According to research out of Beijing Institute of Technology that was summarized in Neuroscience News and published in the journal Cyborg and Bionic Systems, a Science Partner Journal, activity in the brain’s amygdala is associated with depression. The Chinese researchers found that increased theta-wave activity in an area called the basolateral amygdala is associated with anhedonia, a core symptom of depression. The research was done on rats but believed to be promising for treating depression in humans.

Not included in the study but of note is that training the amygdala is a standard technique in the type of neurofeedback that embraces whole-brain training.

The Neuroscience News summary is available here. The journal article is available in English here.