The Hypnotized Brain
Hypnosis is a strange phenomenon, bound to invite skepticism. Now, with technologies such as fMRIs, some of that skepticism can be assuaged. A recent study by a group at the Weizmann Institute in Israel confirms the fact that at least in the case of post-hypnotic amnesia (“PHA,” in which subjects are hypnotised to forget something until a cancelling command is uttered) pre-conscious brain behavior is significantly modified.
In the study, a group of subjects susceptible to this hypnotism were asked to watch a movie after which PHA was induced. In comparison with a control group that was not susceptible to hypnosis, the subjects had difficulty recalling the movie’s content, but not the context in which they saw the movie. After the “cancelling command” their performance matched that of the control group. When they had trouble remembering, their brains showed comparatively little activity in the occipital lobe (responsible for visualization) and the left temporal lobe (responsible for analyzing the questions) as well as increased activity in the prefrontal cortex which regulates othe brain activities.
This probably won’t convince die-hard skeptics, but it should get close. It is pretty clear, given the brain activity, that the subjectsare not, for example, remembering but simply failing to produce the answers.
Read more at Scientific American.