Article: Scientists are unveiling how the brain works when hypnotized

UPDATE Jan 2011: Science News has switched to paywall access for all their articles, so only subscribers can now access the full article below.

Science News brings us an article from October 2009 by Susan Gaidos titled, THE MESMERIZED MIND.

The article does a nice job of dismissing some of the common Hollywood myths about hypnosis while also talking about how labs and studies are now using hypnosis as a tool to study the brain. There is a great image comparing the brain activity of a hypnotized person vs. the same task and responses from a non-hypnotized brain.

You know the good old "stuck hand" routine? They've mapped it to neural activity and paths in the brain in real-time using fMRI. From the article:

By rerouting motor signals to the precuneus, hypnosis appeared to decouple the typical relationship between brain areas that generate the signals for hand movement and the areas that carry out such movements. Subjects who were not hypnotized and were asked to fake paralysis showed no such disconnect between these regions.

A fascinating read, and well worth adding to your bibliographic references for clients researching hypnosis, or perhaps as a link on your web site under the "About Hypnosis" page.