Can posthypnotic suggestions boost updating in working memory? Behavioral and ERP evidence

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Psychology
• Neuroscience

Background:

• Updating is a critical executive function (EF) for working memory (WM) operations, involving information storage, retrieval, and substitution.
• Executive functions are crucial for goal-directed behavior and cognitive control.
• High hypnotizability offers a potential avenue for investigating cognitive enhancement.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether posthypnotic suggestions (PHS) can enhance updating in working memory (WM).
• To explore the neural correlates of PHS-induced WM enhancement using event-related brain potentials (ERPs).
• To establish a framework for using PHS as a potential training method for cognitive functions.

Main Methods:

• A tone-monitoring task was employed to assess WM updating performance across varying cognitive loads.
• Participants underwent two counterbalanced sessions: no-hypnosis (NH) and hypnosis with PHS.
• Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded to measure neural activity during the task.

Main Results:

• Posthypnotic suggestions significantly enhanced working memory performance compared to the no-hypnosis condition.
• ERPs showed increased P2 and P3 components with PHS, indicating enhanced proactive attention and cognitive control.
• PHS reduced the impact of updating load on posterior ERP components, suggesting diminished WM buffer demands.

Conclusions:

• Posthypnotic suggestions effectively enhance working memory updating by strengthening proactive control mechanisms.
• The observed ERP changes suggest PHS facilitates cognitive simulation, akin to mental practice.
• PHS offers a promising, non-invasive method for developing targeted training regimes to improve WM and other executive functions.