Can imagery become reality?

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Human Physiology

Background:

• Highly hypnotizable individuals exhibit involuntary behavioral and perceptual changes during hypnosis.
• Sensory imagination in hypnotizable subjects can mimic real sensory experiences.
• The vestibulospinal (VS) reflex is a key indicator of balance and posture control, influenced by head position and not typically under voluntary control.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the translation of sensory imagination into actual perception.
• To confirm that such translation results in genuine involuntary responses.
• To examine imagery-induced modulation of the vestibulospinal reflex in individuals with varying hypnotizability.

Main Methods:

• Assessed the earlier component of the vestibulospinal reflex in highly (Highs) and low (Lows) hypnotizable subjects.
• Utilized specific sensory imagery paradigms: "obstructive" (anesthesia) and "constructive" (head rotation).
• Measured changes in VS reflex amplitude and the plane of body sway in response to imagined scenarios.

Main Results:

• Both Highs and Lows experiencing anesthesia imagery showed reduced VS reflex amplitude in the frontal plane.
• Only Highs demonstrated a shift in the plane of body sway from frontal to sagittal, mirroring imagined head rotation.
• These observed effects were involuntary and linked to the vividness of the sensory imagination.

Conclusions:

• Sensory imagination can be translated into real perceptual changes and involuntary physiological responses.
• The vestibulospinal reflex is modulated by vivid sensory imagination, particularly in highly hypnotizable individuals.
• This modulation provides evidence for a genuine link between imagination and physical action, bypassing voluntary control.