Hypnotizability-Related Asymmetries: A Review

Title
Hypnotizability-Related Asymmetries: A Review
Publication Date
2020
Author(s)
De Pascalis, Vilfredo
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4594-8877
Email: vdepasca@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:vdepasca
Santarcangelo, Enrica Laura
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
MDPI AG
Place of publication
Switzerland
DOI
10.3390/sym12061015
UNE publication id
une:1959.11/62517
Abstract

Hypnotizability is a dispositional trait reflecting the individual ability to modify perception, memory and behavior according to imaginative suggestions. It is measured by validated scales that classify the general population in high (highs), medium (mediums) and low (lows) hypnotizable persons, predicts the individual proneness to respond to suggestions, and is particularly popular in the field of the cognitive control of pain and anxiety. Different hypnotizability levels, however, have been associated with specific brain morpho-functional characteristics and with peculiarities in the cognitive, sensorimotor and cardiovascular domains also in the ordinary state of consciousness and in the absence of specific suggestions. The present scoping review was undertaken to summarize the asymmetries observed in the phenomenology and physiological correlates of hypnosis and hypnotizability as possible indices of related hemispheric prevalence. It presents the findings of 137 papers published between 1974 and 2019. In summary, in the ordinary state of consciousness, behavioral, neurophysiological and neuroimaging investigations have revealed hypnotizability related asymmetries mainly consisting of pre-eminent left hemisphere information processing/activation in highs, and no asymmetries or opposite directions of them in lows. The described asymmetries are discussed in relation to the current theories of hypnotizability and hypnosis.

Link
Citation
Symmetry, 12(6), p. 1-20
ISSN
2073-8994
Start page
1
End page
20

Files:

NameSizeformatDescriptionLink
openpublished/HypnotizabilityDePascalis2020JournalArticle.pdf 363.684 KB application/pdf Published version View document