Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback
Neurofeedback (NFB) enables the voluntary regulation of brain activity, with promising applications to enhance and recover emotion and cognitive processes, and their underlying neurobiology. It remains unclear whether NFB can be used to aid and sustain complex emotions, with ecological validity impl...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Neurology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2018.00390/full |
| _version_ | 1811266516941799424 |
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| author | Valentina Lorenzetti Valentina Lorenzetti Valentina Lorenzetti Bruno Melo Bruno Melo Rodrigo Basílio Chao Suo Murat Yücel Carlos J. Tierra-Criollo Jorge Moll |
| author_facet | Valentina Lorenzetti Valentina Lorenzetti Valentina Lorenzetti Bruno Melo Bruno Melo Rodrigo Basílio Chao Suo Murat Yücel Carlos J. Tierra-Criollo Jorge Moll |
| author_sort | Valentina Lorenzetti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Neurofeedback (NFB) enables the voluntary regulation of brain activity, with promising applications to enhance and recover emotion and cognitive processes, and their underlying neurobiology. It remains unclear whether NFB can be used to aid and sustain complex emotions, with ecological validity implications. We provide a technical proof of concept of a novel real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) NFB procedure. Using rtfMRI-NFB, we enabled participants to voluntarily enhance their own neural activity while they experienced complex emotions. The rtfMRI-NFB software (FRIEND Engine) was adapted to provide a virtual environment as brain computer interface (BCI) and musical excerpts to induce two emotions (tenderness and anguish), aided by participants' preferred personalized strategies to maximize the intensity of these emotions. Eight participants from two experimental sites performed rtfMRI-NFB on two consecutive days in a counterbalanced design. On one day, rtfMRI-NFB was delivered to participants using a region of interest (ROI) method, while on the other day using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Our multimodal VR/NFB approach was technically feasible and robust as a method for real-time measurement of the neural correlates of complex emotional states and their voluntary modulation. Guided by the color changes of the virtual environment BCI during rtfMRI-NFB, participants successfully increased in real time, the activity of the septo-hypothalamic area and the amygdala during the ROI based rtfMRI-NFB, and successfully evoked distributed patterns of brain activity classified as tenderness and anguish during SVM-based rtfMRI-NFB. Offline fMRI analyses confirmed that during tenderness rtfMRI-NFB conditions, participants recruited the septo-hypothalamic area and other regions ascribed to social affiliative emotions (medial frontal / temporal pole and precuneus). During anguish rtfMRI-NFB conditions, participants recruited the amygdala and other dorsolateral prefrontal and additional regions associated with negative affect. These findings were robust and were demonstrable at the individual subject level, and were reflected in self-reported emotion intensity during rtfMRI-NFB, being observed with both ROI and SVM methods and across the two sites. Our multimodal VR/rtfMRI-NFB protocol provides an engaging tool for brain-based interventions to enhance emotional states in healthy subjects and may find applications in clinical conditions associated with anxiety, stress and impaired empathy among others. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T20:43:26Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-20ef0fc9fa0a44d184a213df7ce13256 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-2295 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T20:43:26Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Neurology |
| spelling | doaj.art-20ef0fc9fa0a44d184a213df7ce132562022-12-22T03:17:20ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Neurology1664-22952018-07-01910.3389/fneur.2018.00390367038Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI NeurofeedbackValentina Lorenzetti0Valentina Lorenzetti1Valentina Lorenzetti2Bruno Melo3Bruno Melo4Rodrigo Basílio5Chao Suo6Murat Yücel7Carlos J. Tierra-Criollo8Jorge Moll9School of Psychology, Faculty of Health Sciences, Australian Catholic University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaDepartment of Psychological Sciences, Institute of Psychology Health and Society, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United KingdomBrain and Mental Health Laboratory, School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaD'Or Institute for Research and Education, IDOR, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilBiomedical Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilD'Or Institute for Research and Education, IDOR, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilBrain and Mental Health Laboratory, School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaBrain and Mental Health Laboratory, School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaBiomedical Engineering Program, COPPE, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilD'Or Institute for Research and Education, IDOR, Rio de Janeiro, BrazilNeurofeedback (NFB) enables the voluntary regulation of brain activity, with promising applications to enhance and recover emotion and cognitive processes, and their underlying neurobiology. It remains unclear whether NFB can be used to aid and sustain complex emotions, with ecological validity implications. We provide a technical proof of concept of a novel real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) NFB procedure. Using rtfMRI-NFB, we enabled participants to voluntarily enhance their own neural activity while they experienced complex emotions. The rtfMRI-NFB software (FRIEND Engine) was adapted to provide a virtual environment as brain computer interface (BCI) and musical excerpts to induce two emotions (tenderness and anguish), aided by participants' preferred personalized strategies to maximize the intensity of these emotions. Eight participants from two experimental sites performed rtfMRI-NFB on two consecutive days in a counterbalanced design. On one day, rtfMRI-NFB was delivered to participants using a region of interest (ROI) method, while on the other day using a support vector machine (SVM) classifier. Our multimodal VR/NFB approach was technically feasible and robust as a method for real-time measurement of the neural correlates of complex emotional states and their voluntary modulation. Guided by the color changes of the virtual environment BCI during rtfMRI-NFB, participants successfully increased in real time, the activity of the septo-hypothalamic area and the amygdala during the ROI based rtfMRI-NFB, and successfully evoked distributed patterns of brain activity classified as tenderness and anguish during SVM-based rtfMRI-NFB. Offline fMRI analyses confirmed that during tenderness rtfMRI-NFB conditions, participants recruited the septo-hypothalamic area and other regions ascribed to social affiliative emotions (medial frontal / temporal pole and precuneus). During anguish rtfMRI-NFB conditions, participants recruited the amygdala and other dorsolateral prefrontal and additional regions associated with negative affect. These findings were robust and were demonstrable at the individual subject level, and were reflected in self-reported emotion intensity during rtfMRI-NFB, being observed with both ROI and SVM methods and across the two sites. Our multimodal VR/rtfMRI-NFB protocol provides an engaging tool for brain-based interventions to enhance emotional states in healthy subjects and may find applications in clinical conditions associated with anxiety, stress and impaired empathy among others.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2018.00390/fullfMRIemotion regulationneurofeedbackBCIregion of interestsupport vector machine |
| spellingShingle | Valentina Lorenzetti Valentina Lorenzetti Valentina Lorenzetti Bruno Melo Bruno Melo Rodrigo Basílio Chao Suo Murat Yücel Carlos J. Tierra-Criollo Jorge Moll Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback Frontiers in Neurology fMRI emotion regulation neurofeedback BCI region of interest support vector machine |
| title | Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback |
| title_full | Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback |
| title_fullStr | Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback |
| title_full_unstemmed | Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback |
| title_short | Emotion Regulation Using Virtual Environments and Real-Time fMRI Neurofeedback |
| title_sort | emotion regulation using virtual environments and real time fmri neurofeedback |
| topic | fMRI emotion regulation neurofeedback BCI region of interest support vector machine |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fneur.2018.00390/full |
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