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Want to control negative emotions? Train your brain for it

Want to control negative emotions? Train your brain for it

Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University claim that this task can change the brain's wiring to regulate emotional reactions.

Written by Poorva Chavan |Updated : January 6, 2016 2:51 PM IST

Emotional well-being is an important part of life and not everyone can strike the balance and handle emotions well. But, now scientists have developed a computer training task that can help one manage emotions better. Researchers at the Ben-Gurion University claim that this task can change the brain's wiring to regulate emotional reactions. Dr Noga Cohen one of the authors of the study said that the study is first of its kind to show that non-emotional training can improve the ability to ignore irrelevant emotions and can reduce the brain's reaction to emotional events and also alter brain connections. (Read: Supressing your emotions can keeps negative thoughts at bay)

How does the task help?

Cohen explained that the changes in the brain were accompanied by stronger neural connections in the areas of the brain that inhibit emotional reactions. The researchers are yet to examine the impact of this task on individuals with depression or anxiety and believe that these tasks can help these patients. They also believe that it can help people who react to emotional information and their blood pressure goes up.(Read: Negative emotions--the reasons why more women are)

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If such tasks have a positive outcome they can have large clinical implications for a large number of people. Plus, this kind of cognitive training can be employed with different age groups such as children, elderly adults and individuals with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

How does the task work?

The researchers found that participants which could complete intense versions of the task had a reduced activation in their amygdala, the region of the brain involved in negative emotions like sadness and anxiety. The study is published in the Journal NeuroImage. (Read: Negative emotions the reasons why more women are depressed than men)

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