Mindfulness-based Emotional Acceptance in Combination with Neurofeedback for Improving Emotion Self-Regulation: a Pilot Study

A feasibility of Mindfulness-based emotional acceptance in combination with neurofeedback for improving emotion self-regulation is presented. This represents, to our knowledge, an unexplored approach in the emotion regulation literature. The study was performed using a low-cost wearable system designed to perform electroencephalography (EEG) outside the clinical setting. The focused EEG feature is the beta-band Power Spectral Density along the midline (FCz-CPz electrodes). Four subjects new to the practice of mindfulness were involved in the experiments. A comparison between two neurofeedback conditions (in a within-subject design) is performed: a) cognitive reappraisal task; b) emotional acceptance task. In both cases the expected decrement of power spectral density in high-beta band linked to the neurofeedback training was found. Emotional acceptance in combination with neurofeedback emerged as a promising emotional regulation strategy.