PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress DisorderEMDR-NEURONCT07550556
Neural Basis of the Effect of EMDR Therapy
A study testing Butterfly Tapping (BT) in people with PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, run by University of Rome Foro Italico at 1 site in Italy.
Trial summary
This study aimed to investigate the effects of a single session of Butterfly Tapping (BT), a self-administered form of alternating bilateral stimulation, on emotional reactivity and its neurophysiological correlates. 46 participants will be randomly assigned to an experimental (Exp) or control (Con) group. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 18 years and olderHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- What is being tested?
- Butterfly Tapping (BT)
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- Yes, some participants may receive a placebo
- How many people
- 46 participants
- Where
- 1 siteItaly
- Study dates
- 8 Jan 2025to 15 Mar 2026
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- None posted in the registry
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 18 years and older
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Adult, Older adult
Who may be able to join
- normal or corrected-to-normal vision; full right-handedness
Who cannot join
- neurological or other psychiatric disorders tha PTSD; current use of psychoactive medications.
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country.
About this study
Official title: Neural Basis of the Effect of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy on Cognition in Patients With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
This study aimed to investigate the effects of a single session of Butterfly Tapping (BT), a self-administered form of alternating bilateral stimulation, on emotional reactivity and its neurophysiological correlates. 46 participants will be randomly assigned to an experimental (Exp) or control (Con) group. The Exp group performed a 15-minute session of BT. Emotional reactivity was assessed before and after the stimulation using a detection task with emotional visual stimuli, presented during electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. EEG analyses were conducted using the event-related potential (ERP) method, specifically focusing on the differential amplitude (negative minus neutral) of the Late Positive Potential (LPP), a centro-parietal component associated with sustained processing of emotionally salient stimuli. Results revealed a significant LPP reduction in the Exp group at T1 compared to T0, whereas no change emerged in the Con group. The topographical distribution of the modulation was predominantly central, consistent with models implicating the LPP in higher-order integrative and evaluative processes. These findings provide preliminary neurophysiological evidence that BT may reduce cortical reactivity to negative emotional stimuli in young clinical populations, supporting its potential as a simple and accessible strategy capable of modulating affective responsiveness.
- Conditions
- PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Being tested
- Butterfly Tapping (BT), No intervention control
- Keywords
- PTSD, butterfly tapping, emotional reactivity, EEG, late positive potential, ERP, emotion regulation
- Medical subject headings
- Combat Disorders, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Emotional Regulation
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Butterfly Tapping (BT)Behavioural
Also called Alternating Bilateral Stimulation
Participants adopted the traditional butterfly hug posture: arms crossed over the chest, fingertips placed below the clavicles.
They delivered alternating left-right rhythmic taps (~1 Hz) on their shoulders. Eyes remained closed, and participants were instructed to keep the emotional content active by mentally recalling previously viewed negative images, ensuring sustained affective engagement.
Duration: 15 minutes, structured in four blocks of 3 minutes with short pauses. No auditory pacing was provided to preserve spontaneous rhythmicity.
Targeted Mechanism Bilateral tactile stimulation aiming to modulate cortico-limbic processing, interhemispheric communication, and sustained emotional reactivity, as indexed by LPP amplitude during ta emotional simple response task
No intervention controlBehavioural
Also called static position, Static Posture Control, No Alternating Stimulation
Participants will adopt the same butterfly-hug position, with arms crossed and hands placed on the chest.
No rhythmic tapping or movements will be performed. Eyes are closed for the entire session, as in the experimental arm. Participants will held the emotional images in mind just as in the experimental arm.
Duration: 15 minutes, identical block structure and timing as the BT condition.
Targeted Mechanism
Serves as a posture-matched and expectancy-matched control, ruling out effects of:
simple stillness, emotional recall, attentional focus, physical posture, general relaxation effects.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| Butterfly Tapping | Experimental | Participants assigned to the Experimental Group (Exp) will perform a self-administered session of Butterfly Tapping (BT), a form of alternating bilateral tactile stimulation widely used in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)-derived affect-regulation techniques. This arm was designed to test whether rhythmic bilateral sensory input modulates neural indices of emotional reactivity. Receives: Behavioral: Butterfly Tapping (BT) |
| No tapping (Control Group) | Sham comparator | Participants assigned to the Control Group will maintain the same posture as the experimental group but will not perform any tapping. This static condition controls for posture, context, expectancy, and emotional activation, isolating the specific effect of the bilateral stimulation. Receives: Behavioral: No intervention control |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
LPP
Late Positive Potential (LPP) Differential Amplitude (Negative - Neutral) The primary neurophysiological outcome will be the modulation of the centro-parietal Late Positive Potential (LPP), extracted from EEG recordings during the Emotional Simple Response Task (E-SRT). The LPP is a well-established marker of sustained attentional and evaluative processing of emotional stimuli. For each participant and time point (T0, T1, T2), ERP waveforms willbe computed separately for negative and neutral images, and difference waves (negative minus neutral) were used to isolate emotion-specific neural reactivity.
Primary analyses focused on mean amplitudes in the experimentally defined cLPP time window (456-552 ms) over the centro-parietal electrode cluster (Cz, C1, C2, CP1, CPz, CP2).
The primary contrast of interest was the Group × Time interaction, assessing whether a single session of Butterfly Tapping selectively reduced the LPP differential amplitude relative to the static control condition.
Measured: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Secondary outcomes (3)
Frontal positivity
Frontal Positivity (188-228 ms). Is sn exploratory secondary marker, indexing early evaluative or response-related processing, quantified over the frontal region (F1, Fz, F2, FC1, FCz, FC2).
Measured: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Behavior
Behavioral Performance:
Response Time (RT) to emotional images Omission Rate (OM) Both extracted from the E-SRT before and after stimulation.
Measured: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Self-report
Self-Reported Emotional State:
State Anxiety (STAI-Y1) Emotional Discomfort (VAS) Collected immediately after each task block to assess subjective affective changes.
Measured: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted24 Apr 2026
- Study start8 Jan 2025
- Primary completion30 Jul 2025
- Study completion15 Mar 2026
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Publications (1)Papers the sponsor has linked to this study.
- Other trials for PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress DisorderStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Enrolment
- 46 participants (actual)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of Rome Foro Italico
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Responsible party
- Sponsor
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07550556
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- URomeForoItalico
- Acronym
- EMDR-NEURO
- Status last verified
- May 2026
- First submitted
- 10 Apr 2026
- Last updated
- 28 May 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- No
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- Undecided
Publications
First MB. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edition, and clinical utility. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2013 Sep;201(9):727-9. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e3182a2168a. No abstract available.
PubMed 23995026
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 28 May 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Neural Basis of the Effect of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy on Cognition in Patients With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT07550556
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- EMDR-NEURO / URomeForoItalico
- Conditions
- PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
- Keywords
- PTSD, butterfly tapping, emotional reactivity, EEG, late positive potential, ERP, emotion regulation
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Enrolment
- 46 participants (actual)
- Lead sponsor
- University of Rome Foro ItalicoUniversity, hospital or other
- Study start
- 8 Jan 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 30 Jul 2025 (actual)
- Study completion
- 15 Mar 2026 (actual)
- First posted
- 24 Apr 2026 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
This study aimed to investigate the effects of a single session of Butterfly Tapping (BT), a self-administered form of alternating bilateral stimulation, on emotional reactivity and its neurophysiological correlates. 46 participants will be randomly assigned to an experimental (Exp) or control (Con) group. The Exp group performed a 15-minute session of BT. Emotional reactivity was assessed before and after the stimulation using a detection task with emotional visual stimuli, presented during electroencephalographic (EEG) recording. EEG analyses were conducted using the event-related potential (ERP) method, specifically focusing on the differential amplitude (negative minus neutral) of the Late Positive Potential (LPP), a centro-parietal component associated with sustained processing of emotionally salient stimuli. Results revealed a significant LPP reduction in the Exp group at T1 compared to T0, whereas no change emerged in the Con group. The topographical distribution of the modulation was predominantly central, consistent with models implicating the LPP in higher-order integrative and evaluative processes. These findings provide preliminary neurophysiological evidence that BT may reduce cortical reactivity to negative emotional stimuli in young clinical populations, supporting its potential as a simple and accessible strategy capable of modulating affective responsiveness.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Treatment
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- None (open label)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| Butterfly Tapping | Experimental | Behavioral: Butterfly Tapping (BT)Participants assigned to the Experimental Group (Exp) will perform a self-administered session of Butterfly Tapping (BT), a form of alternating bilateral tactile stimulation widely used in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)-derived affect-regulation techniques. This arm was designed to test whether rhythmic bilateral sensory input modulates neural indices of emotional reactivity. |
| No tapping (Control Group) | Sham comparator | Behavioral: No intervention controlParticipants assigned to the Control Group will maintain the same posture as the experimental group but will not perform any tapping. This static condition controls for posture, context, expectancy, and emotional activation, isolating the specific effect of the bilateral stimulation. |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 18 years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Adult, Older adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- normal or corrected-to-normal vision; full right-handedness
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- neurological or other psychiatric disorders tha PTSD; current use of psychoactive medications.
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Butterfly Tapping (BT)Also: Alternating Bilateral StimulationParticipants adopted the traditional butterfly hug posture: arms crossed over the chest, fingertips placed below the clavicles. They delivered alternating left-right rhythmic taps (~1 Hz) on their shoulders. Eyes remained closed, and participants were instructed to keep the emotional content active by mentally recalling previously viewed negative images, ensuring sustained affective engagement. Duration: 15 minutes, structured in four blocks of 3 minutes with short pauses. No auditory pacing was provided to preserve spontaneous rhythmicity. Targeted Mechanism Bilateral tactile stimulation aiming to modulate cortico-limbic processing, interhemispheric communication, and sustained emotional reactivity, as indexed by LPP amplitude during ta emotional simple response task | Behavioural | Butterfly Tapping |
| No intervention controlAlso: static position, Static Posture Control, No Alternating StimulationParticipants will adopt the same butterfly-hug position, with arms crossed and hands placed on the chest. No rhythmic tapping or movements will be performed. Eyes are closed for the entire session, as in the experimental arm. Participants will held the emotional images in mind just as in the experimental arm. Duration: 15 minutes, identical block structure and timing as the BT condition. Targeted Mechanism Serves as a posture-matched and expectancy-matched control, ruling out effects of: simple stillness, emotional recall, attentional focus, physical posture, general relaxation effects. | Behavioural | No tapping (Control Group) |
Primary outcome
LPP
Time frame: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Late Positive Potential (LPP) Differential Amplitude (Negative - Neutral) The primary neurophysiological outcome will be the modulation of the centro-parietal Late Positive Potential (LPP), extracted from EEG recordings during the Emotional Simple Response Task (E-SRT). The LPP is a well-established marker of sustained attentional and evaluative processing of emotional stimuli. For each participant and time point (T0, T1, T2), ERP waveforms willbe computed separately for negative and neutral images, and difference waves (negative minus neutral) were used to isolate emotion-specific neural reactivity. Primary analyses focused on mean amplitudes in the experimentally defined cLPP time window (456-552 ms) over the centro-parietal electrode cluster (Cz, C1, C2, CP1, CPz, CP2). The primary contrast of interest was the Group × Time interaction, assessing whether a single session of Butterfly Tapping selectively reduced the LPP differential amplitude relative to the static control condition.
3 secondary outcomes
Frontal positivity
Time frame: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Behavior
Time frame: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Self-report
Time frame: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)
Results and safety
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 28 May 2026.
- Background: PubMed 23995026First MB. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, 5th edition, and clinical utility. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2013 Sep;201(9):727-9. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0b013e3182a2168a. No abstract available.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: Undecided
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Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part. This study is not recruiting at the moment.
The record lists no contact. Use the official record to reach the sponsor.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Butterfly Tapping (BT) in people with PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, run by University of Rome Foro Italico at 1 site in Italy.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 28 May 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in Italy. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. Some participants in this study may receive a placebo. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
The study is completed, but results are not available in the source record. That does not mean the treatment did or did not work.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
LPP (time frame: Baseline, End of Treatment (8-12 weeks), and Follow-up (8 weeks after treatment completion)). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT07550556, which also lists 1 linked publication.
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 28 May 2026.