Thank you for sharing this insightful study. The use of EEG to observe neural activity during imagery-based psychotherapy is quite intriguing. I'm curious—did you notice any particular brainwave patterns (like alpha or theta activity) that were more prominent during imagery tasks?

Also, do you think these EEG changes could eventually serve as biomarkers for the effectiveness of certain therapeutic techniques?

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on how this might influence future clinical applications or training for therapists using guided imagery.

Thanks for your questions! With regard to the specific brainwave frequencies, we did not see specific patterns in this analysis other than what's reported in the paper -- a decrease in the fast-frequency waves (alpha, beta, gamma) in the frontal lobes, and a concurrent increase in those frequencies in the temporal lobes, during the middle (imagery-focused) phase of the RIM procedure. I had hypothesized some more specific patterns (alpha up here, theta up there), but they didn't pan out. I'm still interested in investigating that idea, though -- we are currently working on a secondary analysis that's more fine-grained, comparing EEG patterns to specific events that occurred during the session (matching up the precise times with a transcript), and there may be something at that level of detail.

And with regard to using this approach for efficacy research or training, yes, I think those are both interesting potential applications. I'm particularly interested in whether brainwave patterns differ for different types of psychotherapy -- e.g., I would expect cognitive-behavioral therapy to show more of the high-frequency brainwaves in the frontal lobes, because it relies on more rational/Narrative-mind processes. And if we could establish a characteristic brainwave response pattern that shows, e.g., insight or the likelihood of behavior change, then one could assess patients' responses to determine whether a new therapist is getting it right. But that seems like a ways down the line, because we would first need to know the range of "normal" responses to various psychotherapeutic methods.