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Invited Symposium: Neural Bases of Hypnosis






Abstract

INTRODUCTION

ERPs AND HYPNOTIC HALLUCINATIONS

HYPNOTIC ANALGESIA

HYPNOTIC ANALGESIA : OUR RECENT FINDINGS

OUR RECENT FINDINGS: DISCUSSION




Discussion
Board

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Brain Mechanisms and Attentional Processes in Hypnosis

De Pascalis, V. (Department of Psychology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy)

Contact Person: Vilfredo De Pascalis (depascal@giannutri.caspur.it)


Abstract

This presentation reviews some of our published psychophysiological research supporting that: (a) highly hypnotizable individuals possess stronger abilities in the focussing of attention on relevant stimuli and this ability is associated to task-related hemisphere functioning; and (b) hypnotic absorption, defined as the individual ability to experience episodes of 'total' attention on relevant events (Tellegen & Atkinson, 1974), is a mechanism facilitating dissociation and essential to describe hypnotic obstruction phenomena. Both attentional and absorption mechanisms involve the activity of a supervisory attentional control system in the frontal cortex interacting with posterior cortical and subcortical brain regions. The validity of these statements was derived from a number of studies carried out in our laboratory in which were obtained: (1) measures of a fast EEG activity in the 36-44 Hz band (40-Hz EEG); (2) peak amplitude measures of event-related potentials (ERPs) during obstructive hallucination; (3) EEG spectral analyses and ERPs during different types of hypnotic analgesia suggestions. Findings from these studies suggested that different suggestions of hypnotic analgesia are associated to different processes at cortical level. Hypnotic analgesia is the product of a top-down inhibitory process that starts from frontal cerebral cortex and modulates thalamocortical activity by acting as a filter for the sensory component of the incoming inputs.

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Presentation Number SAde pascalis0311
Keywords: 40-Hz EEG, ERP, EEG, Hypnosis, Hypnotic analgesia


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De Pascalis, V.; (1998). Brain Mechanisms and Attentional Processes in Hypnosis. Presented at INABIS '98 - 5th Internet World Congress on Biomedical Sciences at McMaster University, Canada, Dec 7-16th. Invited Symposium. Available at URL http://www.mcmaster.ca/inabis98/woody/de_pascalis0311/index.html
© 1998 Author(s) Hold Copyright