Authors: E L Santarcangelo E Scattina G Carli B Ghelarducci P Orsini D Manzoni
Publish Date: 2010/09/17
Volume: 206, Issue: 3, Pages: 329-335
Abstract
Previous studies showed that highly hypnotizable persons imagining a specific sensory context behave according to the corresponding real stimulation and perceive their behaviour as involuntary The aim of the study was to confirm the hypothesis of a translation of sensory imagery into real perception and thus of a true involuntary response We studied the imageryinduced modulation of the vestibulospinal VS reflex earlier component in highly Highs and low hypnotizable subjects Lows as it is not affected by voluntary control its amplitude depends on the stimulus intensity and the plane of body sway depends on the position of the head with respect to the trunk Results showed that the effects of the “obstructive” imagery of anaesthesia are different from those elicited by the “constructive” imagery of head rotation Indeed both Highs and Lows having their face forward and reporting high vividness of imagery experienced anaesthesia and reduced their VS reflex amplitude in the frontal plane while only Highs changed the plane of body sway according to the imagined head rotation that is from the frontal to the sagittal one These effects cannot be voluntary and should be attributed to translation of sensory imagery into the corresponding real perception
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