Research on EFT in fMRI and EEG Studies

Abstract

Abstract

Citation (APA Style): Stapleton, P., Buchan, C., Mitchell, I., McGrath, Y., Gorton, P., and Carter, B. (2019). An initial investigation of neural changes in overweight adults with food cravings after emotional freedom techniques. OBM Integr. Complement. Med. 4, 1–1. doi: 10.21926/obm.icm.1901010

Direct link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1744388122001219?via%3Dihub

Abstract

Background: We present first-time evidence for the immediate neural and behavioral effects of bifocal emotional processing via visualized tapping for two different types of negative emotions (fear and disgust) in a sample of healthy participants.

Results: Independent of stimulus type, neural activation in the amygdala is increased during regulation, while activation in the ventral anterior cingulate cortex is decreased. Behavioral responses, as well as lateral and medial occipital regions and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex show differential regulatory effects with respect to stimulus type.

Conclusions: Our findings suggest that emotion regulation through bifocal processing has a neural and behavioral signature that is distinct from previously investigated emotion regulation strategies. They support theoretical models of facilitated access to and processing of emotions during bifocal processing and suggest differential neural and behavioral effects for various types of negative emotions.

Citation (APA Style): Wittfoth, D., Pfeiffer, A., Bohne, M., Lanfermann, H., and Wittfoth, M. (2020). Emotion regulation through bifocal processing of fear inducing and disgust inducing stimuli. BMC Neurosci. 21. doi: 10.1186/s12868-020-00597-x

Direct link: https://bmcneurosci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12868-020-00597-x

Abstract

Very few studies have investigated the neural underpinnings of bifocal-multisensory interventions such as acupoint tapping (tapping) despite their well-documented efficacy. The present study aims to investigate the neural and behavioral responses to tapping during the perception of phobic and generally fear-inducing stimulation in a group of participants with fear of flying. We studied 29 flight-phobic participants who were exposed to phobia-related, fear-inducing and neutral stimulation while undergoing fMRI and a bifocal-multisensory intervention session consisting of tapping plus cognitive restructuring in a within-subject design. During tapping we found an up-regulation of neural activation in the amygdala, and a down-regulation in the hippocampus and temporal pole. These effects were different from automatic emotion regulatory processes which entailed down-regulation in the amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal pole. Mean scores (±SD) on the Fear of Flying scale dropped from 2.51(±0.65) before the intervention to 1.27(±0.68) after the intervention (p <.001). The proportion of participants meeting the criteria for fear of flying also dropped from 89.7 percent before the intervention to 24.0 percent after the intervention (p <.001). Taken together, our results lend support to the effectiveness of tapping as a means of emotion regulation across multiple contexts and add to previous findings of increased amygdala activation during tapping, as opposed to amygdala down-regulation found in other emotion regulation techniques. They expand on previous knowledge by suggesting that tapping might modulate the processing of complex visual scene representations and their binding with visceral emotional reponses, reflected by the down-regulation of activation in the hippocampus and temporal pole. Bifocal emotion regulation was useful in ameliorating aversive reactions to phobic stimuli in people with fear of flying.

Citation (APA Style): Wittfoth, D., Beise, J., Manuel, J., Bohne, M., and Wittfoth, M. (2022). Bifocal emotion regulation through acupoint tapping in fear of flying. NeuroImage Clin. 102996. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102996

Direct link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2213158222000614?via%3Dihub