| HYPNOSIS MIGHT ALLEVIATE pain by decreasing the activity of brain areas involved in the experience of suffering. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans of horizontal (top) and vertical (bottom) brain sections were taken while the hands of hypnotized volunteers were dunked into painfully hot water. The activity of the somatosensory cortex, which processes physical stimuli, did not differ whether a subject was given the hypnotic suggestion that the sensation would be painfully hot (left) or that it would be minimally unpleasant (right). In contrast, a part of the brain known to be involved in the suffering aspect of pain, the anterior cingulate cortex, was much less active when subjects were told that the pain would be minimally unpleasant (bottom). |