Using hypnosis to disrupt face processing: mirrored-self misidentification delusion and different visual media

Abstract

Mirrored-self misidentification delusion is the belief that one’s reflection in the mirror is not oneself. This experiment used hypnotic suggestion to impair normal face processing in healthy participants and recreate key aspects of the delusion in the laboratory. From a pool of 439 participants, 22 high hypnotisable participants (“highs”) and 20 low hypnotisable participants were selected on the basis of their extreme scores on two separately administered measures of hypnotisability. These participants received a hypnotic induction and a suggestion for either impaired (i) self-face recognition or (ii) impaired recognition of all faces. Participants were tested on their ability to recognize themselves in a mirror and other visual media – including a photograph, live video, and handheld mirror – and their ability to recognize other people, including the experimenter and famous faces. Both suggestions produced impaired self-face recognition and recreated key aspects of the delusion in highs. However, only the suggestion for impaired other-face recognition disrupted recognition of other faces, albeit in a minority of highs. The findings confirm that hypnotic suggestion can disrupt face processing and recreate features of mirrored-self misidentification. The variability seen in participants’ responses also corresponds to the heterogeneity seen in clinical patients. An important direction for future research will be to examine sources of this variability within both clinical patients and the hypnotic model.

Neurodegeneration and mirror image agnosia

“…(2014) also managed to recreate mirrored self misidentification delusion in healthy participants by disrupting face processing or mirror knowledge as well as belief evaluation, using hypnotic suggestion. [ 20 ] Our patients showed defective reflected self image processing in the absence of focal brain insults in the form of neglects or any evidence of other forms of face processing defects except in one patient. Neuropsychological tests as well as neuroimaging showed consistent abnormality in the non-dominant parietal lobe.…”

Hypnotic models of mirrored-self misidentification delusion: A review and an evaluation.

“…Participants in the experiment that directly compared all three suggestions (Connors, Barnier, Langdon, et al, 2014), for example, were more likely to maintain the delusion than participants in earlier experiments (Connors, Barnier, et al, 2012; Connors et al, 2013). This could be attributable, in part, to different levels of hypnotizability—highs in the experiments reported by Connors et al (2014) had slightly higher hypnotizability scores on average than highs in some previous experiments (Connors, Barnier, et al, 2012). These differences in hypnotizability scores, however, are unlikely to completely explain the different responses to challenge.…”

“…This experiment also confirmed that a hypnotic context was necessary to reliably produce the analogue. In a further experiment, we found that suggestions for impaired face processing disrupted highs’—but not low hypnotizable participants’—self-recognition in other visual media, including photographs, live video, and a handheld mirror (Connors, Barnier, Coltheart, et al, 2014). We also found that a suggestion for impaired recognition of all faces (prosopagnosia) disrupted several highs’ ability to recognize other people’s faces in addition to their own and resulted in clear deficits on a formal neuropsychological test of face processing.…”

Hypnosis and belief: A review of hypnotic delusions

“…Third, Connors et al (2014a) tested whether hypnotic mirrored-self misidentification affected self-recognition in other visual media and recognition of other people. This is important because some clinical patients with the delusion recognise themselves in photographs or handheld mirrors and recognise other people in the mirror, despite maintaining that their own reflection is a stranger (Breen et al, 2001;Feinberg, 2001).…”

“…This is important because some clinical patients with the delusion recognise themselves in photographs or handheld mirrors and recognise other people in the mirror, despite maintaining that their own reflection is a stranger (Breen et al, 2001;Feinberg, 2001). Connors et al (2014a) gave 22 highs and 20 lows suggestions for either impaired self-face recognition (the Factor 1 suggestion from Connors et al, 2012a) or impaired recognition of all faces (prosopagnosia). They tested whether participants recognised themselves in a mirror, photograph, live video feed, and a handheld mirror.…”