Laterality of Hypnotic Response

Abstract

In an investigation of hemispheric activity during hypnosis, a total of 1269 Ss received hypnotizability scales containing suggestions targeting the left or right side of the body. There were no consistent differences in response strength on the left compared to the right side. Nor were there differences in hypnotizability between right- and left-handed (and ambidextrous) Ss, or between Ss who sat on the left versus right side of the testing room. Definitive evidence of lateralized cerebral activity associated with hypnosis and hypnotizability can only come from direct neuropsychological, electrocortical, or brain-imaging investigations.

Hypnotic phenomena and altered states of consciousness: a multilevel framework of description and explanation

“…Bakan, 1969aBakan, , 1969bGur and Gur, 1974;Graham, 1977;Frumkin, Ripley and Cox, 1978;MacLeod-Morgan, 1982;Pagano, Akots and Wall, 1988). For contradicting results see, for example, Levine, Kurtz and Lauter, 1984;Edmonston and Moscovitz, 1990; Otto-Salaj, Nadon, Hyot, Register and Kihlstrom, 1992). The left hemisphere has been suggested to be of some importance (e.g.…”

Hypnosis in the right hemisphere

“…Hypnotizability has been correlated with performance on “gestalt closure” tasks that seem to capitalize on the holistic information-processing capacities of the right hemisphere (Crawford, 1981); and the induction of hypnosis, particularly in hypnotizable subjects, enhanced performance on behavioral tasks that ostensibly capitalized on “right hemisphere” functions (Bakan, 1970; Crawford, 1986). On the other hand, many of these observations have proved difficult to confirm and extend (e.g., Bakan, 1970; Cranney and McConkey, 1980; Gur and Gur, 1974; Monteiro and Zimbardo, 1987; Otto-Salaj et al, 1992; Stam et al, 1981; Wallace and Persanyi, 1989). …”