Can Training Your Brain to Be More Positive Help Depression Symptoms?

What you need to know

• People with depression often struggle to shift between emotional states flexibly
• Brain training using neurofeedback can help increase emotional flexibility
• Learning to better control positive emotions may also improve control over negative ones

The Challenge of Emotional Flexibility in Depression

Have you ever felt stuck in a negative emotional state, unable to shift into a more positive mindset? This is a common experience for people with depression, who often struggle with what psychologists call “emotional flexibility” - the ability to move between different emotional states appropriately. Think of emotional flexibility like a dance - sometimes we need to step forward into positive emotions, other times step back from negative ones. People with depression often find themselves stuck in one position, unable to flow with the natural rhythm of emotions.

How Brain Training Works

The study used an innovative approach called real-time fMRI neurofeedback. Imagine having a thermometer that shows your brain activity - specifically in an emotion-processing region called the amygdala. Participants could see this “brain thermometer” while recalling happy memories and were asked to try to make it go up. This gave them direct feedback about their success in activating positive emotional processing.

The Surprising Results

The researchers discovered something fascinating: when people learned to increase their brain activity during happy memories, they also got better at decreasing it during other tasks - even though they weren’t directly practicing that. It’s like learning to press the gas pedal actually helps you get better at using the brakes too.

Why This Matters for Depression Treatment

This finding challenges how we think about treating depression. Many current treatments focus on either increasing positive emotions OR decreasing negative ones. But this research suggests that learning better control in one direction (up) can improve control in both directions - making people more emotionally flexible overall.

The study showed that participants who received the real brain feedback (versus a control group) experienced meaningful reductions in their depression symptoms. While no one achieved complete remission after just two sessions, about half of the treatment group showed clinically significant improvement.

What This Means for You

If you’re dealing with depression, these findings highlight several important points:

• Emotional flexibility can be learned and improved through practice
• Working on positive emotions doesn’t mean ignoring negative ones - they’re connected
• New technology-based treatments may offer additional options beyond traditional approaches
• Even short periods of training can lead to meaningful improvements

The research suggests that rather than thinking about depression as simply being “too negative” or “not positive enough,” we might do better to focus on building emotional agility - the ability to shift between emotional states as needed.

Conclusions

• Depression involves difficulties with emotional flexibility that can be improved through targeted brain training
• Learning to increase positive emotional responses can naturally enhance overall emotional control
• The ability to move flexibly between emotional states may be more important than just trying to be more positive
• While more research is needed, this approach shows promise as a tool for depression treatment