and then exposed to hypnotic analgesia training to control cold pressor pain. Only the highly hypnotizable subjects (HHs) who eliminated pain perception were included in the present study. These HHs, who demonstrated more effective attentional and inhibitory capabilities, had a significantly (P < 0.003) larger (31.8%) rostrum, a corpus callosum area involved in the allocation of attention and transfer of information between prefrontal cortices, than low hypnotizable subjects (LHs). These results provide support to the neuropsychophysiological model that HHs have more effective frontal attentional systems implementing control, monitoring performance and inhibiting unwanted stimuli from conscious awareness, than LHs.

/pdf/increased-anterior-corpus-callosum-size-associated-ag5jjobis0.pdf

Increased anterior corpus callosum size associated positively with hypnotizability and the ability to control pain.

MacLeod-Morgan (1979) found a significant relationship between hypnotizability and EEG hemispheric specificity. Hemispheric specificity is defined as the extent to which the alpha ratio between hemispheres changes during lateralized task performance. The present study was designed to replicate and extend this finding. EEG was recorded bilaterally from 44 subjects during performance of two right- and two left-hemisphere discontinuous tasks from MacLeod-Morgan (1979), and four new comparable continuous tasks. As predicted, significant differences were found in hemispheric specificity between low and high hypnotizables especially during the continuous tasks.

Crisetta Macleod-Morgan

Papers

Hemispheric Specificity: A Physiological Concomitant of Hypnotizability