Researcher

I had been a clinical psychologist for some time when I undertook a master's degree (DEA) and then a PhD with a thesis in neuroscience (brain imaging) at CERMEP-Imagerie du Vivant in Lyon. There I studied people suffering from chronic pain, whom I “put” under hypnosis during their brain scan to see what was happening in their brain. For this study, I received in Vienna in 2008 the Peter Berner Award for Scientific Hypnosis.

My love of research has never left me since.

First, because that is where I learned scientific rigour. It may be a form of snobbery, but I believe it is the only school that instils the habit of thinking in such a rigorous and precise way. You get to the very bottom of things. Everything is argued and examined in depth. It also met my need to find fundamental answers to some of my fundamental questions, particularly about the influence of mindset on the body, on behaviour and on success, since all my studies, reduced to their essence, have dealt with exactly that: the effect of hypnosis on chronic pain, the effect of laminar vs complex personality on philocognition, and the effect of the state of intelligence (which could be called a state of mind) on financial performance.

Dr Fanny Nusbaum, chercheuse en neurosciences

Research activities

My laboratory
  • Associate researcher at the P2S laboratory, Université Lyon 1
  • Psychology and neuroscience
  • Brain MRI studies on philocognition, intelligence, performance, hypnosis and pain

Main findings

  • Specific brain structure: greater white matter integrity = faster, more efficient transmission.
  • Low-modularity network: high density, low modularity → fluid flow of information, a global and integrated view.
  • Two distinct profiles: Philo-Complex: left lateralisation (L/R ratio = 1.38), verbal dominance, self-connected functioning. Philo-Laminar: right lateralisation (L/R ratio = 0.78), strong adaptability, environmental exploration.
  • Specific brain structure: greater white matter integrity = faster, more efficient transmission.
Philocognition (high-IQ children)
Icône recherche en philocognition chez les enfants à haut QI
  • Greater analgesia: -64% pain under hypnosis vs -28% in the waking state.
  • Under hypnosis: activation of the emotional network (nucleus accumbens, caudate, insula) → emotional transformation of the pain signal.
  • In the waking state: recruitment of the cognitive-sensory network → less effective logical control.
Hypnosis and chronic pain (adults)
Icône recherche sur l'hypnose et la douleur chronique
  • IQ is not predictive: no correlation between age-adjusted income and FSIQ or verbal/perceptual/memory indices.
  • Modularity is key to performance: short, specialised networks, automatic and intuitive processing.
  • IQ–modularity antagonism: modularity is negatively correlated with full-scale IQ and processing speed.
  • Right lateralisation: greater modularity in right frontal, parietal and subcortical networks → intuitive decision-making in uncertain contexts.
Financial performance (adults)
Icône recherche sur la performance financière
2024

Personal Income Performance Correlates with Brain Structural Network Modularity but Not Intelligence Quotient (with S. Hannoun, D. Sappey-Marinier et al.).

2019
  • Topological reorganization of brain networks in children with high intelligence quotient: a resting-state fMRI study, OHBM, Rome (10-14 June).
  • Reorganisation of functional and structural brain connectivity in two profiles of intellectually gifted children, 4th SFRMBM Congress, Strasbourg (19-21 March).
  • Graph-based Structural Connectivity is correlated with Children Intelligence Quotient Scores, ISMRM, Montreal (11-17 May).
  • Topological reorganization of brain networks in children with high intelligence quotient: a resting-state fMRI study (with I. Suprano, C. Delon-Martin, G. Kocevar, C. Stamile, S. Hannoun, S. Achard, A-P Badwhar, P. Fourneret, O. Revol, D. Sappey-Marinier), Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.
  • Brain Structural Connectivity correlates with Intelligence in Children: a DTI graph analysis (with G. Kocevar et al.), Intelligence.
2018
  • Reorganization of Homotopic Functional Connectivity in two Profiles of High Potential Children: a resting-state fMRI and DTI Study, ISMRM Annual Meeting, Paris (16-22 June).
  • From High Potential to Philocognition: towards a new model of intelligence, in L’enfant à haut potentiel intellectuel : regards croisés, Olivier Revol, Michel Habib, Vincent Brun. Sauramps Médical.
2017
  • Hemispheric Differences in White Matter Microstructure between two Profiles of High Potential Children: A Tract-Based Spatial Statistics Study (with S. Hannoun et al.), Frontiers in Neuroscience.
  • Differential Hemispheric Brain Network Reorganization in two profiles of High IQ Children, 34th Annual Scientific Meeting of ESMRMB, Barcelona (19-22 Oct.).
  • Topological reorganisation of functional networks in two profiles of intellectually gifted children, 3rd SFRMBM Congress, Bordeaux (13-15 March).
2011

Chronic Low-Back Pain Modulation is Enhanced by Hypnotic Analgesic Suggestion by Recruiting an Emotional Network: A PET imaging study (with J. Redouté, D. Sappey-Marinier et al.), Int J Clin Exp Hypn.

2010
  • Chronic pain: a depression linked to a deficit of empathy and endocongruence – Contributions of hypnosis, Bulletin de Psychologie, Vol. 63 (3), no. 507, pp. 191-201.
  • Chronic pain and hypnosis in the light of psychology and neurophysiology, oral presentation at the SLED scientific meeting, Lyon (3 Feb.).
  • The psycho-cognitive mechanisms at play in fibromyalgia, National Fibromyalgia Congress, Grenoble (5 June).
  • The psychological and cognitive mechanisms involved in giftedness, AFEP, Bourg-en-Bresse (11 June).
2009

Evaluation of various hypnotic suggestions for chronic pain relief using PET imaging, oral presentation at the ISH congress, Rome (22-26 Sept.).

2008
  • Characterisation of the brain networks of chronic pain and hypnosis using PET and MRI, poster at the SFETD congress, Strasbourg (19-22 Nov.).
  • Evaluation of various hypnotic suggestion effects in chronic pain by PET imaging, oral presentation at the ESH congress, Vienna (17-21 Sept.).
  • Study of chronic pain using diffusion tensor imaging, poster at the 13th GRAMM congress, Lyon (26-28 March).
  • Chronic pain, a public health problem: hypnosis as a model for restoring endocongruence, PhD thesis in psychology (2005–2008).
2005 -2008

PhD thesis in psychology: Chronic pain, a public health problem: hypnosis as a model for restoring endocongruence.

2001

Towards a metapsychology of hypnosis, master's thesis (DEA) in Clinical Psychology and Psychopathology.

Main scientific publications and presentations