Using suggestion to model different types of automatic writing

Walsh, Eamonn; Mehta, Mitul A.; Oakley, David A.; Guilmette, D. N.; Gabay, Anthony S.; Halligan, Peter W.; Deeley, Quinton

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2014.02.008

Cited by 18 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 46 publications

(40 reference statements)

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“…The VOL condition involved voluntary self-controlled writing while ‘hypnotised’ and in the absence of any suggestion for altered subjective experience or behaviour. Participants listened to the sentence stem and wrote down a suitable ending when they heard the appropriate tone (see Figure 1; Walsh et al , 2014, 2015). All three blocks were presented in random order after a hypnotic induction procedure.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During scanning, participants were presented with 10 sentence stems in each experimental block and were instructed to think of a short simple suitable ending to the sentence and write it down upon hearing a tone. Each trial had an interval for generation of a sentence ending (‘thought interval’) and an interval for writing it down (`movement interval’; see Walsh et al , 2014, 2015). At the start of the thought interval, participants were presented with a sentence stem, which was repeated once, via headphones.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The first automatic writing condition (TI + ACM; ‘thought insertion’ plus ‘alien control of movement’) combined suggestions for TI and ACM within a single condition (Walsh et al , 2014). It was suggested that an ‘engineer’ was ‘inserting the sentence endings into your mind’ in the thought interval, and also ‘controlling your hand movements during writing’ in the movement interval.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our behavioural study modeled experiences of thought insertion and alien control during automatic writing with and without awareness (Walsh et al , 2014). The task design separated thought (thinking of a sentence ending) from writing movement (writing the sentence down).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Brain mechanisms for loss of awareness of thought and movement

Walsh

Oakley

Halligan

et al. 2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

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Loss or reduction of awareness is common in neuropsychiatric disorders and culturally influenced dissociative phenomena but the underlying brain mechanisms are poorly understood. fMRI was combined with suggestions for automatic writing in 18 healthy highly hypnotically suggestible individuals in a within-subjects design to determine whether clinical alterations in awareness of thought and movement can be experimentally modelled and studied independently of illness. Subjective ratings of control, ownership, and awareness of thought and movement, and fMRI data were collected following suggestions for thought insertion and alien control of writing movement, with and without loss of awareness. Subjective ratings confirmed that suggestions were effective. At the neural level, our main findings indicated that loss of awareness for both thought and movement during automatic writing was associated with reduced activation in a predominantly left-sided posterior cortical network including BA 7 (superior parietal lobule and precuneus), and posterior cingulate cortex, involved in self-related processing and awareness of the body in space. Reduced activity in posterior parietal cortices may underlie specific clinical and cultural alterations in awareness of thought and movement. Clinically, these findings may assist development of imaging assessments for loss of awareness of psychological origin, and interventions such as neurofeedback.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Brain mechanisms for loss of awareness of thought and movement

Walsh

Oakley

Halligan

et al. 2017

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Walsh et al (2014) used suggestions to model both the motor changes -related to alien control -and cognitive experiencesrelated to thought insertion -involved in automatic writing. In the first experiment, they tested 20 highs in a mock fMRI scanner.…”

Section: Alien Control and Other Delusions Involving Altered Agencymentioning

confidence: 99%