Hemispheric Specificity: A Physiological Concomitant of Hypnotizability

MacLeod‐Morgan (1979) found a significant relationship between hypnotizability and EEG hemispheric specificity. Hemispheric specificity is defined as the extent to which the alpha ratio between hemispheres changes during lateralized task performance. The present study was designed to replicate and extend this finding. EEG was recorded bilaterally from 44 subjects during performance of two right‐ and two left‐hemisphere discontinuous tasks from MacLeod‐Morgan (1979), and four new comparable continuous tasks. As predicted, significant differences were found in hemispheric specificity between low and high hypnotizables especially during the continuous tasks.