Neurophysiologic Changes in Multiple Personality Due to Integration: A Preliminary Report

Abstract

Visual evoked potential topographical maps are presented for visual inspection. These figures represent preliminary results that indicate neurophysiologic change due to hypnosis and psychotherapy. Brief histories of the two patients are presented. Some questions about the implications of the preliminary data are discussed.

Similar or Disparate Brain Patterns? The Intra-Personal EEG Variability of Three Women with Multiple Personality Disorder

“…34 Additional data suggest that changes in temporal and frontal lobe activation occur during dissociation. 35 –39 Although it is possible that dissociation was related to some of the EEG changes that occurred in our study, a careful interpretation of the data suggests that additional factors could have played a significant role.…”

Assessing the validity of amnesia in dissociative identity disorder: A dilemma for the DSM and the courts.

“…There is a small and relatively uninformative literature in which psychophysiological measures in DID (or MPD) were used. Several studies of DID have reported changes in physiology that parallel reported changes in personalities, including a change in respiration rate (Bahnson & Smith, 1975; Larmore, Ludwig, & Cain, 1977), differences in patterns of galvanic skin responses (Brende, 1984; Ludwig et al, 1972), and differences in patterns of electroencephalographic (EEG) activity across alleged personalities (Braun, 1983; Larmore et al, 1977; Ludwig et al, 1972). Other studies have found differences between DID patients and control participants in terms of electrodermal and cardiovascular responses to tones (a nonsignificant trend in Putnam, Zahn, & Post, 1990) or cerebral blood flow patterns (reported with no statistics in Mathew, Jack, & West, 1985).…”

Phenomenal awareness and self-presentation

“…Spanos (1986r) considers similar data (i.e., Brody 1986) to be within the bounds of social-psychological theory but needs to give an example of a psychophysiological finding that would be outside those bounds. How would Spanos explain the data if the visual evoked potential topographic mapping used by Braun (1985) to study each personality in multiple personality cases changed when a subject was behaving hypnotically?…”