Modulating Amygdala Responses in Major Depressive Disorder using Naturalistic Neurofeedback with Emotional Faces

Bidirectional amygdala regulation via naturalistic real-time fMRI neurofeedback in 21 patients with major depressive disorder showed expected Happy-up increases and Fear-down decreases in amygdala activity.

• Why it matters: Emotion regulation deficits in major depressive disorder may involve distinct neural patterns tied to symptom dimensions like anhedonia and anxiety, motivating targeted neural interventions.
• What they did: In a parallel-group study, patients received either Happy-up (making a neutral face happier) or Fear-down (making a fearful face less fearful) neurofeedback using dynamically changing emotional faces.
• The result: After the intervention, depression severity, anxiety, and anhedonia decreased and neutral/happy face evaluations became more positive, but anhedonia and anxiety improvements did not differ significantly between groups.

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