OBM Integrative and Complementary Medicine
March 5, 2025
Gaëtan Collignon, Aminata Bicego, Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville et al.
2 citations
A 68-year-old man with chronic pain from an open Spina Bifida at L4-L5 used auto-induced cognitive trance (AICT) to manage his condition. After four days of training, pain intensity, anxiety, and depression slightly decreased; most attitudes and beliefs improved; the mental component of quality of life improved while the physical component decreased, and the patient reported his overall health had worsened. Qualitative analysis of his diary over two months revealed themes including trance characteristics, pain location, difficulties with practice, and medical history. The findings suggest AICT may alter subjective pain experience, but its effects on physical health and global well-being were mixed.
bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory)
June 25, 2024
Milan Van Maldegem, Jakub Vohryzek, Selen Atasoy et al.
2 citations
preprint
Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, produces different brain dynamics at anesthetic versus sub-anesthetic doses. Using connectome harmonic decomposition (CHD) to analyze resting-state fMRI data from volunteers during ketamine-induced unresponsiveness, the study found increased prevalence of localized harmonics, similar to patterns seen in psychedelic states induced by LSD or psilocybin. This contrasts with traditional GABAergic sedation (e.g., propofol), where global harmonics increase with higher doses. The results indicate that ketamine-induced unresponsiveness does not necessarily suppress conscious experience and influences connectome harmonics oppositely to GABAergic hypnotics. CHD may track alterations in conscious awareness rather than behavioral responsiveness.
Médecine Intensive Réanimation
July 30, 2020
Floriane Rousseaux, Aminata Bicego, Christophe Malengreaux et al.
2 citations
Hypnosis can increase comfort for patients in intensive care by significantly reducing pain and anxiety. Neuroimaging shows altered brain activation and functional connectivity in networks related to internal and external awareness and sensory perceptions such as pain. Hypnotic techniques may help improve respiratory weaning conditions for intubated and ventilated patients. Although some emerging studies investigate effective use of hypnosis in intensive care, controlled and randomized trials are still needed to draw conclusions about precise benefits.
Frontiers in Neuroscience
January 1, 2018
Rajanikant Panda, Olivia Gosseries, Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse et al.
2 citations
No Summary
The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis
January 1, 2025
Aminata Bicego, Naji Alnagger, Etzel Cardeña et al.
1 citation
Auto-induced cognitive trance (AICT) can produce mystical-type experiences in healthy individuals, with 29% of participants reporting such experiences during AICT compared to none during a rest condition. The study examined twenty-seven people who could self-induce AICT, measuring their religious and spiritual practices and paranormal beliefs beforehand. Participants completed five conditions including rest, imagination, and AICT with or without auditory stimulation. The intensity of the AICT experience and features resembling near-death experiences were linked to mystical-type experiences only during AICT. This is the first demonstration that AICT, a technique distinct from hypnosis or meditation, can induce mystical-type experiences outside life-threatening situations.
arXiv (Cornell University)
September 23, 2025
Victor Oswald, Karim Jerbi, Corine Sombrun et al.
A self-induced, substance-free trance state called Auto-Induced Cognitive Trance (AICT) engages frontal regions, the posterior cingulate cortex, and the left parietal cortex, brain areas linked to rich subjective experiences. Analysis of EEG recordings from 27 trained participants showed that the aperiodic component of the power spectrum, entropy, and complexity measures distinguished AICT from rest, with the aperiodic component being the strongest discriminator. Baseline neural activity in frontal and parietal regions predicted how much brain activity changed when entering the trance. These results suggest that self-induced trance states alter neural functioning in ways that may explain their intense and unique subjective qualities.
bioRxiv Preprint Server
June 7, 2026
Andrea I. Luppi, Dragana Manasova, Justine Y. Hansen et al.
preprint
Functional connectivity in the awake human brain is shaped primarily by cognitive co-activation—the tendency of brain regions to work together during mental tasks—more than by structural or molecular constraints. This predominance is systematically lost across five datasets involving pharmacological and pathological perturbations of consciousness (chronic disorders of consciousness; anesthesia with sevoflurane, propofol, or ketamine), when cognition is disconnected from the environment or abolished. During such states, the predictors of functional architecture shift away from cognitive co-activation and toward anatomical and molecular constraints.
The International journal of clinical and experimental hypnosis
May 27, 2026
Amélie Johnson, Clara Bourgy, Marine Dupuis et al.
Focused hypnotic analgesia (FHA) can selectively reduce pain in a targeted body part without affecting other areas. In 40 healthy participants, brief heat stimuli were applied to both arms before, during, and after a hypnotic suggestion targeting one arm. During FHA, pain intensity and unpleasantness decreased significantly for the protected arm compared to before and after, while the unprotected arm showed no change. Ratings differed between arms only during the suggestion. These effects occurred regardless of participants' hypnotizability. The findings indicate FHA modulates both sensory and emotional pain components and can spatially restrict its analgesic effects.
Neuroimage
October 15, 2019
Guo-Rong Wu, Carol Di Perri, Vanessa Charland-Verville et al.
Changes in the brain's hemodynamic response in the precuneus and posterior cingulate are a common principle underlying loss of consciousness under Propofol anesthesia and in unresponsive wakefulness syndrome. The thalamus is less obviously modulated by Propofol compared with frontoparietal regions, but patients with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome show a significant increase in spontaneous thalamic hemodynamic response compared with healthy controls. The results indicate that anesthesia- or pathology-induced neurovascular coupling can be tracked by modulated spontaneous hemodynamic response derived from resting state fMRI.
Functional MRI
December 1, 2018
Nasim Mortazavi, Cécile Staquet, Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse et al.
Hypnotic anesthetic agents dose-dependently alter brain resting-state networks (RSNs) that sustain consciousness, with each agent producing distinct, non-uniform effects within a network that likely correspond to the clinical features observed during their use. Observations during anesthesia help link RSNs to specific aspects of consciousness and environmental connectedness, though the precise connection to biochemical targets or sleep-wake regulation remains unclear. PET studies using targeted radiolabeled probes offer insights, and advanced analytical methods like Granger causality may further clarify brain region interactions. The hypnotic state, useful for surgery without general anesthesia, produces specific RSN changes that distinguish it from normal wakefulness and anesthesia.
Frontiers in Neurology
August 28, 2018
Audrey Vanhaudenhuyse, Vanessa Charland-Verville, Aurore Thibaut et al.
A patient diagnosed with unresponsive wakefulness syndrome/vegetative state for 20 years was found to be fully conscious and able to communicate functionally after repeated standardized behavioral exams and neuroimaging (MRI and PET). The diagnosis was revised to incomplete locked-in syndrome, with the main lesion in the brainstem. The authors propose that clinical evaluations of severely brain-damaged patients with motor impairment should routinely include repeated behavioral assessments and neuroimaging.
Neuroimage
May 15, 2011
Christophe L Phillips, Marie-Aurélie Bruno, Pierre Maquet et al.
A machine-learning classifier trained on fluorodeoxyglucose PET brain scans from 37 healthy controls and 13 patients in a vegetative state achieved 100% accuracy in distinguishing between conscious awareness and the vegetative state during cross-validation. When tested on 8 patients with locked-in syndrome, all scans were classified as "conscious" with a mean probability of .95. The authors conclude that relevance vector machine classification of cerebral metabolic images could become a useful tool for automated PET-based diagnosis of altered states of consciousness in coma survivors.