Abstract

Flaccid paralysis is very easy to produce in hypnosis and is often used in didactic setting. This paper is aimed at demonstrating that hypnotic flaccid paralysis is a real, measurable and reproducible phenomenon that belongs to the galileian science and can be studied with the methods of human physiology.
Ten participants (5 highly hypnotizable subjects and 5 control patients highly responsive to botulinum toxin) were recruited. Through a non-invasive electromyograph, muscular tension was previously measured in μV in all participants at the corrugator muscles of the forehead. The 5 highs participants then underwent in experimental setting hypnotic induction followed by the suggestion of flaccid paralysis of the corrugators. The 5 control patients received injection of a paralytic dose of botulinum toxin at the level of the corrugators. Both groups were visually observed and electromyography was repeated while the participant received the commands «corrugate» or «don’t corrugate».
Both participants who received hypnosis and patients receiving the toxin were patently unable to corrugate. Furthermore, the muscular tension recorded at the corrugator was even lower in the former than in the latter, probably due to the relaxing effect of hypnosis. The results demonstrate that hypnotic flaccid muscular paralysis is real, and open a way to use hypnotic command in preventing unconscious corrugation that leads to irreversible dermal fractures of foreheads. In this indication, hypnosis could be more effective (and of curse less invasive) that injection of botulinum toxin. Long-lasting studies are mandatory to confirm the present results recorded in acute experimental setting.

Key words: Face. Dermal. Fracture. Winkles. Mimics. Physiology. Human.