Health · Medical Research · 2 hrs ago
One brain-training session briefly improved mood in a small depression trial
Researchers tested a brain-feedback session for depression in 32 people with major depressive disorder and 30 people with no history of mental health problems.
Participants thought about motivating experiences while lying in a scanner that measured activity in a brain region linked to motivation and reward.
Some saw live feedback intended to help them increase activity in that region, while others saw prerecorded signals as a comparison.
People with depression who got live feedback reported fewer negative emotions immediately afterward and the next day than those given prerecorded signals.
The researchers said the changes were not yet clinically meaningful, and the mood effect had disappeared after a week.
Brain activity did not significantly differ between the two groups, so it is unclear whether the feedback itself caused the mood improvement.
A follow-up trial is testing two sessions, but its results are not expected for several years.
A single neurofeedback session temporarily improved mood among people with depression in a small trial.
The 32 participants with major depressive disorder who received genuine brain-activity feedback reported higher mood scores than those who received sham feedback.
The session aimed to increase activity in the brain’s ventral tegmental area, which is involved in motivation and reward.
Brain activity did not significantly differ between the genuine-feedback and sham groups.
The mood improvements had disappeared by a one-week follow-up and were not considered clinically meaningful by the researchers.
- Who
- Laurel Morris and colleagues studied 32 people with major depressive disorder and 30 people with no history of mental health problems.
- What
- A trial found that one neurofeedback session briefly improved mood among participants with depression who received genuine feedback.
- When
- The study date is not stated. Mood was assessed immediately after the session and the following day, with a follow-up one week later.
- Where
- Participants lay in a brain scanner. Morris is at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York.
- Why
- The intervention aimed to test whether people could regulate brain activity in the ventral tegmental area to affect mood.
Neurofeedback researchers
Kymberly Young
Cause of mood improvement
Neurofeedback researchers
Morris said neurofeedback seemed to reduce negative emotions such as sadness.
Kymberly Young
Young suggested that thinking about motivating things, rather than the neurofeedback, could have helped.
Participants completed a neurofeedback session lasting about 30 minutes.
Participants completed mood questionnaires.
Participants completed mood questionnaires again, and the mood improvement was still present among people with depression who received genuine feedback.
The improvements had disappeared at follow-up.
Morris’s follow-up trial testing two neurofeedback sessions began; results are not expected for several years.
- Participants with major depressive disorder
- 32
- Participants with no history of mental health problems
- 30
- Neurofeedback session
- About 30 minutes
- Brain region targeted
- Ventral tegmental area (VTA)
- Mood improvement
- Persisted into the following day, but had disappeared by a one-week follow-up
What people are saying
We would not call these changes clinically meaningful yet
Thinking about motivating things could be what helps, rather than the neurofeedback itself
Sources
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