New views of hypnotizability

Hypnotizability is much more than a cognitive trait enabling people to feel and behave according to suggestions reporting involuntariness in action. In fact, we have shown several hypnotizability-related differences in sensorimotor integration in the participants’ ordinary state of consciousness and in the absence of specific suggestions. This article deals with postural control during imagined sensory modulation in subjects with high and low hypnotizability. It reports evidence of automaticity in the imagery-triggered activation of neural circuits not controlled by expectancy and volition, and suggests that the perceived involuntariness in action associated with imagery of movements potentially controlled by volition/expectancy may be sustained by physiological mechanisms making it a real involuntariness. The described evidence suggests that part of the hypnotizability-related differences observed may depend on peculiar cerebellar activity/connectivity, proposes a possible role of the brain endothelial nitric oxide in hypnotic behavior, and, on the whole, brings the interpretation of hypnotic involuntariness beyond neo-dissociative and socio-cognitive perspectives.