Tim Brunson DCH

Welcome to The International Hypnosis Research Institute Web site. Our intention is to provide quality information to clinicians and the general public concerning hypnosis, hypnotherapy, and other mind/body modalities. We intend to expand our coverage to include such topics as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), energy psychology and medicine, and other related topics. While our intention is to provide quality information derived from valid sources, including peer reviewed literature concerning significant research, this site is not presented as a source of medical or psychological advice. Clinicians wishing to expand their scope of practice or protocols based upon presented information should perform due diligence prior to use. It is our sincere hope to stimulate interest in these topics and to contribute to the evolution of the science of hypnosis. -- Tim Brunson DCH

From monkey-like action recognition to human language: an evolutionary framework for neurolinguistic

Posted At : October 1, 2007 2:01 AM | Posted By : Tim Brunson DCH
Related Categories: NLP
The article analyzes the neural and functional grounding of language skills as well as their emergence in hominid evolution, hypothesizing stages leading from abilities known to exist in monkeys and apes and presumed to exist in our hominid ancestors right through to modern spoken and signed languages. The starting point is the observation that both premotor area F5 in monkeys and Broca's area in humans contain a "mirror system" active for both execution and observation of manual actions, and that F5 and Broca's area are homologous brain regions. This grounded the mirror system hypothesis of Rizzolatti and Arbib (1998) which offers the mirror system for grasping as a key neural "missing link" between the abilities of our nonhuman ancestors of 20 million years ago and modern human language, with manual gestures rather than a system for vocal communication providing the initial seed for this evolutionary process. The present article, however, goes "beyond the mirror" to offer hypotheses on evolutionary changes within and outside the mirror systems which may have occurred to equip Homo sapiens with a language-ready brain. Crucial to the early stages of this progression is the mirror system for grasping and its extension to permit imitation. Imitation is seen as evolving via a so-called simple system such as that found in chimpanzees (which allows imitation of complex "object-oriented" sequences but only as the result of extensive practice) to a so-called complex system found in humans (which allows rapid imitation even of complex sequences, under appropriate conditions) which supports pantomime. This is hypothesized to have provided the substrate for the development of protosign, a combinatorially open repertoire of manual gestures, which then provides the scaffolding for the emergence of protospeech (which thus owes little to nonhuman vocalizations), with protosign and protospeech then developing in an expanding spiral. It is argued that these stages involve biological evolution of both brain and body. By contrast, it is argued that the progression from protosign and protospeech to languages with full-blown syntax and compositional semantics was a historical phenomenon in the development of Homo sapiens, involving few if any further biological changes.

Behav Brain Sci. 2005 Apr;28(2):105-24; discussion 125-67.

Arbib MA.

Computer Science Department, Neuroscience Program, and USC Brain Project, University of Southem Califomia, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA. arbib@pollux.usc.edu

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Maternal programming of defensive responses through sustained effects on gene expression.

Posted At : September 29, 2007 1:59 AM | Posted By : Tim Brunson DCH
Related Categories: NLP
There are profound maternal effects on individual differences in defensive responses and reproductive strategies in species ranging literally from plants to insects to birds. Maternal effects commonly reflect the quality of the environment and are most likely mediated by the quality of the maternal provision (egg, propagule, etc.), which in turn determines growth rates and adult phenotype. In this paper we review data from the rat that suggest comparable forms of maternal effects on defensive responses stress, which are mediated by the effects of variations in maternal behavior on gene expression. Under conditions of environmental adversity maternal effects enhance the capacity for defensive responses in the offspring. In mammals, these effects appear to 'program' emotional, cognitive and endocrine systems towards increased sensitivity to adversity. In environments with an increased level of adversity, such effects can be considered adaptive, enhancing the probability of offspring survival to sexual maturity; the cost is that of an increased risk for multiple forms of pathology in later life.

Biol Psychol. 2006 Jul;73(1):72-89. Epub 2006 Feb 28.

Zhang TY, Bagot R, Parent C, Nesbitt C, Bredy TW, Caldji C, Fish E, Anisman H, Szyf M, Meaney MJ.

McGill Program for the Study of Behavior, Genes and Environment, McGill University, Canada.

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