Limitations and conclusions
Although moderate to large effects of attention and arousal on the HEP,
and a moderate association between HEP amplitude and the heartbeats
count have been observed (Coll et al., 2021), a limitation of the
present study is that the HEP amplitude could not be correlated with the
performance at the heartbeats counting task. This latter was not
performed to prevent the effects of hypnotizability-related attentional
abilities on the HEP amplitude (Raz, 2005). In summary, in highs, who
display lower behaviorally assessed interoceptive accuracy than lows
(Rosati et al., 2021), the HEP amplitude at parietal sites receiving
insular information is lower than in lows. It increases in highs during
hypnosis, which is associated with pre-eminent internally directed
attention (Demertzi et al., 2015) and reduced activity of the anterior
cingulate cortex (Deeley et al., 2012; Demertzi et al., 2011; Jiang et
al., 2017; McGeown et al., 2009). In contrast, lows decrease their HEP
amplitude possibly due to disengagement from the hypnosis task.
The reported findings provide further support to the view that
hypnotizability is relevant to general aspects of life rather than
merely to the proneness to accept suggestions (Diolaiuti et al., 2020;
Ibanez.Marcelo et al., 2019; Santarcangelo & Carli 2021; Santarcangelo
et al., 2016; Spina et al., 2020). Interoception, in fact, influences
exteroceptive perception, contributes to self-consciousness, which
includes bodily awareness, ownership and the experience of self as a
global unity stable in time (Park & Blanke, 2019a), and could influence
emotional experience and behavior (Parrinello et al., 2022).