Hypnosis and memory?

[lebronisking23]

How does hypnosis effect memory?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[5words]

Yes, to an extent.. however it cant help you remember/recall your chikdhood memmories due to infabtile amnesia..

It can help you remember stuff but even that's not error-proof because we contrast our memory from a schema.

 

[Aker]

How does hypnosis affect memory?

This is an interesting question. First of all, hypnotic techniques can facilitate recall, in as much as those techniques can help you to deeply concentrate. On the other hand, it is known that hypnosis can also facilitate the production of false memories, that will nonetheless be later perceived by the subject as honestly true. This is a problem, for instance, if you must rely on someone's recall, say to solve a crime, but it can become an interesting therapeutic tool (see for example Milton Erickson's The February Man).
Interestingly enough, current investigation shows that memory retrieval can in fact alter the original memory trace, which means that our own memory of an event is actually a "reconstruction". With that in mind, hypnotic techniques can yield an interesting therapeutic space.

"(...) consolidated fear memories, when reactivated during retrieval, return to a labile state in which infusion of anisomycin shortly after memory reactivation produces amnesia on later tests."
Nader, K.; Schafe, G.E. & LeDoux, J.E. (2000). Fear memories require protein synthesis in the amygdala for reconsolidation after retrieval. Nature 406: 722-726

Some more references on hypnosis and memory reconsolidation (Spanish text).