Key result
EEG neurofeedback increases frontal asymmetry and emotion-related brain connectivity versus sham during positive emotion upregulation.
Why the study?
Does EEG neurofeedback based on alpha asymmetry alter brain activity and connectivity during emotion regulation in healthy subjects?
Does EEG neurofeedback based on alpha asymmetry alter brain activity and connectivity during emotion regulation in healthy subjects?
p-value: p=1.7x10^-4
EEG neurofeedback based on alpha asymmetry significantly increases BOLD activity and functional connectivity in brain regions involved in emotion regulation compared to sham feedback.
Hypothesis-generating for EEG neurofeedback in emotion regulation; requires validation in clinical populations and randomized trials.
Despite the existence of several emotion regulation studies using neurofeedback, interactions among a small number of regions were evaluated, and therefore, further investigation is needed to understand the interactions of the brain regions involved in emotion regulation. We implemented electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback with simultaneous functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) using a modified happiness-inducing task through autobiographical memories to upregulate positive emotion. Then, an explorative analysis of whole brain regions was done to understand the effect of neurofeedback on brain activity and the interaction of whole brain regions involved in emotion regulation. The participants in the control and experimental groups were asked to do emotion regulation while viewing positive images of autobiographical memories and getting sham or real (based on alpha asymmetry) EEG neurofeedback, respectively. The proposed multimodal approach quantified the effects of EEG neurofeedback in changing EEG alpha power, fMRI blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) activity of prefrontal, occipital, parietal, and limbic regions (up to 1.9% increase), and functional connectivity in/between prefrontal, parietal, limbic system, and insula in the experimental group. New connectivity links were identified by comparing the brain functional connectivity between experimental conditions (Upregulation and View blocks) and also by comparing the brain connectivity of the experimental and control groups. Psychometric assessments confirmed significant changes in positive and negative mood states in the experimental group by neurofeedback. Based on the exploratory analysis of activity and connectivity among all brain regions involved in emotion regions, we found significant BOLD and functional connectivity increases due to EEG neurofeedback in the experimental group, but no learning effect was observed in the control group. The results reveal several new connections among brain regions as a result of EEG neurofeedback which can be justified according to emotion regulation models and the role of those regions in emotion regulation and recalling positive autobiographical memories.
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Dehghani et al. (2023) studied Healthy subjects (n=32). EEG neurofeedback (frontal alpha asymmetry) vs. Sham EEG neurofeedback was evaluated on Difference in EEG frontal asymmetry (LnP(F4)-LnP(F3)) between Upregulation and View blocks (Experimental vs Control) (p=1.7x10^-4). EEG neurofeedback based on frontal alpha asymmetry significantly increased EEG frontal asymmetry and functional connectivity in emotion-related brain regions compared to sham neurofeedback during positive emotion upregulation.
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