Hypnosis modulates behavioral measures and subjective ratings about external and internal awareness

Publication date: Available online 10 November 2015 Source:Journal of Physiology-Paris Author(s): Athena Demertzi, Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, Quentin Noirhomme, Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville, Steven Laureys In altered subjective states, the behavioral quantification of external and internal awareness remains challenging due to the need for reports on the subjects’ behalf. With the aim to characterize the behavioral counterpart of external and internal awareness in a modified subjective condition, we used hypnosis during which subjects remain fully responsive. Eleven right-handed subjects reached a satisfactory level of hypnotisability as evidenced by subjective reports on arousal, absorption and dissociation. Compared to normal wakefulness, in hypnosis a) participants’ self-ratings for internal awareness increased and self- ratings for external awareness decreased, b) the two awareness components tended to anticorrelate less and the switches between external and internal awareness self-ratings were less frequent, and c) participants’ reaction times were higher and lapses in key presses were more frequent. The identified imbalance between the two components of awareness is considered as of functional relevance to subjective (meta)cognition, possibly mediated by allocated attentional properties brought about by hypnosis. Our results highlight the presence of a cognitive counterpart in resting state, indicate that the modified contents of awareness are measurable b...
Source: Journal of Physiology Paris - Category: Physiology Source Type: research