October 2024
Amygdala self-neuromodulation capacity as a window for process-related network recruitment.
/ Gurevitch G, Lubianiker N, Markovits T, Or-Borichev A, Sharon H, Fine NB, Fruchtman-Steinbok T, Keynan JN, Shahar M, Friedman A, Singer N.
Philosophical Transactions B. 2024 Oct 21;379(1915):20240186.
Demonstrated how individuals’ ability to self-modulate their amygdala-EFP increases over training, resulting in improved emotion regulation.
Self-neuromodulation capacity is the ability to alter your own brain activity. This work analyzed the data of 97 individuals including PTSD patients, fibromyalgia patients and healthy controls, who underwent neurofeedback training with amygdala-EFP (between 6-15 sessions).
Results show that participants increased their ability to modulate their amygdala-EFP by the end of training. This increased capacity correlated with individuals’ ability to modulate the neural activity of their amygdala as measured by fMRI after training. Furthermore, it was correlated with improved ability to identify, process and describe emotions, as measured by improved alexithymia scores. The correlation with both amygdala neuromodulation capacity and improvement in alexithymia shows that the ability to modulate amygdala-EFP is associated with emotion regulation. This demonstrates that amygdala-EFP neurofeedback training results in improved emotion regulation both in healthy individuals and in patients.
To read the full article in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B - https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2024.0186