Introduction
The aim of this exploratory study was to assess the
EEG
correlates of head positions (which have never been studied in humans) in participants with different psychophysiological characteristics, as encoded by their hypnotizability scores. This choice is motivated by earlier studies suggesting different processing of vestibular/neck proprioceptive information in subjects with high
(highs)
and low
(lows)
hypnotizability scores maintaining their head rotated toward one side (
RH
).
Methods
We analyzed
EEG
signals recorded in 20
highs
and 19
lows
in basal conditions (head forward) and during
RH
using spectral analysis, which captures changes localized to specific recording sites, and topological data analysis (
TDA
), which instead describes large‐scale differences in processing and representing sensorimotor information.
Results
Spectral analysis revealed significant differences related to head position for alpha 1, beta 2, beta 3, and gamma bands, but not to hypnotizability.
TDA
instead revealed global hypnotizability‐related differences in the strengths of the correlations among recording sites during
RH
. Significant changes were observed in
lows
on the left parieto‐occipital side and in
highs
in right frontoparietal region. Significant differences between the two groups were found in the occipital region, where changes were larger in
lows
than in
highs
.
Conclusions
This study reports finding of the
EEG
correlates of changes in the head posture for the first time, indicating that hypnotizability is related to the head posture representation/processing on large‐scale networks and that spectral and topological data analyses provide complementary results.