EEG phase synchronization during hypnosis induction.

Hypnosis is a mental state or set of attitudes usually induced by a procedure known as hypnotic induction. In order to provide the basic physiological conditions for potentially successful hypnosis treatment of medical and psychological problems, the determination of a subject's hypnotizability level is important. Currently, the hypnotizability level is determined using different standard subjective tests. To avoid the different drawbacks of these subjective clinical tests, a practical objective method based on the correlation between electroencephalograph (EEG) phase synchronization and hypnosis susceptibility levels is presented in this study. This method can be used by clinicians instead of the traditional subjective methods to classify hypnotizability level. Thirty-two subjects with different hypnosis susceptibility levels contributed to this research. Using statistical analyses, it was concluded that, in highly hypnotizable people, the EEG phase synchronization between different paired channels, located on the frontal lobe, is significantly different from that in subjects with medium or low hypnotizability.