The unpredictable consequences of a scientific disagreement

This paper reviews my scientific collaboration with Prof. Giancarlo Carli along three decades. In the Eighties, he worked hard to persuade me to study human hypnosis, since at the time I did not regard hypnosis as a suitable subject for physiological studies; at present I am near the only physiologist who aimed her entire scientific activity to investigate the physiological correlates of hypnotizability. In this paper I comment on only two of the implications rising from our experiments. One concerns the ability of highly hypnotizable individuals (Highs) to embody sensori-motor images in relation to the perception of involuntariness in action; the other refers to the Highs’ greater endothelial nitric oxide availability that may induce lower vulnerability to cardiovascular disease and could also account for modulation of brain functions. Giancarlo Carli has impressed a deep mark on my research and, as a consequence, on my life. I do feel greatly in debt to him.