Final Report Summary - NEUROFEEDBACK (Modulating Human Brain Function and Dysfunction with Neurofeedback.)
We proposed to investigate causal links between brain activity and mental functions with real-time fMRI based neurofeedback. This new technique allows us to teach participants to voluntarily regulate the level of their brain activity and to subsequently test how self-regulating brain activity affects mental functions and behavior. To achieve these objectives, we have now fully implemented a real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) setup at the Brain & Behavior Laboratory at the University of Geneva, and at the Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Swiss Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL).
These setups have now been used to develop an approach to provide neurofeedback based on connectivity between brain areas (rather than activity within a brain area). The connectivity-based approach allows us to better target neurological conditions that are associated with abnormal patterns of functional brain networks. We successfully used this new approach to train healthy participants and patients control over their visual brain networks, as well as over their emotion networks. Further, we have shown that neurofeedback training effects are maintained for at least 12 months, and that strategy guidelines facilitate neurofeedback learning. These accomplishments will significantly improve the specificity and effectiveness of the neurofeedback approach as a promising method to investigate human brain function and as a novel experimental therapy for neurological and psychiatric disorders.
These setups have now been used to develop an approach to provide neurofeedback based on connectivity between brain areas (rather than activity within a brain area). The connectivity-based approach allows us to better target neurological conditions that are associated with abnormal patterns of functional brain networks. We successfully used this new approach to train healthy participants and patients control over their visual brain networks, as well as over their emotion networks. Further, we have shown that neurofeedback training effects are maintained for at least 12 months, and that strategy guidelines facilitate neurofeedback learning. These accomplishments will significantly improve the specificity and effectiveness of the neurofeedback approach as a promising method to investigate human brain function and as a novel experimental therapy for neurological and psychiatric disorders.