The varied relationship between hypnosis and dissociative phenomena: Implications for traumatology

Hypnotizability and Disordered Personality Styles in Cluster A Personality Disorders

“…Meanwhile, CAPD patients were reported to experience more childhood maltreatment and trauma [15], which even led to suicidal ideation and behavior in schizotypal personality disorder patients [16], suggesting that CAPD patients might possess a high hypnotizability level. Moreover, dissociation of sensorimotor areas happened during hypnosis [17,18]. In high hypnotizable ones, a reduction of glutamate and an increment of GABA in the anterior cingulate cortex [19], a weakened connectivity between the executive control network and the default mode network [20], and a reduced metacognition of agency [21] were also detected.…”

“…Interestingly, the dysfunction of the frontotemporal cortical network [22] and the metabolic decrement of glutamate in the prefrontal area were found [23], and lower sensorimotor gating with greater volume in the motor pathways were reported in patients with schizotypal traits [24,25]. These findings implied that their top-down awareness of intention was inhibited, and their executive control system would easily lose its control over the sensorimotor domain [17,18,21], which might also lead to a high passing rate of hypnotic suggestions. In addition, the perceptual and cognitive distortions in CAPD patients [26] suggest that they experience similar changes under hypnotic perceptual-cognitive suggestions.…”