title: Hypnoanalgesia and the study of pain experience: from Cajal to modern neuroscience.
abstract: Santiago Ramón y Cajal (1852-1934) did not only contribute to neurobiology and neurohistology. At the end of the 19th century, he published one of the first clinical reports on the employment of hypnotic suggestion to induce analgesia (hypnoanalgesia) in order to relieve pain in childbirth. Today, the clinical application of hypnoanalgesia is considered an effective technique for the treatment of pain in medicine, dentistry, and psychology. However, the knowledge we have today on the neural and cognitive underpinnings of hypnotic suggestion has increased dramatically since Cajal's times. Here we review the main contributions of Cajal to hypnoanalgesia and the current knowledge we have about hypnoanalgesia from neural and cognitive perspectives.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health, Faculty of Medicine, Universidad de Chile Santiago, Chile ; Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Universidad Diego Portales Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: Renzo C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Lanfranco
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Universidad Diego Portales Santiago, Chile ; Medical Research Council, Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Cambridge, UK.
authors.forename: Andrés
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Canales-Johnson
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Cognitive and Social Neuroscience, UDP-INECO Foundation Core on Neuroscience, Universidad Diego Portales Santiago, Chile.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huepe
keywords: Santiago Ramón y Cajal; analgesia; cognitive neuroscience; consciousness; history; hypnosis; hypnotic suggestion