Real-time fMRI brain computer interfaces: Self-regulation of

single brain regions to networksSergio Ruiz, Korhan Buyukturkoglu, Mohit Rana, Niels Birbaumer, & Ranganatha Sitaram

Biological Psychology 95 (2014)

Participant

Scanner

Task

Offline

Participant

Signal Acquisition

Task

Feedback

fMRI-BCI Computer:

PreprocessingSignal analysis

Neurofeedback

• Information about neural activity provided to subjects in real time to facilitate learned self-regulation changes in brain fxn, cognition, behavior (Stoekel et al., 2014)

• rtfMRI-BCI• BOLD in predetermined region of interest (ROI)• Signal translated to visual cue

• Operant training to voluntarily regulate activation in ROI• Clinical relevance (i.e. anterior insula; hypoactive in patients with attenuated

affect)• Behavioral regulation strategies to up-regulate activation• Paired w/ behavioral task & subjective input

Single ROI in Healthy Individuals

• Movement• e.g. arm/hand primary motor areas, premotor cortex• Imagery of movement, cognitive strategies to elicit particular activation• Task involves navigating maze, maintaining optimal activation

• Cognition• Perception• Emotion

• e.g. amygdala, anterior insula• Self-ratings of emotional arousal, valence/arousal ratings of images

• Successful self-regulation and improved performance/symptoms in PD, hemiparesis, schizophrenia, addiction, depression

Schizophrenia patient activation clusters and BOLD time series during insula self-regulation (red) and baseline (blue) in early and late training sessions (Ruiz et al., 2013)

Ruiz et al. (2013)Changes observed as result of single ROI self-regulation training. Effective connectivity changes reflected by CD

Functional Connectivity Enhancement• Can subjects enhance functional

connectivity w/ training?• Ruiz et al. (2011) provided feedback of

correlation coefficient between IFG & STG over sessions of training• Successful up-regulation of connectivity

between inferior frontal gyrus and superior temporal gyrus• Semantic priming task performed pre/post

training sessions w/ observed enhancement

Limitations/Future Directions

• Control condition?• No feedback, sham feedback, control region, etc.• Lack information on mental strategies, influence of attention/motivation

• Focus on up-regulation• Pair equitable performance w/ down-regulation?

• Regions chosen a priori• RT processing capacity for > 2 ROIs??

• Future directions for movement & rehabilitation research?

References

Stoeckel, L. E., Garrison, K. A., Ghosh, S. S., Wighton, P., . . ., Evins, A. E. (2014). Optimizing real time fMRI neurofeedback for therapeutic discovery and development. Neuroimage: Clinical, 5, 245-255.

Ruiz, S., Buyukturkoglu, K., Tana, M., Birbaumer, N., & Sitaram, R. (2014). Real-time fMRI brain computer interfaces: Self-regulation of single brain regions to networks. Biological Psychology, 95, 4-20.

Ruiz, S., Rana, M., Sass, K., Kircher, T., Birbaumer, N., & Sitaram, R. (2011). Brain network connectivity and behaviour enhancement: A fMRI-BCI study. In 17th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping, Quebec City, Canada.

Ruiz, S., Lee, S., Soekadar, S. R., Caria, A., Veit, R., Kircher, T., Birbaumer, N., & Sitaram, R. (2013) Acquired self-control of insula cortex modulates emotion recognition and brain network connectivity in schizophrenia.