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

摘要

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy has been proven\udefficacious in restoring affective regulation in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)\udpatients. However, its effectiveness on emotion processing in children with complex\udtrauma has yet to be explored. High density electroencephalography (hdEEG) was\udused to investigate the effects of EMDR on brain responses to adults’ emotions\udon children with histories of early maltreatment. Ten school-aged children were\udexamined before (T0) and within one month after the conclusion of EMDR (T1).\udhdEEGs were recorded while children passively viewed angry, afraid, happy, and neutral\udfaces. Clinical scales were administered at the same time. Correlation analyses were\udperformed to detect brain regions whose activity was linked to children’s traumatic\udsymptom-related and emotional-adaptive problem scores. In all four conditions, hdEEG\udshowed similar significantly higher activity on the right medial prefrontal and frontotemporal\udlimbic regions at T0, shifting toward the left medial and superior temporal\udregions at T1. Moreover, significant correlations were found between clinical scales\udand the same regions whose activity significantly differed between pre- and posttreatment.\udThese preliminary results demonstrate that, after EMDR, children suffering\udfrom complex trauma show increased activity in areas implicated in high-order cognitive\udprocessing when passively viewing pictures of emotional expressions. These changes\udare associated with the decrease of depressive and traumatic symptoms, and with the\udimprovement of emotional-adaptive functioning over time