Harald Kugel1, Markus Burgmer2,
Bettina Pfleiderer1, Adrianna Ewert1, Thomas Lenzen3,
1Dept. of Clinical
Radiology, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; 2Dept.
of Psychosomatics & Psychotherapy, University of Muenster, Muenster, NRW,
Germany; 3Dept. of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, University of
Muenster, Muenster, NRW, Germany; 4Dept. of Psychiatry &
Psychotherapy, University Marburg, Marburg, HE, Germany
The neurobiological basis of nonorganic movement impairments is still unknown. As conversion disorder and hypnotic states share many characteristics, we applied an experimental design established in conversion disorder to investigate hypnotic paralysis. In nineteen healthy subjects movement imitation and observation were investigated by fMRI with and without hypnotically induced paralysis of their left hand. Hypnotic paralysis during movement imitation induced hypoactivation of the contralateral sensorimotor cortex and ipsilateral cerebellum, indicating a specific impact of hypnosis on executive control.