In this article, hypnotic responsiveness is conceptualized as the byproduct of hypnotic ability, which is largely unalterable, plus hypnotic participation, which is highly subject to manipulation in the therapeutic context. This framework constitutes the basis of a model for the conversational assessment of hypnotic ability and hypnotic participation, as well as the subsequent tailoring of ther...

background research in the area of herbal psychopharmacology has clearly improved in recent decades. self-administration of herbal medicines has been the most popular therapeutic alternative to standard medicine. objectives since the extract of echium amoenum exhibits an anxiolytic effect, the aim of this study is to evaluate the anxiolytic and hypnotic effects in mice of the aqueous and ethano...

Grapheme-color synesthesia is a perceptual experience where graphemes, letters or words evoke a specific color, which are experienced either as spatially coincident with the grapheme inducer (projector sub-type) or elsewhere, perhaps without a definite spatial location (associator sub-type). Here, we address the question of whether synesthesia can be rapidly produced using a hypnotic color sugg...

In recent years, hypnosis has begun to gain traction as a potentially valuable tool in the increasingly diverse repertoires of cognitive neuroscience and cognitive neuropsychiatry (Oakley and Halligan, 2009). Hypnosis consists of a set of procedures beginning with an induction, which involves instructions and suggestions to promote absorption in (i.e., effortless attention towards) the words of...

The aim of this study was to investigate the analgesic effects of hypnotic pain control on experimental pain by measuring pupil reactions as an objective psycho-physiologic parameter. Twenty-two healthy volunteers (11 female and 11 male) aged between 22 and 35 years participated in the study. Pupil diameter was measured as baseline measurement (i.e., static measurement) in the non-hypnotic and ...

One approach to hypnosis suggests that for hypnotic experience to occur frontal lobe activity must be attenuated. For example, cold control theory posits that a lack of awareness of intentions is responsible for the experience of involuntariness and/or the subjective reality of hypnotic suggestions. The mid-dorso-lateral prefrontal cortex and the ACC are candidate regions for such awareness. Al...

Procedures for estimating hypnotic depth have been used for more than 70 years. This study predicted self-reported hypnotic depth from the phenomenological and behavioral variables of the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory-Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP). Participants were divided into 2 groups; 1 was used to generate regression equations, and the other group was used for cross-va...

STUDY OBJECTIVES Slow wave sleep (SWS) plays a critical role in body restoration and promotes brain plasticity; however, it markedly declines across the lifespan. Despite its importance, effective tools to increase SWS are rare. Here we tested whether a hypnotic suggestion to "sleep deeper" extends the amount of SWS. DESIGN Within-subject, placebo-controlled crossover design. SETTING Sleep ...

To assess or not assess hypnotic suggestibility? That is the question. Dr. Howard Sutcher (2008) reports four cases in which the patients he treated profited from treatment yet " differed vastly in their levels of hypnotizability " (p. 61). He uses this observation to support his position that hypnotic suggestibility scores can tell us very little about treatment outcome. If Dr. Sutcher is corr...