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Edited by Marcus E. Raichle, Washington University in St. Louis, MO, and approved March 10, 2016 (received for review August 24, 2015)
Significance
Real-time functional MRI allows the use of well-localized, complex network activity patterns to drive neurofeedback, rather than a simple up/down regulation of a specific cortical region. We based our feedback on differential levels of activity in two high-order visual areas but misled participants to believe the feedback was random. Even without being given an explicit strategy, or having any awareness or intention of learning, our results show changes in resting-state connectivity, which are correlated with the ability to implicitly modulate interactions between neural networks to positively impact feedback. This opens up numerous possibilities for research, as well as for potential clinical intervention, even in states of altered consciousness.
Abstract
Recent advances in blood oxygen level-dependent–functional MRI (BOLD-fMRI)-based neurofeedback reveal that participants can modulate neuronal properties. However, it is unknown whether such training effects can be introduced in the absence of participants' awareness that they are being trained. Here, we show unconscious neurofeedback training, which consequently produced changes in functional connectivity, introduced in participants who received positive and negative rewards that were covertly coupled to activity in two category-selective visual cortex regions. The results indicate that brain networks can be modified even in the complete absence of intention and awareness of the learning situation, raising intriguing possibilities for clinical interventions.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: michal.ramot{at}nih.gov.
Author contributions: M.R., D.F., and R.M. designed research; M.R. and S.G. performed research; M.R. analyzed data; and M.R. and R.M. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1516857113/-/DCSupplemental.
Shaping network connectivity through neurofeedback
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