Elsevier

NeuroImage

Volume 49, Issue 1, 1 January 2010, Pages 1066-1072
NeuroImage

Neurofeedback: A promising tool for the self-regulation of emotion networks

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.07.056Get rights and content

Abstract

Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) affords the opportunity to explore the feasibility of self-regulation of functional brain networks through neurofeedback. We localised emotion networks individually in thirteen participants using fMRI and trained them to upregulate target areas, including the insula and amygdala. Participants achieved a high degree of control of these networks after a brief training period. We observed activation increases during periods of upregulation of emotion networks in the precuneus and medial prefrontal cortex and, with increasing training success, in the ventral striatum. These findings demonstrate the feasibility of fMRI-based neurofeedback of emotion networks and suggest a possible development into a therapeutic tool.

Introduction

Psychological interventions for mental disorders are commonly validated for their clinical rather than their biological effects. However, it is increasingly recognised that a better understanding of the neural changes accompanying successful psychotherapy may have considerable benefits. For example, if we are able to identify pathological activation patterns in relation to psychiatric symptoms, and if these patterns normalise after intervention, we may use this information in the development of new treatment protocols targeting the functional correlates of specific brain networks. To take the matter one step further, we might even be able to target these pathological networks directly, through neurofeedback (Linden, 2006). Several decades of feedback research with EEG signals have shown that participants can be trained to influence the amplitude or topography of specific components of scalp electric activity (Birbaumer et al., 2006). However, it has been very difficult to influence specific mental states or treat psychiatric disorders with EEG-based neurofeedback, probably because of its low spatial specificity and difficulties associated with the poor signal to noise ratio provided by single trial based EEG.

The development of fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging)-based neurofeedback (Weiskopf et al., 2004b, deCharms, 2007) has enabled the regulation of brain activity with much higher spatial precision. Participants are trained to influence the fMRI signal from a target area while they receive online information about the amplitude of this signal. There is a delay of ca. 6 s between neural activity and the feedback signal, resulting from the haemodynamic lag. Given the success of fMRI-neurofeedback, it is fair to assume that participants can accommodate this delay. Target areas are selected on the basis of anatomical (e.g., anterior cingulate [Weiskopf et al., 2003]; anterior insula [Caria et al., 2007]; inferior frontal gyrus [Rota et al., 2009]) or functional (e.g., presentation of faces and houses [Weiskopf et al., 2004a]) criteria. Optimal training effects seem to be achieved when participants find an internal active task that reliably activates the respective region(s).

In the present work we used fMRI to identify areas reactive to positive and negative emotional stimuli, and then fMRI-neurofeedback to train participants to upregulate the target areas associated with processing negative stimuli. We show that brain networks associated with specific emotions can indeed be regulated by means of neurofeedback.

Section snippets

Participants

Thirteen volunteers (4 males, 9 females, age range 21–52) participated in the experiment after giving informed consent. The experimental protocol was approved by the ethics committees of the School of Psychology, Bangor University, and the North West Wales NHS Trust. Participants had no history of neurological or psychiatric illness. All participants were debriefed after the experiment and were interviewed about any distress experienced as a consequence of the procedure, which they all denied.

Psychometric testing

Results

First we localised areas responsive to pictures with negative emotional content with a localiser task online during the scanning session. These areas were located in the VLPFC/insula region or in the MTL, including the amygdala, in all participants (Table 1). The whole-brain GLM of the localiser experiment revealed widespread activation for all picture categories in prefrontal and medial temporal regions (Fig. 1), and in occipitotemporal and parietal higher visual areas. The overlay maps of

Discussion

The rapid training success (reliable upregulation of the target area already during the first run in most participants) conforms to previous reports of training success for motor cortex (deCharms et al., 2004) and anterior cingulate (deCharms et al., 2005).

Common strategies documented in previous neurofeedback work included motor imagery (deCharms et al., 2004) and modulation of attention (deCharms et al., 2005, Yoo et al., 2006). It is noteworthy that in the present study training success was

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Wales Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (WICN) and the North West Wales NHS Trust. SGB is a Research Councils UK (RCUK) fellow. We are grateful to Sian Lowri Griffiths for the help with data analysis.

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