Neural processing of emotions in traumatized children treated with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy: a hdEEG study

Abstract

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been proven efficacious in restoring affective regulation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients. However, its effectiveness on emotion processing in children with complex trauma has yet to be explored. High density electroencephalography (hdEEG) was used to investigate the effects of EMDR on brain responses to adults’ emotions on children with histories of early maltreatment. Ten school-aged children were examined before (T0) and within one month after the conclusion of EMDR (T1). hdEEGs were recorded while children passively viewed angry, afraid, happy, and neutral faces. Clinical scales were administered at the same time. Correlation analyses were performed to detect brain regions whose activity was linked to children’s traumatic symptom-related and emotional-adaptive problem scores. In all four conditions, hdEEG showed similar significantly higher activity on the right medial prefrontal and fronto-temporal limbic regions at T0, shifting toward the left medial and superior temporal regions at T1. Moreover, significant correlations were found between clinical scales and the same regions whose activity significantly differed between pre- and post-treatment. These preliminary results demonstrate that, after EMDR, children suffering from complex trauma show increased activity in areas implicated in high-order cognitive processing when passively viewing pictures of emotional expressions. These changes are associated with the decrease of depressive and traumatic symptoms, and with the improvement of emotional-adaptive functioning over time.

Review and Classification of Emotion Recognition Based on EEG Brain-Computer Interface System Research: A Systematic Review

“…Moreover, different age groups ranging from infants [132,143,169], children [6,43,75,84,89,103,125,126,[128][129][130]140,183,184,[210][211][212][213], adolescents [59,65,70,135,139], and elderly [105,214] in different experiments were considered as study samples. Some studies were conducted on a single gender, such as those investigating women's emotions during motherhood and parental status [133,134,164] and a study of men [215].…”

“…Other medical cases include autism [6,21,75,140,212,213], bipolar disorder [124,145], epilepsy [230,234,235], attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [103,165], bulimia nervosa [33,168], borderline personality disorder [167], pervasive developmental disorder [81], and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing [125].…”

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and Slow Wave Sleep: A Putative Mechanism of Action

“…Several neuroimaging investigations have demonstrated the effect of EMDR on cortical and sub-cortical regions involved in PTSD, depicting a clear association between disappearance of symptoms and the normalization of brain changes ( Lansing et al, 2005 ; Pagani et al, 2007 , 2012 , 2015 ; Nardo et al, 2010 ; Landin-Romero et al, 2013 ; Trentini et al, 2015 ; Laugharne et al, 2016 ; for review see Pagani et al, 2013 ). Whole session monitoring of cortical activations by EEG made EMDR the first psychotherapy in which neurobiological correlates have been depicted in real time ( Pagani et al, 2011 , 2012 ).…”

Degrading traumatic memories with eye movements: a pilot functional MRI study in PTSD

“…One study using a modified oddball paradigm containing auditory standard, target, and novel tones, showed decreased P3a component of event-related potentials after EMDR, suggesting reduced alertness and de-arousal upon treatment (Lamprecht et al, 2004). Two other EEG studies from the same lab, showed a shift from the medial prefrontal cortex and fronto-temporal activity during EMs in the first EMDR session, toward more posterior associative regions in the last session, that correlated with symptom improvement (Pagani et al, 2015; Trentini et al, 2015). However, these EEG studies recorded brain activity only during EMs and not after the intervention when—if successful—the memories lost vividness and emotionality.…”