This is why some people respond better to hypnosis than others:- New Stanford University School of Medicine research illustrates how the brains of non-hypnotizers differ from those who can.
This is why some people respond better to hypnosis than others.
The October issue of Archives of General Psychiatry published a study using functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging to show how people who cannot be hypnotized have less activity in executive control and attention areas. “There’s never been a brain signature of being hypnotized, and we’re on the verge of identifying one,” said senior author and psychiatry and behavioral sciences professor David Spiegel, MD.
- Spiegel, who runs the Stanford Center for Integrative Medicine, said such a development would help scientists comprehend hypnosis’ mechanics and improve its therapeutic usage.
- Spiegel thinks that 25% of his patients cannot be hypnotized, although hypnotizability is not personality-based.
- “There’s got to be something going on in the brain,” stated he.
- A trance-like condition of hypnosis increases focus and concentration.
- It has been used clinically to relieve pain, tension, anxiety, and phobias by improving brain control over sensation and behavior.
- This study provides intriguing new information about neurological capability for hypnosis, which modulates activity in focused attention brain areas.
- “Our results provide novel evidence that altered functional connectivity in [the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex] and [the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex] may underlie hypnotizability,” the team said in the publication.
- The investigation involved functional and structural MRI scans of the brains of 12 persons with high and low hypnotizability by Spiegel and his Stanford colleagues.
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The researchers examined the brain’s default-mode network, used when the brain is idle, the executive-control network, which makes decisions, and the salience network, which prioritizes things. Spiegel reported that both groups exhibited an active default-mode network, but more hypnotizable participants had stronger executive-control network-salience network co-activation.
- In particular, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, an executive-control region of the brain, and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, part of the salience network and involved in attention focusing, were activated in the highly hypnotizable group.
- Those with minimal hypnotizability have little functional connection between these two brain locations.
- Spiegel was glad he and his colleagues uncovered something clear.
- “The brain is complicated, people are complicated, and it was surprising we were able to get such a clear signature,” he said.
- Spiegel also stated the study shows that cognitive style, not personality, determines hypnotizability.
- “Here we’re seeing a neural trait,” stated he.
- The authors plan to study how hypnosis affects these functional networks.
- Spiegel and his team are recruiting high- and low-hypnotizable patients for another fMRI investigation performed under hypnosis.
- The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine funds it.
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