Hypnotically induced limb anesthesia and adaptation to displacing prisms: a failure to confirm.

Three groups of subjects were tested for accuracy of pointing at a visual target before and after wearing displacing prisms. One group consisted of 10 highly susceptible subjects given a hypnotic suggestion for limb anesthesia following the pretest, and a second group included 10 low susceptible subjects instructed to fake limb anesthesia. A control group (n = 10) unselected on susceptibility received no special instructions. The high susceptibles reported significantly greater felt anesthesia than subjects in the other two treatments (p < .05). Nevertheless, subjects in all three groups showed very large displacement errors (i.e., errors in pointing) following prism removal. Our results failed to confirm previous reports that placement errors were eliminated by hypnotic suggestion in highly susceptible subjects. Theoretical implications are discussed.