Objective: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a prevalent psychiatric condition characterized by multiple symptoms that cause great distress. Uncovering the brain areas involved in MDD is essential for improving therapeutic strategies and predicting response to interventions. This systematic review discusses recent findings regarding cortical alterations in depressed patients during emotional or cognitive tasks, as measured by electroencephalography (EEG). Methods: A search of the MEDLINE/PubMed and Cochrane databases was carried out using the keywords EEG and depression, confined to article title. Results: The studies identified reveal the frontal cortex as an important brain structure involved in the complex neural processes associated with MDD. Findings point to disorganization of right-hemisphere activity and deficient cognitive processing in MDD. Depressed individuals tend to ruminate on negative information and respond with a pattern of relatively higher right frontal activity to emotional stimuli associated with withdrawal and isolation. Conclusion: Patients with MDD may have altered dynamic patterns of activity in several neuroanatomical structures, especially in prefrontal and limbic areas involved in affective regulation. Identification of these alterations might help predict the response of patients to different interventions more effectively and thus maximize the effects both of pharmacotherapeutic and of psychotherapeutic strategies.

Introduction Intrusive thoughts may cause a significant level of distress, since some individuals evaluate the content of those thoughts as aversive. Suppression of intrusive thoughts is one of the strategies adopted by these individuals, which increases the level of distress. Suppression of thoughts may be present as one of the factors that maintain different psychological disorders. Objective To describe the translation and adaptation into Brazilian Portuguese of the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), which measures thought suppression. Methods Three translations and back-translations were conducted by independent evaluators. Semantic equivalence was assessed and the three versions were evaluated to produce a synthesized version. Comments from participants on the preliminary version of the questionnaire were examined. Results We developed a preliminary Brazilian Portuguese version of the WBSI. It was found that most participants understood the descriptions of cognitions given in the translated questionnaire. Conclusion The use of three different versions of translations and back-translations, discussion of the synthetic version and interaction with the target population have conferred viability to the process of semantic equivalence of the Brazilian Portuguese final version of the WBSI.

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The interest in coaching psychology and neuroscience have been steadily increasing over the past 15 years. However, the two fields have not yet established consistent dialogues underpinned by experimental research. This paper highlights the importance of such dialogue for the growth of evidence-based coaching and how coaching psychology could benefit from previous neuroimaging and electroencephalographic studies in the field of psychotherapy and task-specific brain functioning to design research protocols that could significantly contribute to our understanding of how coaching works at the brain level and how coachees could best achieve results.

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