Non-hypnotic Suggestion Research Articles

Hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion to ignore pre-cues decreases space-valence congruency effects in highly hypnotizable individuals.

Previous studies have shown that the speed of identifying emotional words is affected by pre-cues of up or down arrows, called the space-valence congruency effect (Zhang, Hu, Zhang, & Wang, 2015). In the present study, we investigate whether this effect is influenced by hypnotic or non-hypnotic suggestions to ignore pre-cues in highly hypnotizable individuals (HHIs). In all conditions, target words (including positive words, negative words and neutral words) primed by up or down arrows were presented to pre-screened HHIs. They were asked to identify whether the target words had emotional valence. Behavioral results showed that the space-valence congruency effect was absent in the hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion groups, but present in the non-suggestion control group. Consistently, the amplitudes of P2 components elicited by negative words were significantly larger when primed by down than by up arrows in the non-suggestion control group, and this P2 effect was absent in the hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion groups. Moreover, the amplitudes of the late positive components (LPC) showed no significant arrow-priming difference for positive targets in the hypnotic-suggestion and control groups. However, in the non-hypnotic suggestion group, the amplitudes of LPC were significantly larger when primed by down than up arrows for positive targets. Our results showed that suggestions, even without a hypnotic induction, can de-automatize embodied emotional recognition processes and modulate early attentional processing.

Hypnosis meets neuropsychology: Simulating visuospatial neglect in healthy participants

Neglect patients are not aware of stimuli in the contralesional space. We aimed to simulate neglect-like behaviour in healthy participants, by asking them to orient their visuospatial attention in two conditions: non-hypnotic suggestion and post-hypnotic suggestion. Results showed that directing visuospatial attention to one side of space caused neglect of stimuli in the opposite side of space, but only when participants were under post-hypnotic suggestion. Furthermore, directing visuospatial attention to the right side of space caused more neglect of left-sided stimuli than directing visuospatial attention to the left side of space did for right-sided stimuli. We propose that post-hypnotic suggestion can be a useful tool for (de)activating neurocognitive mechanisms underlying visuospatial awareness, a function that is fundamental for our survival. The use of post-hypnotic suggestion could be applied to the study of many domains of cognitive neurosciences (e.g., neurocognitive rehabilitation).

Using hypnosis to gain insights into healthy and pathological cognitive functioning

The demonstration that hypnotic suggestion can inhibit word/colour Stroop highlights one of the benefits of using hypnosis to explore cognitive psychology and in particular attentional processes. The compelling results using a rigorous design have particular relevance for the presumed automaticity of some forms of information processing. Moreover the results support the potential that hypnotic suggestion offers for creating clinically informed analogues of relevant psychological and neuropsychological conditions. As with all novel research, the results of Raz and Campbell raise further operational and theoretical questions, relating in this case to the use of hypnotic, post-hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion and the utility of existing measures of hypnotizability.

Look into my eyes…

Consciousness is a strange beast. Most of the time you're either awake or asleep, yet these are far from the only states our minds can enter. Over the next 10 pages we explore some of these journeys of the mind, from hypnosis to sleep paralysis. Some of them may seem scary and exotic, but most of us experience at least one at some point in our lives. All reveal the malleability of the human mind and the fragility of that sense of me, here, now. Enjoy the trip. The power of hypnosis – drunk without drinking http://www.hypnosisandsuggestion.org/ The power of (non-hypnotic) suggestion, complete with an explanation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPM0BkMSZCU

Fibromyalgia pain and its modulation by hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion: An fMRI analysis

The neuropsychological status of pain conditions such as fibromyalgia, commonly categorized as ‘psychosomatic’ or ‘functional’ disorders, remains controversial. Activation of brain structures dependent upon subjective alterations of fibromyalgia pain experience could provide an insight into the underlying neuropsychological processes. Suggestion following a hypnotic induction can readily modulate the subjective experience of pain. It is unclear whether suggestion without hypnosis is equally effective. To explore these and related questions, suggestions following a hypnotic induction and the same suggestions without a hypnotic induction were used during functional magnetic resonance imaging to increase and decrease the subjective experience of fibromyalgia pain. Suggestion in both conditions resulted in significant changes in reported pain experience, although patients claimed significantly more control over their pain and reported greater pain reduction when hypnotised. Activation of the midbrain, cerebellum, thalamus, and midcingulate, primary and secondary sensory, inferior parietal, insula and prefrontal cortices correlated with reported changes in pain with hypnotic and non-hypnotic suggestion. These activations were of greater magnitude, however, when suggestions followed a hypnotic induction in the cerebellum, anterior midcingulate cortex, anterior and posterior insula and the inferior parietal cortex. Our results thus provide evidence for the greater efficacy of suggestion following a hypnotic induction. They also indicate direct involvement of a network of areas widely associated with the pain ‘neuromatrix’ in fibromyalgia pain experience. These findings extend beyond the general proposal of a neural network for pain by providing direct evidence that regions involved in pain experience are actively involved in the generation of fibromyalgia pain.

Commentary: Reversing Amnesia about Hypnosis

All that Kirsch and colleagues are harping on is that a formal hypnotic induction is not needed to elicit hypnotic response among hypnotizable people. That is why results are often comparable when hypnotic suggestions are given with and without a formal induction. Furthermore, many of the so-called ‘nonstate’ studies do not take hypnotizability into account. Differences of any kind, with or without a hypnotic induction, are unlikely to emerge among people who are not at least somewhat hypnotizable. It may indeed be the case that many people are not aware of slipping in and out of hypnotic states because it is such a natural shift in consciousness among those with the capacity. People do so spontaneously during intense experiences of absorption (Tellegen and Atkinson, 1974; Tellegen, 1981), traumatic stress (Spiegel, 1991; Spiegel, 2001; Butler, Duran, et al., 1996), or ‘flow.’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1991; Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). Those with the ability may not identify it as particularly unusual because it is part of their routine cognitiveexperiential landscape. From the article: “When controlling for the effect of nonhypnotic suggestion, it is crucial that the exact same suggestion is given in both the hypnotic and nonhypnotic conditions. People can be remarkably sensitive to the wording of imaginative suggestions. If the wording is not the same in both conditions (e.g., Kosslyn, Thompson, et al., 2000; Iani, Ricci, et al., 2006), it can confound the nature of the induction of hypnosis and the nature of the suggestion. With such ambiguity, it is impossible to know whether differences in response are due to hypnosis or to differences in the wording of the suggestion.” Talk about ambiguity – I cannot make sense of the meaning of this paragraph, especially as a co-author of the Kosslyn et al. study. By definition, the

Creating false memories of infancy with hypnotic and non-hypnotic procedures

This study was designed to test the conditions under while false memory reports are likely to be elicited from hypnotic and non-hypnotic participants. Low, medium and high hypnotizables were administered either a hypnotic or non-hypnotic suggestion for regression to the day after birth. False memories of infancy were generated in 68 of 78 age-regressed participants, nearly half of whom reported strong beliefs in the reality of their recovered ‘memories’. Non-hypnotic participants were slightly but significantly more likely to report infancy experiences than were hypnotic participants. However, hypnotizability did not have a significant effect on the classification of these experiences as memories or as fantasies. Implications for the experimental and clinical contexts are discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Automaticity in clinical psychology.

The authors provide an overview of the literature on the ability of response expectancies to elicit automatic responses in the form of self-fulfilling prophecies and link it to the broader psychological investigation of automatic processes. The authors review 3 areas of research in which response expectancies have been shown to affect experience, behavior, and physiology: placebo effects, the effects of false biofeedback on sexual arousal, and the alteration of perceptual and cognitive functions by hypnotic and nonhypnotic suggestion. Also reviewed are data suggesting that all behavior, including novel and intentional behavior, is initiated automatically. Following this review, the authors summarize some of the ways in which knowledge of response expectancy effects and other automatic processes that influence experience and behavior can enhance clinical practice.

Auditory and visual hallucinations in university students

One-hundred and thirty-six university students were administered the Launay-Slade Hallucination Scale (LSHS). Low and high scorers then completed a visual and an auditory task that utilized non-hypnotic suggestion and ambiguous stimuli. The high LSHS group reported a significantly greater number of meaningful visual and auditory experiences in response to the ambiguous stimulation. It is argued that these phenomena are hallucinations and demonstrate the possibility of researching hallucinations in non-psychotic populations in a laboratory setting.

Occurrence Schemas, Context Ambiguity, and Hypnotic Responding

We assessed the extent to which observers classified the behavior of a videotaped model as a goal-directed action or as an involuntary occurrence while varying the social context in which the model's behavior was embedded. Observers watched a model: a) respond to an arm levitation suggestion in a situation explicitly defined as hypnotic, b) respond to the same suggestion in a situation not defined as hypnotic, or c) attempt to swat a bothersome fly. In both open-ended testimony and on questionnaires, observers consistently described the fly-tracking behavior as a goal-directed action and the hypnotic response as an involuntary occurrence. Observers showed more variability when describing the behavior of the model who received the nonhypnotic suggestion. For observers of the fly-tracking and hypnotic videos involuntariness ratings of the model's behavior failed to correlate significantly with observers' own hypnotizability. However, for those shown the nonhypnotic suggestion video the extent to which the model's behavior was rated as involuntary predicted observers' own level of overt and subjective responding to a test of hypnotizability. Theoretical implications are discussed.

Hypnotically Induced Facsimile of Pain

THERE have been many studies showing that hypnotic suggestion of emotion is followed by physiologic and psychologic change. However, the effectiveness of hypnosis in faithfully reproducing actual events appears to be a relatively neglected field of study. The work of Graham et al 1 and Stern and co-workers 2 demonstrated that it was possible to reproduce specific attitudes and the related physiologic change associated with different diseases in normal subjects. Studies by Cobb and associates 3 have shown that the physiologic and psychologic response to hypnotic suggestion of exercise is similar to that of actual exercise. In previous studies 4,5 similar results were obtained during psychophysiologic studies of the respiratory system with the use of hypnotic suggestion, nonhypnotic suggestion, and naturally occurring events. From this work and that mentioned above it was thought that the suggested experience closely parallels the actual experience. However, no direct

HYPNOTIC AND NON-HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION AND SKIN RESPONSE IN ATOPIC PATIENTS.

(1965). Hypnotic and Non-Hypnotic Suggestion and Skin Response in Atopic Patients. American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis: Vol. 7, No. 4, pp. 342-345.