Neuroscience-Informed Cognitive-Affective Training Interventions for Mood and Anxiety Disorders

Mood and anxiety disorders are characterized by abnormally persistent affective states. Neuroimaging studies have implicated the functioning of specific brain regions in the aberrant affective processing observed in mood and anxiety disorders: enhanced engagement of subcortical regions responsible for affect generation (amygdala, hippocampus) is coupled with reduced inhibitory cognitive control of affective processing from dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortices. Emerging but compelling evidence suggests that neuroplastic mechanisms can be harnessed to remediate these abnormalities, thus offering the prospect of new therapeutic interventions. Cognitive-affective training is a particularly promising strategy for enhancing cognitive control over affective processes via modulation of these abnormally functioning neural networks. This paper presents a review of the current literature and a justification for developing cognitive-affective training, and proposes initial evidence for the efficacy of cognitive-affective training interventions. Cognitive-affective training interventions could represent a novel method for targeting perseverative thinking and negative affective biases in mood and anxiety disorders.