Phase-Ordered Gamma Oscillations And The Modulation Of Hypnotic Experience

Abstract

Abstract Neuroscience has begun to open up a whole new perspective on the nature and causes of hypnosis that promises to transform the field over the next few years. This has occurred for three main reasons. First, a number of theories of brain functioning and attentional control in hypnosis have been elaborated that can be explicitly tested using neurophysiological methods (Woody and Bowers 1994; Ray 1997; Gruzelier 1998, 2000; Oakley 1999; Crawford 2001). Secondly, researchers have moved from studying passive resting states to experimental designs that assess brain function while participants respond to hypnotic suggestions such as hypnosis-induced analgesia (De Pascalis and Perrone 1996; Rainville et al. 1997) and hallucinations (Szechtman et al.