The neurophenomenology of neutral hypnosis

Hypnosis and top-down regulation of consciousness

“…A number of these features are driven by suggestions embedded within the induction including for relaxation, heaviness of the body, and attentional absorption (Shor & Orne, 1962), but some of these experiential effects are still present with a minimal induction that strips away explicit suggestions (Cardeña, 2005;Cardeña, Jonsson, Terhune, & Marcusson-Clavertz, 2013). Although poorly understood, these effects are plausibly driven by a confluence of variables including response expectancies, implicit or explicit sociocultural beliefs about the hypnotic context, and the influence of repetitive verbal communication.…”

“…Preliminary research addressed this issue and observed that global functional connectivity following a minimal hypnotic induction was negatively associated with different dimensions of consciousness including anomalous perceptual states (Cardeña et al, 2013). Cumulatively, these studies seem to suggest that highly suggestible individuals exhibit reduced frontal connectivity, although further research is needed to clarify the oscillatory specificity of these effects.…”

“…Although different inductions are typically comparable in the extent to which they enhance suggestibility (see §3), subtle changes in the wording of suggestions can substantially impact neurophysiological responses (Barabasz et al, 1999). Accordingly, differential activation or connectivity patterns across studies may be artefactual of induction differences and thus any conclusions regarding inter-study commonalities should be taken as preliminary (Cardeña et al, 2013). A number of studies investigating the neurocognitive profile of highly suggestible individuals have also relied on an extreme-groups design involving the contrast of low and highly suggestible individuals .…”

“…For this reason, the inclusion of medium suggestible individuals as a control group or the inclusion of participants across the full spectrum of hypnotic suggestibility is important in establishing reliable neurophysiological markers of high hypnotic suggestibility (Cardeña et al, 2013;Huber et al, 2014).…”

PET Imaging in Altered States of Consciousness: Coma, Sleep, and Hypnosis

“…This procedure induces an altered state of awareness which could be explained by specifi c cortical changes (i.e., dynamic properties and neural correlates) Rainville et al 2002 ;Cardeña et al 2013 ). Hypnosis can be considered as an appropriate means to transiently modulate conscious cognition in healthy subjects because it does not lead to general unconsciousness (compared to pharmacological anesthesia or sleep) and does not have long-term effects on neuroplasticity (compared to meditation techniques (Holzel et al 2008 )).…”