Hypnotic analgesia: A constructivist framework

Author(s): Nakamura, Y.

Journal/Book: Int J Clin Exp Hypn. 1998; 46: 2455 Teller Rd, Thousand Oaks, CA 91320. Sage Publications Inc. 6-27.

Abstract: Hypnotic analgesia remains an enigma. Recent neuroscience studies demonstrate that widespread distributed processing occurs in the brains of individuals experiencing pain. Emerging research and theory on the mechanisms of consciousness, along with this evidence, suggest that a constructivist framework may facilitate both pain research and the study of hypnosis. The authors propose that the brain constructs elements of pain experience (pain schemata) and embeds them in ongoing consciousness. The contents of immediate consciousness feed back to nonconscious, parallel distributed processes to help shape the character of future moments of consciousness. Hypnotic suggestion may interact with such processing through feedback mechanisms that prime associations and memories and thus shape the formation of future experience.

Note: Article Chapman CR, Univ Washington, Dept Anesthesiol, Box 356540, Seattle,WA 98195 USA

Keyword(s): NOXIOUS INHIBITORY CONTROLS; POSITRON EMISSION TOMOGRAPHY; PHANTOM LIMBS; NEUROCOGNITIVE NETWORKS; PAIN MEMORIES; BRAIN; CONSCIOUSNESS; HYPNOSIS; EXPERIENCE; STIMULI

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