Application of fMRI Brain-Computer Interface to self-regulation of the BOLD signal and neural connectivity in Schizophrenia
Final Report Abstract
Despite current treatments, schizophrenia is often nowadays a devastating brain disorder, in which a large number of patients suffer the burden of chronic symptomatology, associated morbi-mortality, and often the side effects of polymedication. Hence, the urgent need for developing new strategies to study and treatment. Brain computer interfaces (BCI) are neurotechnologies that allow subjects to achieve self-regulation of brain activity. In particular, Brain-Computer Interfaces based on functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI-BCI) have enabled subjects to achieve volitional control of anatomically specific regions of the brain, leading to behavioral modifications related to the activated areas. For affective neuroscience, there are at least two main general applications of this technique. Firstly, BCI-neurofeedback can be used to study brain functioning, as learned control of brainactivity can be used as an independent variable to observe its effects on behavior or brain remodeling, which themself function as the dependent variable. Secondly, as a non-invasive and safe technique, it can be potentially used to modify the symptomatology of brain disorders. The main aim of the current project was to apply for the first time BCI based on fMRI to a chronic severepsychiatric population, i.e schizophrenia patients. In the first part of the project we attempted to prove that schizophrenia patients can be trained to achieve self-regulation of circumscribed regions of the brain, leading to behavioral modifications. In the second part we discussed the abnormal neural connectivity hypothesis in schizophrenia, and proved that fMRI-BCIcan also be used for self regulation of neural connectivity, and not only single brain areas. Finally, a series of reviews summarized the current literature on this topic and marked the direction future developments on this rapidly changing and exiting field.
Publications
- Acquired self-control of insula cortex modulates emotion recognition and brain network connectivity in schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp. 2013 Jan;34(1):200-12
Ruiz S, Lee S, Soekadar SR, Caria A, Veil R, Kircher T, Birbaumer N, Sitaram R
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21427) - Abnormal Neural Connectivity in Schizophrenia and fMRI-Brain-Computer Interface as a Potential Therapeutic Approach. Front Psychiatry. 2013 Mar 22;4:17
Ruiz S, Birbaumer N, Sitaram R
(See online at https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2013.00017) - Learned regulation of brain metabolism. Trends Cogn Sci. 2013 Jun;17(6):295-302
Birbaumer N, Ruiz S, Sitaram R
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.04.009) - Real-time fMRI brain computer interfaces: self-regulation of single brain regions to networks. Biol Psychol. 2014 Jan;95:4-20
Ruiz S, Buyukturkoglu K, Rana M, Birbaumer N, Sitaram R
(See online at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2013.04.010)
