• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Tracking Health and Wellness Applications of Brain Science

Spanish
sb-logo-with-brain
  • Resources
    • Monthly eNewsletter
    • Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle
    • The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness
    • How to evaluate brain training claims
    • Resources at a Glance
  • Brain Teasers
    • Top 25 Brain Teasers & Games for Teens and Adults
    • Brain Teasers for each Cognitive Ability
    • More Mind Teasers & Games for Adults of any Age
  • Virtual Summits
    • 2019 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • Speaker Roster
    • Brainnovations Pitch Contest
    • 2017 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2016 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2015 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
    • 2014 SharpBrains Virtual Summit
  • Report: Pervasive Neurotechnology
  • Report: Digital Brain Health
  • About
    • Mission & Team
    • Endorsements
    • Public Speaking
    • In the News
    • Contact Us

Can Brain Training and Biofeedback Help Prevent Depression

November 10, 2011 by Dr. Pascale Michelon

In two inno­v­a­tive pilot stud­ies, Ian Gotlib and his col­leagues at Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, Cal­i­for­nia, showed that brain train­ing can be used to help elim­i­nate depres­sion, even before it starts. They stud­ied young girls (10 to 14 year old) whose moth­ers were depressed and who thus were at high­er risk of devel­op­ing depres­sion them­selves lat­er-on. The girls had not expe­ri­enced depres­sion per se but already showed behav­iors typ­i­cal of depressed brains, such as over­re­ac­tion to neg­a­tive stimuli.

Two sim­ple brain train­ing methods

The group of researchers explored two brain rewiring meth­ods to try to elim­i­nate depres­sive trends in the girls. One was a sim­ple com­put­er game that aimed at train­ing the brain to pay atten­tion to pos­i­tive stim­uli over neg­a­tive stim­uli. The game showed pairs of faces: either a neu­tral face paired with a sad face or a neu­tral face paired with a hap­py one. After the pair was shown a dot replaced one of the faces and the girls had to click on the dot. To train the brain to pay atten­tion to the pos­i­tive faces over the neg­a­tive faces, the dot always replaced the pos­i­tive face. Com­pared to a group of girls for whom the dot ran­dom­ly replaced the neu­tral, pos­i­tive or neg­a­tive face, girls for whom the dot always replaced the pos­i­tive face were effi­cient­ly trained to avoid look­ing at the sad faces. This was observed after only one week of dai­ly training.

The oth­er brain rewiring method used by the group was sim­i­lar to the biofeed­back meth­ods used to reduce stress. The activ­i­ty in a net­work of brain regions pre­vi­ous­ly asso­ci­at­ed with depres­sion was mea­sured via an fMRi scan and pre­sent­ed to the girls in the form of a ther­mome­ter on a screen. The girls were shown negative/sad pic­tures that would nor­mal­ly raise the activ­i­ty in these brain regions (and thus raise the tem­per­a­ture of the “ther­mome­ter”) and tried to low­er their brain activ­i­ty by chang­ing their men­tal states. Girls in a con­trol group were shown brain activ­i­ty from some­body else so they did not get to learn how to con­trol their own men­tal states. After the train­ing, girls in the exper­i­men­tal group showed less stress respons­es to neg­a­tive stimuli.

It can work

Both brain train­ing meth­ods were thus effi­cient. One trained the girls at avoid­ing sad stim­uli and the oth­er at con­trol­ling men­tal activ­i­ty in brain regions asso­ci­at­ed with depres­sive men­tal states. Both types of train­ing were suc­cess­ful in dimin­ish­ing stress-respons­es asso­ci­at­ed to neg­a­tive stim­uli. Such respons­es are a key symp­tom in depression.

Although these are only pilot stud­ies involv­ing very few par­tic­i­pants, the results are very promis­ing. They once more show how plas­tic the brain is and under­line the high poten­tial of brain train­ing to help rewire and change behaviors.

Note the sim­plic­i­ty of the com­put­er game used here: although the brain is a com­plex machine, behav­iors some­times do not need much to be mod­i­fied. Tak­ing behav­iors ear­ly on may also help in the process of chang­ing them. It is inter­est­ing to note too that sim­i­lar behav­ior mod­i­fi­ca­tions can be achieved through oth­er brain train­ing meth­ods such cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py in which old pat­terns of thoughts are replaced by new, health­i­er ones.

Cred­it for pic: Big­Stock­Pho­to.

— This arti­cle was writ­ten by Pas­cale Mich­e­lon, Ph.D. Dr. Mich­e­lon is Cog­ni­tive Sci­ences expert and has worked as a Research Sci­en­tist at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty in Saint Louis, in the Psy­chol­o­gy Depart­ment. She is now an Adjunct Fac­ul­ty at Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, and facil­i­tates mem­o­ry work­shops in retire­ment com­mu­ni­ties in the St Louis area.

Relat­ed articles:

  • A Course Cor­rec­tion for Pos­i­tive Psy­chol­o­gy: A Review of Mar­tin Seligman’s Lat­est Book
  • Med­i­ta­tion can Change the Struc­ture of the Brain
  • Tech­nol­o­gy as the miss­ing link to enable a brain-based mod­el of brain care: inter­view with Dr. John Docherty

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Share on Tumblr
  • Pock­et

Filed Under: Brain/ Mental Health Tagged With: behavior modifications, biofeedback, brain regions, brain rewiring, brain training methods, brain training programs, brain-activity, Brain-Training, change behaviors, cognitive-behavioral-therapy, computer-game, depression, fMRI, game, girls, Memory-Workshops, mental states, prevent-depression, reduce stress, retirement-communities, stress responses

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Glyn Blackett says

    November 30, 2011 at 2:41

    Thanks for shar­ing the research. fMRI seems to be an expen­sive way of doing biofeed­back. I’m a biofeed­back prac­ti­tion­er and use a much cheap­er method based on sens­ing infra-red heat radi­a­tion from the fore­head — also known as hemoencephalography.

    • Alvaro Fernandez says

      December 1, 2011 at 7:53

      Thank you Glyn. fMRI is pri­mar­i­ly a research, not clin­i­cal tool. More prac­ti­cal biofeed­back modal­i­ties where we see increased research and adop­tion are heart rate vari­abil­i­ty (HRV) and EEG, you can find a good num­ber of arti­cles here on SharpBrains.com on both (see search box top right).

Primary Sidebar

Top Articles on Brain Health and Neuroplasticity

  1. Can you grow your hippocampus? Yes. Here’s how, and why it matters
  2. How learning changes your brain
  3. To harness neuroplasticity, start with enthusiasm
  4. Three ways to protect your mental health during –and after– COVID-19
  5. Why you turn down the radio when you're lost
  6. Solving the Brain Fitness Puzzle Is the Key to Self-Empowered Aging
  7. Ten neu­rotech­nolo­gies about to trans­form brain enhance­ment & health
  8. Five reasons the future of brain enhancement is digital, pervasive and (hopefully) bright
  9. What Educators and Parents Should Know About Neuroplasticity and Dance
  10. The Ten Habits of Highly Effective Brains
  11. Six tips to build resilience and prevent brain-damaging stress
  12. Can brain training work? Yes, if it meets these 5 conditions
  13. What are cognitive abilities and how to boost them?
  14. Eight Tips To Remember What You Read
  15. Twenty Must-Know Facts to Harness Neuroplasticity and Improve Brain Health

Top 10 Brain Teasers and Illusions

  1. You think you know the colors? Try the Stroop Test
  2. Check out this brief attention experiment
  3. Test your stress level
  4. Guess: Are there more brain connections or leaves in the Amazon?
  5. Quick brain teasers to flex two key men­tal mus­cles
  6. Count the Fs in this sentence
  7. Can you iden­tify Apple’s logo?
  8. Ten classic optical illu­sions to trick your mind
  9. What do you see?
  10. Fun Mental Rotation challenge
  • Check our Top 25 Brain Teasers, Games and Illusions

Join 12,514 readers exploring, at no cost, the latest in neuroplasticity and brain health.

By subscribing you agree to receive our free, monthly eNewsletter. We don't rent or sell emails collected, and you may unsubscribe at any time.

IMPORTANT: Please check your inbox or spam folder in a couple minutes and confirm your subscription.

Get In Touch!

Contact Us

660 4th Street, Suite 205,
San Francisco, CA 94107 USA

About Us

SharpBrains is an independent market research firm tracking health and performance applications of brain science. We prepare general and tailored market reports, publish consumer guides, produce an annual global and virtual conference, and provide strategic advisory services.

© 2023 SharpBrains. All Rights Reserved - Privacy Policy