Neurobiological response to EMDR therapy in clients with different psychological traumas.

We assessed cortical activation differences in real-time upon exposure to traumatic memory between two distinct groups of psychologically traumatized clients also in comparison with healthy controls. We used electroencephalography (EEG) to compare neuronal activation throughout the bilateral stimulation phase of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) sessions. We compared activation between the first (T0) and the last (T1) session, the latter performed after processing the index trauma.

The upstream Variable Number Tandem Repeat polymorphism of the monoamine oxidase type A gene influences trigeminal pain-related evoked responses.

Monoamines have an important role in neural plasticity, a key factor in cortical pain processing that promotes changes in neuronal network connectivity. Monoamine oxidase type A (MAOA) is an enzyme that, due to its modulating role in monoaminergic activity, could play a role in cortical pain processing. The X-linked MAOA gene is characterized by an allelic variant of length, the MAOA upstream Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MAOA-uVNTR) region polymorphism.

The Val66Met polymorphism of the BDNF gene influences trigeminal pain-related evoked responses.

Unlabelled: Cortical pain processing is associated with large-scale changes in neuronal connectivity, resulting from neural plasticity phenomena of which brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a central driver. The common single nucleotide polymorphism Val66Met is associated with reduced BDNF activity. Using the trigeminal pain-related evoked potential (tPREP) to repeated electrical painful stimuli, we investigated whether the methionine substitution at codon 66 of the BDNF gene was associated with changes in cortical processing of noxious stimuli.