  Emotion regulation plays a key role in human behavior and overall well-being.
Neurofeedback is a non-invasive self-brain training technique used for emotion
regulation to enhance brain function and treatment of mental disorders through
behavioral changes. Previous neurofeedback research often focused on using
activity from a single brain region as measured by fMRI or power from one or
two EEG electrodes. In a new study, we employed connectivity-based EEG
neurofeedback through recalling positive autobiographical memories and
simultaneous fMRI to upregulate positive emotion. In our novel approach, the
feedback was determined by the coherence of EEG electrodes rather than the
power of one or two electrodes. We compared the efficiency of this
connectivity-based neurofeedback to traditional activity-based neurofeedback
through multiple experiments. The results showed that connectivity-based
neurofeedback effectively improved BOLD signal change and connectivity in key
emotion regulation regions such as the amygdala, thalamus, and insula, and
increased EEG frontal asymmetry, which is a biomarker for emotion regulation
and treatment of mental disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, and depression and
coherence among EEG channels. The psychometric evaluations conducted both
before and after the neurofeedback experiments revealed that participants
demonstrated improvements in enhancing positive emotions and reducing negative
emotions when utilizing connectivity-based neurofeedback, as compared to
traditional activity-based and sham neurofeedback approaches. These findings
suggest that connectivity-based neurofeedback may be a superior method for
regulating emotions and could be a useful alternative therapy for mental
disorders, providing individuals with greater control over their brain and
mental functions.
