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Feel Safe and Money is Less Important! Hypnotic Suggestions of Safety Decrease Brain Responses to Monetary Rewards in a Risk Game.

ABSTRACT: When a stimulus is important, the corresponding brain responses increase, especially the P300 brain response. This is true for all kinds of important stimuli, also monetary rewards. In our study, we developed a hypnotic suggestion to reduce the subjective importance of monetary rewards. As successful suggestions do not contain negations, we suggested participants to feel safe during hypnosis instead of suggesting that money is not important anymore. We predicted lower P300 amplitudes when participants feel safe during hypnosis. We tested 24 highly suggestible participants playing a risk game in 2 conditions with monetary rewards while we measured their EEG brain responses. In the safety condition, we induced a hypnotic state and suggested that participants feel safe. In the control condition, participants played the risk game without hypnosis. Here we show that participants felt significantly safer in the safety condition and showed significantly lower P300 amplitudes to monetary rewards. Risk behavior did not differ significantly between conditions. Our results are important for substance use disorders, as decreased P300 responses to substance-related stimuli are associated with less craving and better abstinence. Therefore, we conclude that suggestions to feel safe during hypnosis might work as a treatment for individuals with substance use disorders.

SUBMITTER: Schmidt B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8152948 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:Background: The effectiveness of hypnosis in reducing pain is well supported by the scientific literature. Hypnosis typically involves verbal suggestions but the mechanisms by which verbal contents are transformed into predictive signals to modulate perceptual processes remain unclear. We hypothesized that brain activity during verbal suggestions would predict the modulation of responses to acute nociceptive stimuli. Methods: Brain activity was measured using BOLD-fMRI in healthy participants while they listened to verbal suggestions of HYPERALGESIA, HYPOALGESIA, or NORMAL sensation (control) following a standardized hypnosis induction. Immediately after the suggestions, series of noxious electrical stimuli were administered to assess pain-related responses. Brain responses measured during the suggestions were then used to predict changes in pain-related responses using delayed regression analyses. Results: Listening to suggestions of HYPERALGESIA and HYPOALGESIA produced BOLD decreases (vs. control) in the parietal operculum (PO) and in the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), and increases in the left parahippocampal gyrus (lPHG). Changes in activity in PO, aMCC and PHG during the suggestions predicted larger pain-evoked responses following the HYPERALGESIA suggestions in the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the anterior insula (aINS), and smaller pain-evoked responses following the HYPOALGESIA suggestions in the ACC, aMCC, posterior insula (pINS) and thalamus. These changes in pain-evoked brain responses are consistent with the changes in pain perception reported by the participants in HYPERALGESIA and HYPOALGESIA, respectively. Conclusions: The fronto-parietal network (supracallosal ACC and PO) has been associated with self-regulation and perceived self-agency. Deactivation of these regions during suggestions is predictive of the modulation of brain responses to noxious stimuli in areas previously associated with pain perception and pain modulation. The response of the hippocampal complex may reflect its role in contextual learning, memory and pain anticipation/expectations induced by verbal suggestions of pain modulation. This study provides a basis to further explore the transformation of verbal suggestions into perceptual modulatory processes fundamental to hypnosis neurophenomenology. These findings are discussed in relation to predictive coding models.

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Feel Safe and Money is Less Important! Hypnotic Suggestions of Safety Decrease Brain Responses to Monetary Rewards in a Risk Game.

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