Facilitating Access to Emotions: Neural Signature of EMDR Stimulation

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method in psychotherapy effective in treating symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. The client attends to alternating bilateral visual, auditory or sensory stimulation while confronted with emotionally disturbing material. It is thought...

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Veröffentlicht in:	PloS one Jg. 9; H. 8; S. e106350
Hauptverfasser:	Herkt, Deborah, Tumani, Visal, Grön, Georg, Kammer, Thomas, Hofmann, Arne, Abler, Birgit
Format:	Journal Article
Sprache:	Englisch
Veröffentlicht:	United States Public Library of Science 28.08.2014 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Schlagworte:	Acoustic Stimulation - methods Adolescent Adult Amygdala Behavior modification Biology and Life Sciences Brain research Colleges & universities Cortex (auditory) Cortex (frontal) Cortex (somatosensory) Emotions Emotions - physiology Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing - methods Eye Movements Fear & phobias Female Functional magnetic resonance imaging Humans Laboratories Medical imaging Medicine and Health Sciences Memory Neurobiology Neurophysiology Pain Post traumatic stress disorder Posttraumatic stress disorder Prefrontal cortex Prefrontal Cortex - physiology Psychiatry Psychotherapy Reprocessing Sensory integration Sensory stimulation Social Sciences Somatosensory cortex Studies Surveys and Questionnaires Visual cortex Visual stimuli Young Adult Germany
ISSN:	1932-6203, 1932-6203
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Zusammenfassung:	Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method in psychotherapy effective in treating symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. The client attends to alternating bilateral visual, auditory or sensory stimulation while confronted with emotionally disturbing material. It is thought that the bilateral stimulation as a specific element of EMDR facilitates accessing and processing of negative material while presumably creating new associative links. We hypothesized that the putatively facilitated access should be reflected in increased activation of the amygdala upon bilateral EMDR stimulation even in healthy subjects. We investigated 22 healthy female university students (mean 23.5 years) with fMRI. Subjects were scanned while confronted with blocks of disgusting and neutral picture stimuli. One third of the blocks was presented without any additional stimulation, one third with bilateral simultaneous auditory stimulation, and one third with bilateral alternating auditory stimulation as used in EMDR. Contrasting disgusting vs. neutral picture stimuli confirmed the expected robust effect of amygdala activation for all auditory stimulation conditions. The interaction analysis with the type of auditory stimulation revealed a specific increase in activation of the right amygdala for the bilateral alternating auditory stimulation. Activation of the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex showed the opposite effect with decreased activation. We demonstrate first time evidence for a putative neurobiological basis of the bilateral alternating stimulation as used in the EMDR method. The increase in limbic processing along with decreased frontal activation is in line with theoretical models of how bilateral alternating stimulation could help with therapeutic reintegration of information, and present findings may pave the way for future research on EMDR in the context of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Bibliographie:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 14 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have the following interests: AH and EMDR Institute Germany provide EMDRIA recognized EMDR trainings in Germany. EMDR Institut Germany is affiliated with the EMDR Institute in Watsonville (US) of Dr. Francine Shapiro, the originator of EMDR. Both Institutes provide training in EMDR. Co-author Arne Hofmann is the founder and head of the EMDR Institute Germany. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and materials. Conceived and designed the experiments: DH VT GG TK BA. Performed the experiments: DH BA. Analyzed the data: DH GG BA. Wrote the paper: DH AH BA.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0106350