Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Sci Rep. 2023 Jun 6;13(1):9195. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-35932-9.
The Visual Word Form Area (VWFA) is a key region of the brain's reading network and its activation has been shown to be strongly associated with reading skills. Here, for the first time, we investigated whether voluntary regulation of VWFA activation is feasible using real-time fMRI neurofeedback. 40 adults with typical reading skills were instructed to either upregulate (UP group, N = 20) or downregulate (DOWN group, N = 20) their own VWFA activation during six neurofeedback training runs. The VWFA target region was individually defined based on a functional localizer task. Before and after training, also regulation runs without feedback ("no-feedback runs") were performed. When comparing the two groups, we found stronger activation across the reading network for the UP than the DOWN group. Further, activation in the VWFA was significantly stronger in the UP group than the DOWN group. Crucially, we observed a significant interaction of group and time (pre, post) for the no-feedback runs: The two groups did not differ significantly in their VWFA activation before neurofeedback training, but the UP group showed significantly stronger activation than the DOWN group after neurofeedback training. Our results indicate that upregulation of VWFA activation is feasible and that, once learned, successful upregulation can even be performed in the absence of feedback. These results are a crucial first step toward the development of a potential therapeutic support to improve reading skills in individuals with reading impairments.
视词汇形区（VWFA）是大脑阅读网络的关键区域，其激活与阅读技能密切相关。在这里，我们首次研究了使用实时 fMRI 神经反馈是否可以实现 VWFA 激活的自主调节。40 名具有典型阅读技能的成年人被要求在六次神经反馈训练中分别上调（上调组，N=20）或下调（下调组，N=20）自己的 VWFA 激活。VWFA 目标区域是根据功能定位任务单独定义的。在训练之前和之后，还进行了没有反馈的调节运行（“无反馈运行”）。当比较两组时，我们发现上调组的阅读网络的激活比下调组更强。此外，上调组的 VWFA 激活明显强于下调组。至关重要的是，我们观察到无反馈运行的组间和时间（前、后）的显著交互作用：在神经反馈训练之前，两组在 VWFA 激活方面没有显著差异，但在神经反馈训练之后，上调组的 VWFA 激活明显强于下调组。我们的结果表明，上调 VWFA 激活是可行的，并且一旦学会，即使没有反馈，也可以成功进行上调。这些结果是朝着开发潜在治疗支持以改善阅读障碍个体阅读技能迈出的重要第一步。
