Scientists from the Ruhr University in Bochum have found that hypnosis can affect the perception of information from the sense of touch. The research was published in the journal scientific reports.
The researchers measured the sense of touch of 24 test volunteers. With the index fingers resting relaxed on the device, the two needles made constant painless but tangible contact with the skin.
If the needles are far enough apart, one can easily distinguish the two needles. But if the needles are too close together, the finger will only feel the touch in one spot. The distance at which the two needles can be distinguished is more or less constant for each person.
The scientists decided to find out if it was possible to change this separation threshold. The research team chose two mental cues: “Imagine your index finger is five times smaller” and “Imagine your index finger is five times larger.” In this case, the scientists used hypnotic suggestion.
As the researchers found, the sense of touch develops if a person sincerely believes that their index finger is five times larger than it actually is. As a result, the threshold distance has been reduced to distinguish the touch of two needles.
“Our work represents another building block in support of the idea that beliefs have such a top-down effect on perception. The beliefs we hold truly change how we perceive the world, the scientists said.