A group of researchers from the Neuroscience Center and Medical School at the University of Geneva designed an experiment to assess motor and inhibitory brain circuits during hypnosis-induced paralysis. They used functional magnetic resonance imaging to directly test whether a hypnotic suggestion of paralysis activates specific inhibitory processes and whether these may or may not correspond to those responsible for inhibition in nonhypnotic conditions.
From what they observed, the study suggests that hypnosis does not actually impair motor function in the brain, but increases self-monitoring processes in the brain, giving the person a heightened sense of voluntary control. So the person is "paralyzed" not because the hypnotic state somehow shuts off motor control in the brain, but because the part of their brain responsible for self-imaging has really bought into the suggestion of paralysis and willfully stops sending motor impulses, it would seem. There's a disconnect from normal voluntary processes.
At first this may seem like an explanation of social compliance, or "going along with it," but it's important to recognize that the researchers were able to actually see increased activity in other parts of the brain. Other functions were actually becoming heightened. Slowly, but surely, these kinds of studies are helping us understand how the power of suggestion works at the neurological level. Very cool!
Comments