Tech UPTechnologyWhy can't everyone be hypnotized?

Why can't everyone be hypnotized?

pensar3Hypnosis is a method widely used as therapy to treat psychological conditions such as phobias and anxiety states. However, not all people are equally receptive to this technique and some patients cannot reach the trance state of hypnosis. Now, a group of researchers from Stanford University (USA) has discovered that, in these people, the activity of theareas of the brain related to attention and decision-makingit is lower than in those that are easily hypnotized.

It is not a question of personality, as one might think, but of neurons. David Spiegel, one of the authors of the work, estimates that a quarter of his patients are not receptive to hypnosis. “Apparently there were no personality traits in these patients that differentiated them from others. It had to be something that happened in the brain,” explains the researcher.

To verify this, the scientists obtained magnetic resonance images of 24 patients, half of them with a high capacity to be hypnotized, and the other half without it. Specifically, the researchers analyzed the activity in three neural networks of the brain: the one used when the brain is at rest, the one that participates in decision-making, and the one that is activated when the importance of a task must be determined.

The results, which are published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, revealed that, while both groups showed the same neural activity when the brain was at rest, people with more receptivity to hypnosis hadincreased activity on the other two networks, which also worked in tandem. Specifically, the area related to decision-making was co-activated with areas involved in care. In contrast, these zones were not connected in participants with a low ability to be hypnotized.
“The brain is complicated, people are complicated,” say the scientists. “That is why we are satisfied with this clear result.” The next step in the research will be to explore the way these neural networks act during the hypnosis process.

 

The brain works like a quantum computer

New research from Trinity College Dublin concludes that certain brain functions 'must be quantum'.

They grow human cells in the laboratory capable of playing Pong

These 'mini-brains' (biological chips) could teach us a lot about

They discover an unknown function of the cerebellum

This part of the brain that regulates movement also plays a crucial role in our emotional memory, a new study concludes.

This is how an hour of walking through nature influences your brain

After a 60-minute walk in nature, activity in brain regions involved in stress processing decreases, a new study concludes.

More