Wright State Research Institute, Wright State University, 4035 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45431, USA; Department of Biomedical, Industrial, and Human Factors Engineering, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435, USA.
Wright State Research Institute, Wright State University, 4035 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45431, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Cell Biology, and Physiology, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Hwy, Dayton, OH 45435, USA.
Neuroimage. 2016 Jan 1;124(Pt A):214-223. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.08.074. Epub 2015 Sep 5.
Real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback can be used to train localized, conscious regulation of blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signals. As a therapeutic technique, rt-fMRI neurofeedback reduces the symptoms of a variety of neurologic disorders. To date, few studies have investigated the use of self-regulation training using rt-fMRI neurofeedback to enhance cognitive performance. This work investigates the utility of rt-fMRI neurofeedback as a tool to enhance human cognition by training healthy individuals to consciously control activity in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). A cohort of 18 healthy participants in the experimental group underwent rt-fMRI neurofeedback from the left DLPFC in five training sessions across two weeks while 7 participants in the control group underwent similar training outside the MRI and without rt-fMRI neurofeedback. Working memory (WM) performance was evaluated on two testing days separated by the five rt-fMRI neurofeedback sessions using two computerized tests. We investigated the ability to control the BOLD signal across training sessions and WM performance across the two testing days. The group with rt-fMRI neurofeedback demonstrated a significant increase in the ability to self-regulate the BOLD signal in the left DLPFC across sessions. WM performance showed differential improvement between testing days one and two across the groups with the highest increases observed in the rt-fMRI neurofeedback group. These results provide evidence that individuals can quickly gain the ability to consciously control the left DLPFC, and this training results in improvements of WM performance beyond that of training alone.
实时功能磁共振成像（rt-fMRI）神经反馈可用于训练局部、有意识的血氧水平依赖（BOLD）信号调节。作为一种治疗技术，rt-fMRI 神经反馈可减轻多种神经障碍的症状。迄今为止，很少有研究调查使用 rt-fMRI 神经反馈进行自我调节训练以增强认知表现。这项工作调查了 rt-fMRI 神经反馈作为一种工具的效用，通过训练健康个体有意识地控制左背外侧前额叶皮层（DLPFC）的活动来增强人类认知。一个由 18 名健康参与者组成的实验组在两周内的五次训练中接受了来自左 DLPFC 的 rt-fMRI 神经反馈，而 7 名对照组参与者在 MRI 外接受了类似的训练，没有 rt-fMRI 神经反馈。在两次测试日之间进行了两次计算机测试，评估了工作记忆（WM）表现，这两次测试日分别在五次 rt-fMRI 神经反馈会话之间进行。我们研究了在训练会话中控制 BOLD 信号的能力和在两次测试日中的 WM 性能。具有 rt-fMRI 神经反馈的组在整个会话中表现出自我调节左 DLPFC 中 BOLD 信号的能力显著提高。WM 性能在两组之间的第一天和第二天测试中表现出不同的改善，rt-fMRI 神经反馈组的提高幅度最大。这些结果提供了证据表明，个体可以快速获得有意识地控制左 DLPFC 的能力，并且这种训练导致 WM 表现的提高超出了仅训练的效果。
