Cerebral blood flow in autogenic training and hypnosis

Abstract

In 12 healthy volunteers with at least an experience of six months in autogenic training (AT), the cerebral blood flow (CBF) was measured at rest, in AT and in hypnosis (H). The results were correlated with individual test profiles. The cortical flow pattern at rest of our AT trained volunteers did not show the hyperfrontality which is described in the literature. This may be interpreted as an effect of better and habitualized relaxation in long trained AT practitioners. This flow pattern corresponds to the low grades of neuroticism and aggressivity found in the tests. Furthermore an activation in central cortical areas and a deactivation in regions which are associated with acoustic and autonomous functions occur. Possible explanations for these phenomena as well as for the relatively low perfusion of the left hemisphere at rest and activation in AT are discussed. The global rise of CBF in H may be an activation effect caused by resistance against the hypnotizer: the deeper the trance, the smaller the CBF increase in the motor cortical area needed for maintaining catalepsy of the right arm and in temporal cortical fields processing acoustic inputs.

Neurophysiology of hypnosis

“…In a first study, regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) was shown to increase by 16% during hypnosis, with specific increase in occipital and right temporal regions [62]. Several years later, Maquet et al [38] explored the brain mechanisms ''at rest'' underlying hypnosis in healthy volunteers and showed that hypnotic state was related to the metabolic activation of cortical areas involving left-sided occipital, parietal, precentral, premotor, and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices and right-sided occipital and anterior cingulate cortices, while a decrease of activity was observed in precuneus, bilateral temporal, medial prefrontal and right premotor cortices.…”

Toward a Unified Field of Study: Longevity, Regeneration, and Protection of Health through Meditation and Related Practices

“…This activating energy is directed to the anatomical area in which the pineal gland, the primary producer of melatonin, is located. Elsewhere one of us (Bushell) has reviewed the small but nevertheless significant body of psychophysiological studies which demonstrate that dynamic mental imagery of activation can, with practice, produce localized increases in blood flow, temperature, and metabolic activity in particular tissues, including internal organs, and including in cranial and brain tissue 28–33 . Moreover, recent studies of a similar form of meditation, published in Human Brain Mapping and the Proceedings of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, demonstrate that visualization meditation of activating energy directed to the pineal gland location specifically did in fact result in measurable increases in metabolic activity in the pineal gland as assessed by functional magnetic resonance imagery 34,35 .…”