Summary: This study investigated the neural and behavioral effects of acupoint tapping (tapping) on fear of flying in 29 participants. During tapping, participants showed increased activation in the amygdala and decreased activation in the hippocampus and temporal pole, differing from automatic emotion regulation processes.
After the intervention, participants' fear of flying scores significantly decreased, with 89.7% meeting criteria for fear of flying before the intervention dropping to 24% after. The study suggests that tapping may be an effective emotion regulation technique that modulates complex visual and emotional processing.
Citation and Link: Wittfoth, D., Beise, J., Manuel, J. Bohne, M. & Wittfoth, M. (2022). Bifocal emotion regulation through acupoint tapping in fear of flying. NeuroImage: Clinical, 34, 102996. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2022.102996