emotionSync®: Solving Dysfunctional Cognitions by Reversing Pavlovian Conditioning.

Introduction: Pavlovian conditioning establishes stimulus-response connections. The neural basis is provided by Hebbian learning; an almost forgotten dispute in psychology asks whether this is a gradual build-up of the strength of a connection of an all-or none-learning. Objectives: This article focuses on dysfunctional cognitions which are stimulus-response connections often learned with one-shot conditioning and investigates the option of reversing this learning within one session, by using a type of Anti-Pavlovian conditioning. Methods: First a relatively new method, emotionSync®, is introduced and described. It is neurophysiologically based and founded on overexciting existing dysfunctional connections. emotionSync® can involve different representational systems. Here the auditory system is investigated, as lots of dysfunctional cognitions rely on auditory representations. I present two studies with different methods to evaluate the emotional state of the subjects before and after the intervention with emotionSync®. Results: The data provide evidence for the effectiveness of emotionSync®. Pre-post comparisons show an improvement of the emotional state of the clients regardless of measurement scale. The effect was still stable after three months. Further studies even showed lasting stability. Conclusions: I suggest that learning can be both -- gradual and all-or-one. I further suggest that for effective de-learning single sessions overexciting neural connections through emotionSync® may be more effective than slow gradual replacement of existing connection with new connections, without deleting old memory traces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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