Auricular Acupuncture Combined with Moxibustion Modulates Audiovisual Emotional Integration in College Students with Subthreshold Depression: An ERP Study

This study examined whether an eight-week auricular acupuncture and moxibustion intervention would modulate audiovisual emotional integration in college students with subthreshold depression. Using the frontal LPP as an index of audiovisual integration (AVI), 38 participants completed the study (intervention group: n = 19; no-contact control group: n = 19). At pre- and post-test, participants completed an audiovisual emotional discrimination task. The intervention was associated with reduced SDS scores (64.74 to 54.39, p < 0.001) and improved hit rates for happy (85.9% to 93.9%) and neutral (81.6% to 91.5%) stimuli. At the neural level, frontal LPP AVI for neutral stimuli decreased from −0.12 μV to −5.86 μV (p = 0.010). These preliminary findings suggest that this intervention may alter audiovisual emotional integration in subthreshold depression.