Inhibition in the emotional Hayling task: can hypnotic suggestion enhance cognitive control on a prepotent negative word?

Recent studies suggest that instrumental hypnosis is a useful experimental tool to investigate emotional and language processing effects. However, the capacity of hypnotic suggestions to intervene during the response inhibition of emotional words remains elusive. This study investigated whether hypnotic suggestion can improve the inhibition of prepotent negative word responses in an emotional Hayling sentence completion task. High-suggestible participants performed a computerised emotional Hayling task. They were first asked to select the appropriate words ending highly predictable sentences among two propositions (initiation part), and then to select the filler words that did not end the sentences correctly (inhibition part). Half of the expected final words had a negative emotional valence, while the other half was neutral. The task was performed in a control condition (without suggestion) and with a hypnotic suggestion to decrease emotional reactivity. The results revealed that hypnotic suggestion (compared to the control condition) hastened response times on negative final words in the inhibition part, showing that hypnotic suggestion can enhance cognitive control over prepotent negative word responses in a sentence completion task. We suggest that this modulation stems from a reduction in the emotional relevance of the final words caused by the hypnotic suggestion.

French Norms for a Shortened Online Adaptation of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A.

This study presents the norms and psychometric properties for a shortened online adaptation of a French version of the Harvard Group Scale of Hypnotic Susceptibility, Form A (HGSHS:A). Assessment of involuntariness and subjective intensity was added to the traditional scoring. A total of 373 individuals completed an online hypnotizability screening test on their own computer. Participants received the HGSHS:A script through an audio recording lasting about 30 minutes. The results showed that the item difficulty and reliability of the short online HGSHS:A were consistent with the offline version of the scale and with the reference samples. Involuntariness and subjective intensity corrections improved significantly the accuracy in the measurement of the scale and helped to dissociate between different phenomenologies in hypnotic responding. These findings indicate that the short online HGSHS:A is a reliable tool for measuring hypnotizability. Moreover, we suggest that using complementary measures of involuntariness and subjective intensity helps to shed more light on hypnotizability as part of a multi-componential approach to hypnotic response.

Hypnotic suggestion modulates visual recognition of negative words depending on word arousal.

This study examined whether and how emotional hypnotic suggestions modulate the visual recognition of negative words. We investigated the influence of hypnotic suggestions aimed at modifying emotional reactivity on the arousal effect in negative words. High and low suggestible individuals performed a go/no-go lexical decision task in three intra-individual conditions: with a suggestion to increase emotional reactivity, with a suggestion to decrease emotional reactivity and without hypnotic suggestion. Results showed that hypnotic suggestions modulated the arousal facilitation effect differently depending on the level of suggestibility of the participants. In high suggestible individuals, response times for low-arousal negative words varied oppositely according to the suggestion administered, while no modulations were retrieved for high-arousal ones. In contrast, no suggestion effects were found for low suggestible participants. Altogether, these findings suggest a higher influence of hypnotic suggestions on emotional words that require longer processing times in high suggestible individuals.

Modulation of attentional bias by hypnotic suggestion: experimental evidence from an emotional Stroop task.

Hypnosis is considered a unique tool capable of modulating cognitive processes. The extent to which hypnotic suggestions intervenes is still under debate. This study was designed to provide a new insight into this issue, by focusing on an unintentional emotional process: attentional bias. In Experiment 1, highly suggestible participants performed three sessions of an emotional Stroop task where hypnotic suggestions aiming to increase and decrease emotional reactivity towards emotional stimuli were administered within an intra-individual design. Compared to a baseline condition (without hypnotic suggestion), a significant increase in attentional bias was found when a hypnotic suggestion to increase emotional reactivity was administered. In contrast, the bias was eliminated when a suggestion to decrease emotional reactivity was administered. Experiment 2 investigated the effect of session repetition on attentional bias across three successive experimental sessions without hypnosis, and showed that the emotional Stroop effect did not vary across sessions. Hence, session repetition could not account for part of the modulation of attentional bias in Experiment 1. Taken together, the results suggest that specific hypnotic suggestions can influence elicitation of unintentional emotional processing. The implications are discussed regarding the locus of intervention of hypnotic suggestion in cognitive and emotional processes.

Genetic biomarkers of life-threatening pheochromocytoma-induced cardiomyopathy.

The release of excessive amounts of catecholamine by pheochromocytoma-paragangliomas (PPGL) can lead to life-threatening catecholamine-induced cardiomyopathy (CIC). Single-nucleotide polymorphisms of the beta1 and alpha-2c adrenergic receptors alter myocyte receptor function and enhanced norepinephrine release. We tested the hypothesis that such genetic variations may impact the risk of developing CIC in the context of PPGL. Thirty-one patients with PPGL, including nine with a history of CIC, were analyzed for alpha-2-adrenergic receptors: ADRA2C, beta-1 and beta-2 adrenergic receptors: ADRB1 and ADRB2 genotyping. CIC was defined either by a history of heart failure or cardiogenic shock associated with dilated or Takotsubo cardiomyopathy. Subjects were genotyped for ADRA2C (rs61767072 for del322_325), ADRB1 (rs1801252 for Ser49Gly and rs1801253 for Arg389Gly) and ADRB2 (rs1042713 for Arg16Gly and rs1042714 for Gln27Glu). Single-locus analysis revealed that variant in ADRA2C (alpha 2CDel322-325) was more common among patients with CIC than among controls (allele frequency, 0.44 vs 0.05; P< 0.001). The lack of alpha 2CDel322-325 polymorphism has a negative predictive value of 95% for the onset of CIC. In a replication cohort including 26 patients with PPGL whom eight have developed a CIC, the association between Alpha 2CDel322-325 and CIC was confirmed (allele frequency, 0.33 vs 0.; P= 0.0001). In conclusion, Alpha 2CDel322-325 through the identification of patients at low risk of developing CIC can help physicians to better determine the most appropriate therapeutic approach, notably in patients at high risk of surgical complications.

Tip of the iceberg: a tertiary care centre retrospective study of left ventricular hypertrophy aetiologies.

AIMS: To phenotype patients referred to a tertiary centre for the exploration of a left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) starting from 12 mm of left ventricular wall thickness (LVWT). METHODS AND RESULTS: Consecutive patients referred for aetiological workup of LVH, beginning at 12 mm of LVWT were retrospectively included in this tertiary single-centred observational study. Patients presenting with severe aortic stenosis were excluded. Aetiological workup was reviewed for each subject and aetiologies were adjudicated by expert consensus.Among 591 patients referred for LVH aetiological workup, 41% had a maximal LVWT below 15 mm. LVH aetiologies were led by cardiac amyloidosis (CA, 34.3%), followed by sarcomeric hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (S-HCM, 32.1%), hypertensive cardiomyopathy (21.7%), unknown aetiology (7.6%) and other (4.2%), including Anderson-Fabry's disease (1.7%). CA and S-HCM affected over 50% of patients with mild LVH (12-14 mm); the prevalence of these aetiologies rose with LVH severity. Among patients with Anderson-Fabry's disease, 4 (40%) had a maximal LVWT <15 mm. CONCLUSIONS: Mild LVH (ie, 12-14 mm) conceals multiple aetiologies that can lead to specific treatment, cascade family screening and specific follow-up. Overall, CA is nowadays the leading cause of LVH in tertiary centers.