Salient findings: A potentially groundbreaking study on the neuroscience of hypnotizability, a critical review of hypnosis' efficacy, and the neurophysiology of conversion disorder

Salient findings: hypnotizability as core construct and the clinical utility of hypnosis

Six papers of special interest to the hypnosis community have recently appeared in the general scientific literatures. Three of these papers were published as part of the 2006 Cochrane Collaboration on the utility of medical interventions. These reviews analyze the research literature on the efficacy of hypnosis for treatment of needle-related pain in children, pain management during childbirth, and conversion disorder. Hypnosis is the most promising psychological intervention studied for needle-related procedural pain and distress in children and adolescents; it is effective as an adjunctive analgesic during childbirth; and it is of uncertain usefulness in treatment of conversion disorder. A second cluster of three studies unambiguously demonstrates the central role of hypnotizability as a predictor of responsiveness in laboratory, analogue treatment, and medical practice settings. One of these articles may well be the most important hypnosis paper in many years.

The neuroscience of observing consciousness & mirror neurons in therapeutic hypnosis

Neuroscience documents the activity of "mirror neurons" in the human brain as a mechanism whereby we experience empathy and recognize the intentions of others by observing their behavior and automatically matching their brain activity. This neural basis of empathy finds support in research on dysfunctions in the mirror systems of humans with autism and fMRI research on normal subjects designed to assess intentionality, emotions, and complex cognition. Such empathy research now appears to be consistent with the historical and research literature on hypnotic induction, rapport, and many of the classical phenomena of suggestion. A preliminary outline of how mirror neurons may function as a rapport zone mediating between observing consciousness, the gene expression/protein synthesis cycle, and brain plasticity in therapeutic hypnosis and psychosomatic medicine is proposed. Brain plasticity is generalized in the theory, research, and practice of utilizing mirror neurons as an explanatory framework in developing and training new skill sets for facilitating an activity-dependent approach to creative problem solving, mind-body healing, and rehabilitation with therapeutic hypnosis.