We report a controlled study of emotion self-regulation training in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) using frontal alpha asymmetry (FAA) EEG neurofeedback (EEG-nf) with simultaneous fMRI. MDD patients learned to significantly upregulate the FAA using EEG-nf while inducing happy emotion. Temporal correlations between the FAA and BOLD activity were significantly enhanced during the EEG-nf for many brain regions involved in emotion regulation, including the left DLPFC and the amygdala. Behavioral responses showed stronger approach bias after the training. Our study provides the first independent-modality evidence that the FAA-based EEG-nf can engage and influence the emotional brain circuitry.
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