The International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis
Volume 58, Number 4 - October 2010 - English

Allocation of Attentional Resources in Posthypnotic Suggestion
IRENE P. TOBIS AND JOHN F. KIHLSTROM

Abstract: Highly hypnotizable subjects received a nonhypnotic instruction to respond to a particular digit in a display and a posthypnotic suggestion to respond to a different digit.  On some test trials, these 2 responses were tested separately; on others, they were placed in conflict. Overall, subjects were no more responsive to posthypnotic cues than to nonhypnotic cues, nor did their response latencies differ.  However, response to posthypnotic cues diminished when they conflicted with the nonhypnotic cues. Analysis of response latencies showed that posthypnotic responding interfered with nonhypnotic responding (and vice-versa), even on those trials where there was no procedural conflict.  Posthypnotic behavior is not inevitably evoked by the presentation of the pre-arranged cue. Furthermore, the interference between posthypnotic and nonhypnotic responses indicates that posthypnotic responding consumes attentional resources. Both findings indicate that posthypnotic behavior is not automatic in the technical sense of that term.

Trance State Effects and Imagery Vividness Before and During a Hypnotic Assessment: A Preliminary Study
RONALD J. PEKALA, RONALD MAURER, V. K. KUMAR, NANCY ELLIOTT-CARTER, AND KAREN MULLEN

Abstract: This preliminary study explored the relationship between imagery vividness before and during a phenomenological assessment procedure, the Phenomenology of Consciousness Inventory - Hypnotic Assessment Procedure (PCI-HAP), while also assessing trance (hypnoidal) state effects and several other variables. The PCI-HAP allows the assessment of trance state effects associated with hypnotism to be quantified and statistically assessed. The 102 subjects completed the PCI-HAP along with several other questionnaire items. Correlational and regression analyses suggested that imagery vividness during hypnotism (hypnotic imagoic suggestibility) was predicted by combined imagery vividness before hypnotism and trance (altered) state effects during hypnotism. When measuring several additional variables, imagery vividness during hypnotism was found to be a function of self-reported hypnotic depth and additional other variables. The usefulness of these results for better understanding imagery vividness before and during hypnotism are discussed.

Long-Term Follow-Up of Self-Hypnosis Training for  Recurrent Headaches: What the Children Say
DANIEL P. KOHEN

Abstract: The author sent surveys to 178 consecutive youths previously referred for hypnosis for headache. The survey sought current status of headaches: treatment, application of self-hypnosis, headache intensity, frequency, duration after self-hypnosis, generalization of self-hypnosis to other problems, and attitudes regarding self-hypnosis and life stresses. Of 134 delivered surveys, 52 were returned complete. Years after treatment, 85% (44/52) reported continued relief with self-hypnosis, 44% (23/52) reported decreased headache frequency, 31% (16/52) noted decreased severity, and 56% (29/52) reported that self-hypnosis reduced headache intensity. Many (26/52) emphasized the value of self-hypnosis to life stresses. In children and adolescents, self-hypnosis is associated with significant improvement of headaches and with an enduring positive effect for many years following training. Results suggest common and spontaneous generalizability of self-hypnosis by young people to modulation of other problems in their lives.

Polish Norms for the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A
JERZY  SIUTA

Abstract: The Polish version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A;  Shor & Orne, 1962) was administered to 1174 participants (968 women and 206 men). Polish data were compared with other norming studies. Point-biserial item-scale correlations ranged from r = .12 (posthypnotic suggestion item) to r = .49. The Kuder-Richardson correlation of .70 was within the range of the reference samples. Test-retest reliability coefficients were obtained from one group of participants tested twice in the same session (r = .69, p < .05), and another group 8 weeks apart (r = .58, p < .05). Females scored significantly higher than males.

Autogenic Training Alters Cerebral Activation Patterns in fMRI
MARC SCHLAMANN, RYAN NAGLATZKI, ARMIN DE GREIFF, MICHAEL FORSTING, AND ELKE R. GIZEWSKI

Abstract: The purpose was to investigate the Cerebral activation patterns duringe the first three auto-suggestive phases of autogenic training (AT) were investigated in relation to perceived experiences. Nineteen volunteers familiar withtrained in AT and nineteen 19 controls were studied with fMRI during the first steps of autogenic training. FMRI revealed activation of the left postcentral areas during AT in those with experience in AT, which also correlated with the level of AT experience. Activation of prefrontal and insular cortex was significantly higher in the group with experiences in AT, and while insular activation was correlated with experience in simple relaxation exercises. In conclusion, Sspecific activation in subjects experienced in AT may represent a training effect. Further, the correlation of insular activation could represent a suggests that these subjects are different from untrained subjects in emotional processing or self-awareness.