Schmidt Barbara, Hoffmann Elisa, Rasch Björn
Institute of Psychology, University of Jena, 07743 Jena, Germany.
Department of Psychology, University of Fribourg, CH-1701 Fribourg, Switzerland.
Cereb Cortex Commun. 2020 Aug 20;1(1):tgaa050. doi: 10.1093/texcom/tgaa050. eCollection 2020.
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.
当一种刺激很重要时，相应的大脑反应会增强，尤其是P300脑反应。对于各种重要刺激来说都是如此，金钱奖励也不例外。在我们的研究中，我们制定了一种催眠暗示来降低金钱奖励的主观重要性。由于成功的暗示不包含否定词，我们建议参与者在催眠过程中感到安全，而不是暗示金钱不再重要。我们预测，当参与者在催眠过程中感到安全时，P300波幅会降低。我们测试了24名高度易受暗示的参与者，他们在有金钱奖励的两种条件下玩一个风险游戏，同时我们测量他们的脑电图大脑反应。在安全条件下，我们诱导出催眠状态，并建议参与者感到安全。在对照条件下，参与者在没有催眠的情况下玩风险游戏。我们在此表明，参与者在安全条件下明显感觉更安全，并且对金钱奖励的P300波幅明显更低。不同条件下的风险行为没有显著差异。我们的结果对于物质使用障碍很重要，因为对与物质相关刺激的P300反应降低与较少的渴望和更好的戒断有关。因此，我们得出结论，在催眠过程中感到安全的暗示可能对患有物质使用障碍的个体起到治疗作用。
