Imaging EMDR related neurobiological changes

Research focused on EMDR has dramatically grown and neuroimaging represents a powerful tool to investigate its neurobiological correlates. The impact of EMDR on cortical and sub-cortical brain regions involved in PTSD has been proven by several investigations demonstrating in association with symptoms disappearance a normalization of cortical hyper- and hypo-activation. Furthermore, patients non-responding to EMDR showed before therapy lower neuronal density in limbic regions. EEG investigations monitoring in real time the cortical activations occurring during bilateral ocular desensitization made of EMDR the first psychotherapy in which neurobiological correlates have been depicted in real time during therapy sessions.

Conference

English

Marco Pagani

Pagani, M. (2015, August). Imaging EMDR related neurobiological changes. Plenary presented at the 20th EMDR International Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA