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A number of studies have tied activity in the DMN to the experience of hypnosis, which is consistent with the predictions of the EIT due to the empathic nature of the tasks that the DMN performs (Demertzi et al., 2011; McGeown et al., 2009). There are a number of brain areas involved in the DMN, including the cingulate cortex, medial temporal lobe, medial prefrontal cortex, and the hippocampus (Buckner et al., 2008). The DMN is thought to be the brain network that is most associated with internal and/or self-oriented neural processes. Activity in the DMN is anti-correlated with the activ- ity of another brain network called the extrinsic system, which mediates the conscious experience of the external world and is involved in task-oriented activities (Demertzi et al., 2011; Vincent, Kahn, Snyder, Raichle, & Buckner, 2008). The activity of both the intrinsic (DMN) and extrinsic brain networks systems is thought to be regulated by the frontoparietal control system (FPCS), which may integrate the activity in both networks (Vincent et al., 2008). The task of the FPCS is to integrate the right balance of extrinsic and intrinsic processing needed at the moment for the individual. For example, most of us would drift into a period of heavy DMN activation if we were instructed to rest with our eyes closed as we naturally attended to our internal mentation and phenomenology. Meanwhile, the extrinsic system is engaged and the DMN diminished by the FPCS if we are asked to engage in a visual recognition task.

The anterior cingulate (AC) is a critical structure in the FPCS and DMN that has previously been shown to be active during many different types of hypnotic phenomena (Spiegel, White, & Waelde, 2010) that involve an integration of extrinsic and intrinsic brain processes, such as hypnotic analgesia. It may be that hypnosis utilizes the DMN to empathically enact the hypnotic suggestions presented to subjects while also utilizing

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