Temporal dynamics of the hypnotic response

Abstract

To establish the temporal dynamics of hypnotic responding, we composed an Attentional Blink paradigm in which both the first and second targets were faces, either expressing neutral or angry emotions. We then suppressed the emotional advantage of angry faces by means of a “hypnotic numbing” suggestion. Hypnosis attenuated only the emotional salience of the second target (T2), suggesting that hypnosis’ effects were time and resource dependent. Additionally, we found that hypnosis fostered changes in the attentional task-set of all participants, regardless of their hypnotizability. By implementing drift-diffusion decision modelling, we found that hypnosis lowered decision thresholds. These results portray hypnotic responding as a two-tiered process: first, hypnosis alters the attentional task-set, then, provided processing and response preparation are not interrupted, a hypnotic response based on this altered task-set is produced through late cognitive control strategies dependent on hypnotic susceptibility.