Brain Activity During Hypnosis In People With High Hypnotic Susceptibility

Hypnosis has always been a topic of concern in the field of psychology and clinical medicine.Previous studies have found that some people are more likely to enter a hypnotic state and respond to hypnotic suggestions.They are known as people with high hypnotic susceptibility.Why are some people more easily hypnotized? Existing brain studies have shown that the hypnotic process is closely related to the brain activity of frontal lobe.The hypnotic process can be divided into three stages: concentration,relaxation and suggestion.So,in the process of hypnosis,how is the brain activity of highly susceptible people going?In this study,near-infrared imaging was used to record brain activity during hypnosis.In experiment 1,the standardized hypnotic audio was used to hypnotize the participants in the three stages of hypnosis,concentration,relaxation and suggestion.Experiment 1 adopted one way between-subjects design.The independent variable was hypnotic susceptibility(high and low,screened by the scale)and the dependent variable was single brain activity(activation)during hypnosis.The aim was to explore the brain activity of people with high hypnotic susceptibility during hypnosis by comparing them with people with low hypnotic susceptibility.In view of the great clinical significance of the analgesic effect of hypnosis,experiment 2 required the participants to put their hands into ice water,accept hypnotic suggestion to induce analgesia,and report the pain level.In addition,considering the existence of the hypnotist to hypnosis effect,the stimulus of experiment 2 switched to the video recording the process of hypnosis in advance(brain activity of hypnotist was also recorded by near infrared imaging).Experiment 2 adopted one way between-subjects design.The independent variable was the same as experiment 1,and the dependent variables included single brain activation in the process of hypnosis,the amount of pain relief and interpersonal brain synchronization between hypnotist and hypnotized person.Based on this,experiment 2 intended to further explore the analgesic effect of hypnosis on people with high hypnotic susceptibility and inter-brain activity between hypnotist and highly hypnotized individuals during hypnosis.In experiment 1,we found that during concentration stage,people with high hypnotic susceptibility had lower level of frontal activation than people with low hypnotic susceptibility.Experiment 1 revealed that during the initial stage of hypnosis,people with high hypnotic susceptibility had more inhibited frontal activity.The results of experiment 2 are as follows.(1)in the hypnotic concentration stage,the frontal activation level of people with high hypnotic susceptibility was lower than that of the people with low hypnotic susceptibility.(2)In the hypnotic relaxation stage,the synchrony activity on the occipital lobe was stronger in the people with high hypnotic susceptibility than in the people with low hypnotic susceptibility.(3)Compared with people with low hypnotic susceptibility,hypnotic suggestion can relieve the pain of people with high hypnotic susceptibility.(4)Brain synchronization between the highly susceptible group and the hypnotist was positively correlated with pain relief among them.In addition to verifying the findings of experiment 1,experiment 2 further revealed that people with high hypnotic susceptibility and hypnotists showed greater synchronization during hypnosis,which was related to the analgesic effect of subsequent hypnotic suggestion.These results indicate that the frontal cortex executive functions are inhibited in the prehypnotic stage in the more easily hypnotized population.As hypnosis progressed,they and the hypnotist had more synchronous activity in the occipital cortex,possibly because they were following instructions to imagine.The more synchronized they were,the more likely subsequent hypnotic suggestion was to help relieve the pain.The experimental results support the state-non-state integration theory,which holds that hypnosis is a state in which the frontal executive functions are inhibited,and people with low hypnotic susceptibility are actively catering to the guidance of the hypnotist.This paper focuses on the neurologic characteristics of the highly susceptible population and attempts to provide guidance for the effective application of hypnotic analgesia in clinical practice.