September 13, 2016
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| Researchers say their new imaging tool could help individuals self-regulate their emotional responses.
While there
are ways to train the brain to manage stress and other emotional responses,
such techniques do not work for everyone and are not always highly accessible.
Now, a new study reveals the development of a new tool that could bring
self-regulation of brain activity to a much wider audience
In the
journal Biological Psychiatry, researchers from Tel-Aviv University in
Israel report how a new imaging technique provides accurate feedback on
electrical activity in the amygdala of the brain - the region that regulates
emotional responses, such as fear and stress.
By using this
tool, researchers found participants were better able to reduce amygdala
activity, which enabled better control of emotional responses.
According to
senior author Dr. Talma Hendler, of the Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and
colleagues, it is notoriously difficult to monitor activity in the amygdala; it
is located deep within the brain's medial temporal lobe, making it hard to
reach.
Functional
magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is typically used to assess amygdala
activity, but the team notes that this imaging technique is expensive and
largely inaccessible, which restricts its use in clinical practice.
Now, Dr. Hendler and
team describe how a low-cost imaging tool that uses electroencephalography (EEG)
could offer a reliable, highly accessible way to monitor amygdala activity,
enabling better self-regulation of such activity.
The new imaging method
- which measures the amygdala's electrical activity - was tested on 42 healthy
participants.
With the new
technique, the participants were taught to modify their amygdala activity by
reducing an auditory feedback signal that correlated with it.
"The major
advancement of this new tool is the ability to use a low-cost and accessible
imaging method such as EEG to depict deeply located brain activity," note
Dr. Hendler and first author Jackob Keynan, a Ph.D. student in Dr. Hendler's
lab.
By conducting fMRI,
the researchers found that reducing the auditory feedback signal led to a
reduction in regional amygdala electrical activity, as determined by a
reduction in blood oxygen-dependent activity.
In another task, a
further 40 participants engaged in a behavioral experiment that triggered
emotional processing in the amygdala.
By learning to modify
amygdala activity with the new imaging technique, the subjects were able to better regulate their emotional responses, the
team reports.
The researchers say
their new brain-imaging tool needs to be further tested in people who have
experienced real-life trauma, in order to determine how it might help
individuals deal with their emotions.
If proven successful,
the team believes the tool could pose significant benefits for individuals with
stress-related disorders. For example, the low cost of the tool means it may be
possible to provide home-based stress resilience training for people at
high-risk of emotional trauma.
"We have long
known that there might be ways to tune down the amygdala through biofeedback,
meditation, or even the effects of placebos. It is an exciting idea that
perhaps direct feedback on the level of activity of the amygdala can be used to
help people gain control of their emotional responses." John Krystal, editor
of Biological Psychiatry
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/312877.php
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