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Brain electrical potentials evoked by visual stimulation were analyzed to study the neurophysiological mechanism associated with hypnotic hallucination.The visual evoked responses of 6 high-and 6 low-hypnotizable subjects were compared in three hypnotic conditions: stimulus enhancement.stimulus diminution, and stimulus elimination (obstructive hallucination).High-hypnotizable individuals demonstrated significant suppression of the later components of the evoked response (N 2 and P l ) while experiencing obstructive hallucinations, indicating a change in information processing.This effect was significantly greater in the right.as compared to the left, occipital region.Hypnosis involves intense concentration (Hilgard, 1965;Spiegel Van Nuys, 1973) and can, therefore, be a useful tool for exploring the neural mechanisms involved in focused attention.The hypnotic state can be considered one extreme of a continuum in which focus is accomplished at the exPense of the range of ambient awareness.In animals, neural controls on input processing have been demonstrated (Lassonde.
Spiegel et al. (Thu,) studied this question.