Functional MRI for neurofeedback: feasibility study on a hand motor task.

Full Abstract

We present an fMRI-based method that enables subjects to monitor and actively modulate their own brain activity as a form of biofeedback. On a 1.5 T clinical MR scanner, functional areas during a simple hand motor task were delineated by detecting signal variations associated with the brain activity. Then, the subject adopted a different strategy to expand the activation in motor and somatosensory areas that were not activated previously. Statistical maps of brain activity were visually presented back to the subject, being updated at the end of each segmented rest-task block in near real-time manner. Our results suggest that the visual feedback of the functional brain activation maps guided subjects to adjust their task performance to achieve the desired modulation of cortical activity. This method may offer a potential utility for fMRI-based neurofeedback.

Author information

Author/s: Yoo, Seung-Schik (SS); Jolesz, Ferenc A (FA);

Affiliation: Department of Radiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, 75 Francis St, Boston, MA 02115, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article

Journal: Neuroreport (Neuroreport), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Aug; vol 13 (issue 11) : pp 1377-81

Dates: Created 2002/08/08; Completed 2002/10/18; Revised 2006/11/15;

PMID: 12167756, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: 18 Feb 2009 00:00:00)

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