That mechanism was known long time ago. It is in part to habituation, when you have a neural circuit that works in a certain way, one action will trigger another forever until you change the circuit. Neuroplasticity allows us to create this circuits, and also to change them. Also there is the fact that the mind responds to an internal generated scenario as well as it responds to an external one, although in a lower degree. Finally, it has been demonstrated that the belief that something will cause something else in our mental state usually becomes true; it works like a placebo for mental states.