Autosuggestion: a cognitive process that empowers your brain?

Abstract

Autosuggestion is a cognitive process that is believed to enable control over one’s own cognitive and physiological states. Despite its potential importance for basic science and clinical applications, such as in rehabilitation, stress reduction, or pain therapy, the neurocognitive mechanisms and psychological concepts that underlie autosuggestion are poorly defined. Here, by reviewing empirical data on autosuggestion and related phenomena such as mental imagery, mental simulation, and suggestion, we offer a neurocognitive concept of autosuggestion. We argue that autosuggestion is characterized by three major factors: reinstantiation, reiteration, and volitional, active control over one’s own physiological states. We also propose that autosuggestion might involve the ‘overwriting’ of existing predictions or brain states that expect the most common (but not desired) outcome. We discuss potential experimental paradigms that could be used to study autosuggestion in the future, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of current evidence. This review provides a first overview on how to define, experimentally induce, and study autosuggestion, which may facilitate its use in basic science and clinical practice.

Is Hypnotic Induction Necessary to Experience Hypnosis and Responsible for Changes in Brain Activity?

“…Within each three-minute-long window (i.e., R OE , R CE , IND1, IND2, NH, POST), we estimated the PSD with the Welch method using five-second-long windows with an overlap of 80%. The PSD was then integrated in the canonical EEG frequency bands, i.e., delta (1-4 Hz), theta (4-8 Hz), alpha (8-12 Hz), beta (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26)(27)(28)(29)(30), and gamma (30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40)(41)(42)(43)(44)(45).…”

How the inner repetition of a desired perception changes actual tactile perception

“…The task was to indicate if the touch on the comparison finger was higher/lower in frequency (Experiments 1, 2) or faster/slower in pace (Experiment 3) than the touch on the reference finger. The condition that we refer to as the ‘autosuggestion condition’ was based on the definition of autosuggestion introduced by Myga et al 2 , and in accordance with the initial description of autosuggestion proposed by Coué 1 . Here, participants were asked to perceive the touches on the reference finger as very strong (Experiment 1) or as very weak (Experiments 2, 3) by internally repeating the thought ‘The touch feels very strong’ or ‘The touch feels very weak’, respectively.…”

“…Second, we intended to address motivated participants to take part in the experiment. Note that willingness/intention to create specific perceptual states is assumed to be a precondition to successfully performing autosuggestion (see 2 ). In case participants did not like the experimental paradigm, they were offered the option to resign before the experiment took place.…”

“…Autosuggestion posits that individuals can influence their own mental and physiological states through the repetition of a thought, a so-called suggestion 1 – 3 . A popular example of autosuggestion is positive affirmations people make to themselves to boost their experiences 2 .…”

“…In the present study, we define autosuggestion (or self-suggestion) as the rehearsal (i.e., reiteration) of particular thoughts or statements (e.g., ‘the touch I receive is very strong’), with the aim of actively influencing one’s own perception 2 . Even though other definitions of autosuggestion exist 21 , 22 , this definition is in line with the initial description of autosuggestion proposed by Coué 1 .…”