How Different CBT Components Target Specific Brain Mechanisms
Which parts of CBT work best for different problems?
Goal setting from behavioral activation works best for motivation and effort-related problems by reducing sensitivity to effort when pursuing rewards, while cognitive restructuring works best for negative thinking patterns by reducing the tendency to attribute negative events to self-related causes. A series of randomized controlled experiments published in Science Advances used computational modeling to demonstrate that each CBT component has selective, measurable effects on distinct cognitive processes.