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

Johnston, Steve; Boehm, Stephan; Healy, David; Goebel, Rainer; Linden, David Edmund Johannes

doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2009.07.056

Cited by 248 publications

(192 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Thus, differences in restingstate connectivity with BLA and CMA could be biasing how each complex differentially modulates processes in target regions that govern behavior, cognition, and affect in PTSD. Our results may point to potential treatment avenues in PTSD (Felmingham et al, 2007) such as the use of neuro feedback using real-time fMRI to directly alter connectivity strength (Johnston et al, 2010). Fear conditioning and extinction studies should explore differential roles of amygdala complexes in PTSD.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Brown

LaBar²,

Haswell

et al. 2013

Neuropsychopharmacol

243

198

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The amygdala is a major structure that orchestrates defensive reactions to environmental threats and is implicated in hypervigilance and symptoms of heightened arousal in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The basolateral and centromedial amygdala (CMA) complexes are functionally heterogeneous, with distinct roles in learning and expressing fear behaviors. PTSD differences in amygdala-complex function and functional connectivity with cortical and subcortical structures remain unclear. Recent military veterans with PTSD (n ¼ 20) and matched trauma-exposed controls (n ¼ 22) underwent a resting-state fMRI scan to measure task-free synchronous blood-oxygen level dependent activity. Whole-brain voxel-wise functional connectivity of basolateral and CMA seeds was compared between groups. The PTSD group had stronger functional connectivity of the basolateral amygdala (BLA) complex with the pregenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and dorsal ACC than the trauma-exposed control group (po0.05; corrected). The trauma-exposed control group had stronger functional connectivity of the BLA complex with the left inferior frontal gyrus than the PTSD group (po0.05; corrected). The CMA complex lacked connectivity differences between groups. We found PTSD modulates BLA complex connectivity with prefrontal cortical targets implicated in cognitive control of emotional information, which are central to explanations of core PTSD symptoms. PTSD differences in resting-state connectivity of BLA complex could be biasing processes in target regions that support behaviors central to prevailing laboratory models of PTSD such as associative fear learning. Further research is needed to investigate how differences in functional connectivity of amygdala complexes affect target regions that govern behavior, cognition, and affect in PTSD.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 84%

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Brown

LaBar²,

Haswell

et al. 2013

Neuropsychopharmacol

243

198

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Neuroimaging studies have shown the involvement of the entire striatum in neurofeedback (ventral striatum: Johnston et al, 2010;putamen: Hinterberger et al, 2005;caudate: Levesque et al, 2006). Johnston et al (2010) trained participants using a real-time (rt) fMRI-neurofeedback to increase the activation in the emotion network, as defined by the collection of brain regions that was maximally responsive to negative versus neutral stimuli. One of the non-target areas that was activated during the learning process was the ventral striatum.…”

Section: The Importance Of the Striatummentioning

confidence: 99%

Mechanisms of Neurofeedback: A Computation-theoretic Approach

Davelaar

2018

Neuroscience

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Neurofeedback training is a form of brain training in which information about a neural measure is fed back to the trainee who is instructed to increase or decrease the value of that particular measure. This paper focuses on electroencephalography (EEG) neurofeedback in which the neural measures of interest are the brain oscillations. To date, the neural mechanisms that underlie successful neurofeedback training are still unexplained. Such an understanding would benefit researchers, funding agencies, clinicians, regulatory bodies, and insurance firms. Based on recent empirical work, an emerging theory couched firmly within computational neuroscience is proposed that advocates a critical role of the striatum in modulating EEG frequencies. The theory is implemented as a computer simulation of peak alpha upregulation, but in principle any frequency band at one or more electrode sites could be addressed. The simulation successfully learns to increase its peak alpha frequency and demonstrates the influence of threshold setting -the threshold that determines whether positive or negative feedback is provided. Analyses of the model suggest that neurofeedback can be likened to a search process that uses importance sampling to estimate the posterior probability distribution over striatal representational space, with each representation being associated with a distribution of values of the target EEG band. The model provides an important proof of concept to address pertinent methodological questions about how to understand and improve EEG neurofeedback success.

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“…We trained participants to upregulate target areas in inferior frontal and insular cortex and the amygdala, whereby each region was localized through their response to negative affective pictures (Johnston, Boehm, Healy, Goebel, & Linden, 2010). In order to probe the potential use of this technique for mood improvement in clinical settings, we now aimed to achieve the same with areas responsive to positive affect.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although any type of self-control of emotion networks, even that achieved by enhancing areas responsive to negative affect, may increase patients' experience of self-efficacy and thus be a helpful adjunct to the cognitive therapy of depression, a pathway through positive emotion networks seemed both clinically and ethically preferable. We therefore applied the same localizer procedure as in Johnston et al (2010), using positive, negative and neutral standardized stimuli from the International Affective Pictures System (Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1999), but now used the area that responded most significantly to positive pictures as the target area. Participants then trained to upregulate this area in three consecutive runs of ca.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Upregulation of emotion areas through neurofeedback with a focus on positive mood

Johnston

Linden

Healy

et al. 2010

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

Self Cite

107

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Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging can be used to feed back signal changes from the brain to participants such that they can train to modulate activation levels in specific brain areas. Here we present the first study combining up-regulation of brain areas for positive emotions with psychometric measures to assess the effect of successful self-regulation on subsequent mood. We localized brain areas associated with positive emotions through presentation of standardized pictures with positive valence. Participants up-regulated activation levels in their target area during specific periods, alternating with rest. Participants attained reliable self-control of the target area by the last of three seven-minute runs. This training effect was supported by an extensive network outside the targeted brain region, including higher sensory areas, paralimbic and orbitofrontal cortex. Self-control of emotion areas was not accompanied by clear changes in self-reported emotions; trend-level improvements on depression scores were counteracted by increases on measures of fatigue, resulting in no overall mood improvement. It is possible that benefits of self-control of emotion networks may only appear in people who display abnormal emotional homeostasis. The use of only a single, short, training session, overlap between positive and negative emotion networks and aversive reactions to the scanning environment may have prevented the detection of subtle changes in mood.

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

Cited by 248 publications

References 23 publications

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Altered Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Basolateral and Centromedial Amygdala Complexes in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Mechanisms of Neurofeedback: A Computation-theoretic Approach

Upregulation of emotion areas through neurofeedback with a focus on positive mood

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