Reshape intrinsic brain activity by cognitive affective training may prevent the development of depression.

Negative attentional bias not only a prominent characteristics of depressed individuals but also play a vital role in the development and maintenance of depression. Previous findings suggested that attentional bias modification training can effectively reduce depressive symptoms of depressed patients and individuals at high risk for depression. However, we still don't know the changes of intrinsic brain activity associated with attentional bias modification training corresponding to symptoms improvement among individuals at risk for depression (Subthreshold depression). Previous studies suggested that subthreshold depression is regarded as the prodromal phase of major depression disorders and can predict the occurrence of depressive disorders. Subthreshold depression, therefore, provides an ideal model for the neural effects of ABM relevant to the prevention of depression.

In The present study, Four weeks attentional bias modification training were conducted among individuals with subthreshold depression and resting state functional MRI were used to detect the changes of intrinsic brain activity. We found that four weeks ABM training significant reduced individuals' depressive severity. Moreover, ABM training normalized increased intrinsic brain activity of individuals with subthreshold depression. In addition, we also found that deceased intrinsic brain activity were significantly correlated with depression symptoms improvement. The results highlight the promise of ABM as an effective intervention to improve depression through reshaping abnormal patterns of spontaneous brain activity .