Linking Executive Control and Emotional Response A Training Procedure to Reduce Rumination

This sounds exactly like what survivors need to  stop focusing on negative thoughts. What protocol is your doctor creating to solve this problem?  And if you had less damage because your doctor had prevented the neuronal cascade of death I bet you would be less likely to focus on negative thoughts.
http://cpx.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/04/28/2167702614530114.abstract

1. Noga Cohen1
2. Nilly Mor2
3. Avishai Henik1

1. ¹Department of Psychology and the Zlotowski Center for Neuroscience, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev
2. ²School of Education, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

1. Noga Cohen, Department of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel E-mail: nogac@post.bgu.ac.il
2. Nilly Mor, School of Education, Hebrew University, Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel E-mail: nilly.mor@mail.huji.ac.il

1. Author Contributions N. Cohen and N. Mor developed the experimental design. Data collection was performed by N. Cohen and by three undergraduate research assistants. Data analysis was performed by N. Cohen under the supervision of N. Mor. The article was drafted by N. Cohen and N. Mor and A. Henik provided critical revisions. All authors approved the final version of the article for submission.

Abstract

Rumination, a maladaptive self-reflection, is a risk factor for depression, thought to be maintained by executive control deficits that impair ruminators’ ability to ignore emotional information. The current research examined whether training individuals to exert executive control when exposed to negative stimuli can ease rumination. A total of 85 participants were randomly assigned to one of two training conditions. In the experimental condition activation of executive control was followed predominantly by the presentation of negative pictures, whereas in the control condition it was followed predominantly by neutral pictures. As predicted, participants in the experimental group showed reduced state rumination compared with those in the control group. Furthermore, trait rumination, and particularly its maladaptive subtype brooding, was associated with increased sadness only among participants in the control group, and not in the experimental group. We argue that training individuals to exert executive control when processing negative stimuli can alleviate ruminative thinking and rumination-related sad mood.