ABSTRACT
Until recently, ongoing debates to define hypnosis skewed neuroscientific efforts toward the discovery of a neural signature of hypnotic phenomena – a neurobiological marker that would link these phenomena to a particular brain state. Neuroimaging findings have often been interpreted in light of this goal. However, rather than revealing commonalities and corroborating this point of view, neuroimaging studies of hypnosis are instead characterized by heterogeneity. In this chapter, we propose to examine the neuroimaging literature of hypnosis through the lens of a multifaceted view – a theoretical framework with a long-standing history in the field. We will accordingly explain how hypnotic phenomena emerge from the interplay of several underlying components, while the neural correlates of hypnosis reflect these interactions. Therefore, hypnosis does not rest on a single neural pattern, but several. Some of these patterns pertain to inter-individual differences, others to the induction process and the phenomenological character of hypnosis, and some to the different facets of responding to suggestions. Our chapter describes how these neural dynamics comprise several brain networks, including the dorsal attention, the control executive, the saliency, and the default networks, while the modulations of these networks contribute to shaping various aspects of hypnotic phenomena. In sum, the neuroimaging literature highlights the complexity of hypnotic phenomena. Elucidating the dynamics among the different components of hypnosis provides an overarching framework to better understand its various behavioral, phenomenological, and neurophysiological facets.
