Abstract
Neurofeedback based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is an emerging technique that allows for learning voluntary control over brain activity. Such brain training has been shown to cause specific behavioral or cognitive enhancements, and even therapeutic effects in neurological and psychiatric patient populations. However, for clinical applications it is important to know if learned self-regulation can be maintained over longer periods of time and whether it transfers to situations without neurofeedback. Here, we present preliminary results from five healthy participants who successfully learned to control their visual cortex activity and who we re-scanned 6 and 14 months after the initial neurofeedback training to perform learned self-regulation. We found that participants achieved levels of self-regulation that were similar to those achieved at the end of the successful initial training, and this without further neurofeedback information. Our results demonstrate that learned self-regulation can be maintained over longer periods of time and causes lasting transfer effects. They thus support the notion that neurofeedback is a promising therapeutic approach whose effects can last far beyond the actual training period.
Highlights
Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback is an emerging technique that allows to learn voluntary control over spatially localized brain activity (Weiskopf et al, 2004; deCharms, 2007; Sulzer et al, 2013)
In order for neurofeedback to be effective as a tool for cognitive enhancements or clinical applications, it needs to be shown that learned self-regulation transfers to situations where neurofeedback is not available anymore, and that learned self-regulation is maintained beyond the initial training period
In follow-up sessions we found that participants were able to perform self-regulation with neurofeedback just as well as they did at the end of the initial training period which had taken place 6 months earlier
Summary
Real-time fMRI neurofeedback is an emerging technique that allows to learn voluntary control over spatially localized brain activity (Weiskopf et al, 2004; deCharms, 2007; Sulzer et al, 2013). Previous real-time fMRI neurofeedback studies already demonstrated that once learned, self-regulation can be performed in transfer runs without feedback information, but this only for transfer runs immediately following the neurofeedback training (deCharms et al, 2004, 2005; Hamilton et al, 2011; Lee et al, 2012; Scharnowski et al, 2012; Sitaram et al, 2012; Ruiz et al, 2013). Another study found that neurofeedback-induced changes in resting state fMRI persisted for at least 2 months (Megumi et al, 2015) While this is by far the longest time period after training that has been investigated so far, the resting state effects demonstrate plastic changes, but they are not associated with applying learned self-regulation by the participants. The few studies which measured the effects of EEG neurofeedback over a period of up to 12 months to determine if self-regulation and its behavioral consequences are maintained, indicate that it remains stable (Tansey, 1993; Kotchoubey et al, 2001; Vernon et al, 2004; Leins et al, 2007; Kouijzer et al, 2008)
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