No abstract

In February of 2012, the first international conference on real time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) neurofeedback was held at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETHZ), Switzerland. This review summarizes progress in the field, introduces current debates, elucidates open questions, and offers viewpoints derived from the conference. The review offers perspectives on study design, scientific and clinical applications, rtfMRI learning mechanisms and future outlook

The dopaminergic system is involved in reward encoding and reinforcement learning. Dopaminergic neurons from this system in the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area complex (SN/VTA) fire in response to unexpected reinforcing cues. The goal of this study was to investigate whether individuals can gain voluntary control of SN/VTA activity, thereby potentially enhancing dopamine release to target brain regions. Neurofeedback and mental imagery were used to self-regulate the SN/VTA. Realtime functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) provided abstract visual feedback of the SN/VTA activity while the subject imagined rewarding scenes. Skin conductance response (SCR) was recorded as a measure of emotional arousal. To examine the effect of neurofeedback, subjects were assigned to either receiving feedback directly proportional (n=15, veridical feedback) or inversely proportional (n=17, inverted feedback) to SN/VTA activity. Both groups of subjects were able to up-regulate SN/VTA activity initially without feedback. Veridical feedback improved the ability to up-regulate SN/VTA compared to baseline while inverted feedback did not. Additional dopaminergic regions were activated in both groups. The ability to self-regulate SN/VTA was differentially correlated with SCR depending on the group, suggesting an association between emotional arousal and neurofeedback performance. These findings indicate that SN/VTA can be voluntarily activated by imagery and voluntary activation is further enhanced by neurofeedback. The findings may lead the way towards a non-invasive strategy for endogenous control of dopamine. The dopaminergic system is involved in reward encoding and reinforcement learning. 25 Dopaminergic neurons from this system in the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental 26 area complex (SN/VTA) fire in response to unexpected reinforcing cues. The goal of 27 this study was to investigate whether individuals can gain voluntary control of 28 SN/VTA activity, thereby potentially enhancing dopamine release to target brain 29 regions. Neurofeedback and mental imagery were used to self-regulate the SN/VTA. 30Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) provided abstract visual 31 feedback of the SN/VTA activity while the subject imagined rewarding scenes. Skin 32 conductance response (SCR) was recorded as a measure of emotional arousal. To 33 examine the effect of neurofeedback, subjects were assigned to either receiving 34 feedback directly proportional (n =15, veridical feedback) or inversely proportional (n 35 = 17, inverted feedback) to SN/VTA activity. Both groups of subjects were able to up-36 regulate SN/VTA activity initially without feedback. Veridical feedback improved the 37 ability to up-regulate SN/VTA compared to baseline while inverted feedback did not. 38Additional dopaminergic regions were activated in both groups. The ability to self-39 regulate SN/VTA was differentially correlated with SCR depending on the group, 40suggesting an association between emotional arousal and neurofeedback ...

Neuroprosthetics research in amputee patients aims at developing new prostheses that move and feel like real limbs. Targeted muscle and sensory reinnervation (TMSR) is such an approach and consists of rerouting motor and sensory nerves from the residual limb towards intact muscles and skin regions. Movement of the myoelectric prosthesis is enabled via decoded electromyography activity from reinnervated muscles and touch sensation on the missing limb is enabled by stimulation of the reinnervated skin areas. Here we ask whether and how motor control and redirected somatosensory stimulation provided via TMSR affected the maps of the upper limb in primary motor (M1) and primary somatosensory (S1) cortex, as well as their functional connections. To this aim, we tested three TMSR patients and investigated the extent, strength, and topographical organization of the missing limb and several control body regions in M1 and S1 at ultra high-field (7 T) functional magnetic resonance imaging. Additionally, we analysed the functional connectivity between M1 and S1 and of both these regions with fronto-parietal regions, known to be important for multisensory upper limb processing. These data were compared with those of control amputee patients (n = 6) and healthy controls (n = 12). We found that M1 maps of the amputated limb in TMSR patients were similar in terms of extent, strength, and topography to healthy controls and different from non-TMSR patients. S1 maps of TMSR patients were also more similar to normal conditions in terms of topographical organization and extent, as compared to non-targeted muscle and sensory reinnervation patients, but weaker in activation strength compared to healthy controls. Functional connectivity in TMSR patients between upper limb maps in M1 and S1 was comparable with healthy controls, while being reduced in non-TMSR patients. However, connectivity was reduced between S1 and fronto-parietal regions, in both the TMSR and non-TMSR patients with respect to healthy controls. This was associated with the absence of a well-established multisensory effect (visual enhancement of touch) in TMSR patients. Collectively, these results show how M1 and S1 process signals related to movement and touch are enabled by targeted muscle and sensory reinnervation. Moreover, they suggest that TMSR may counteract maladaptive cortical plasticity typically found after limb loss, in M1, partially in S1, and in their mutual connectivity. The lack of multisensory interaction in the present data suggests that further engineering advances are necessary (e.g. the integration of somatosensory feedback into current prostheses) to enable prostheses that move and feel as real limbs.