Reduced prepulse inhibition is associated with increased hypnotizability

Abstract

Hypnosis involves the manipulation of conscious attentional discrimination. The prepulse inhibition (PPI) paradigm assesses primary unconscious information processing. We investigated the correlation between hypnotizability and PPI of the startle reflex. Forty-eight healthy subjects were evaluated with the Stanford Hypnotic Susceptibility Scale, Form C (SHSS:C) and acoustic PPI. Subjects were divided into low, medium, and high hypnotizable groups. The low-hypnotizable group showed a significantly higher inhibition of the startle response, at lead intervals 60 ms and 120 ms, than did the medium-and highhypnotizable groups. We conclude that hypnotizability and PPI may be negatively correlated. These findings lend further support for the role of dopaminergic neurotransmission mechanisms in the determination of hypnotizability levels.

The emerging neuroscience of hypnosis

“…A number of studies have linked hypnotic suggestibility with the COMT genetic polymorphism (Lichtenberg et al, 2000;Lichtenberg et al, 2004;Szekely et al, 2010), although the effects are not always consistent across genders and the particular allele. These results suggest a basis for the heritability of hypnotic suggestibility (e.g., Morgan et al, 1970) and a link with dopaminergic systems and prefrontal cortical functioning (see also Lichtenberg et al, 2008).…”

Revisiting the association between hypnotisability and blink rate

“…studies of functions classically considered as "dopaminergic" (Kohl et al 2013;Colzato et al 2009) have provided inconsistent results. In fact, reduced pre-pulse inhibition has been found associated with high hypnotisability (Lichtenberg et al 2008b), but blink rate (BR) has been found lower in highs than in medium hypnotizable individuals (mediums) (Lichtenberg et al 2008a) and lows (Lindsay et al 1993).…”

Hypnotizability-Related Effects of Vestibular Impairment on Posture and Locomotion

“…Differences could also derive from a possible hypnotizability-related distribution/activity of dopaminergic afferents, modulating mainly the activity of associative and motor areas, and of nor-adrenergic projections, directed mainly to motor and somestesic areas (Bloom, Bjorklund, & Hokfelt, 1998). Indeed, a higher dopaminergic activity in highs' brains, likely responsible for hypnotizability-related differences in attentional abilities, has been suggested (Lichtenberg, Bachner-Melman, Ebstein, & Crawford, 2004;Lichtenberg, Even-Or, Bar, et al, 2008;Raz, 2005;Spiegel & King,1992), although not unanimously confirmed (Lichtenberg, EvenOr, Bachner-Melman, et al, 2008), and nor-adrenergic projections are involved in both hypnotizability and motor control. Most of them originate from the locus coeuruleus (LC), which receives inputs from prefrontal cortex and anterior cingulus as well as from vestibular nuclei and projects to sensorimotor and associative cortices, thalamus, cerebellum, hypothalamus, hippocampus, brainstem sensory/motor nuclei, dorsal/ventral horn of the spinal cord (see Carli et al, 2008).…”