Handedness, sex, and eyedness as moderating variables in the relation between hypnotic susceptibility and functional brain asymmetry.

The number of eye movements to the right in response to verbal and spatial questions in an E-facing-S situation correlated moderately with measured hypnotic responsiveness for a sample of 30 male and 30 female right-handed undergraduates. This finding confirms earlier indications that hypnotic responsiveness may be a right hemisphere function in right-handed Ss. The correlation was not significant for 19 male and 11 female left-handed Ss. Further breakdowns of the sample produced much higher correlations with hypnotizability, indicating the roles of sex, handedness, and eyedness as moderating variables. Right-handed males yielded a correlation of -.68 and left-handed females a correlation of .58, while the correlations for right-handed females and left-handed males were nonsignificant. Left-handed males, if also left-eyed, showed a correlation of .52. Left-handed males who were right-eyed, however, showed a correlation of -.41. Right-handed females who were left-eyed and right-eyed produced correlations with appropriate opposite signs, but the differences were not significant. (45 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)