Training to down-regulate the amygdala by means of real-time fMRI neurofeedback Annette B. Brühl 1 , Sigrid Scherpiet 1 , James Sulzer 2 , Philipp Stämpfli 1 , Erich Seifritz 1 , Uwe Herwig 1 1 Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University Hospital of Psychiatry, Zürich, Switzerland 2 Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Systems, ETH Zürich, Switzerland Fig.1 Tasks 1. Why focus on the amygdala? • Key structure for processing of emotional information • Target of emotion regulation strategies 1 • Hyperactive, dysregulated in affective disorders 2,3 • Normalizes with successful therapy 4 • Prior studies 5,6 trained up-regulation of amygdala with real- time fMRI neurofeedback  Rationale: • Training to consciously control and down-regulate amygdala activity  improved amygdala regulation, possible treatment for affective disorders • Real-time fMRI for direct neurofeedback of amygdala activity 4. Results • Down-regulation of amygdala improved significantly in 5 of the 6 participants from session 1 to 4 • Statistics: two-tailed paired t-test: t(5) = -4.924, p = 0.004, mean difference = -0.236, standard deviation = 0.117, effect size d = 1.34 • No significant effect of training in medial prefrontal cortex 5. Conclusions • Promising concept of training while being stimulated • Future studies: • Replication • Transfer into other situations/stimuli • Real-time fMRI for direct neurofeedback of amygdala activity during stimulation and down-regulation 7 2. Material and Methods • 6 participants (4 f/2 m, 26 3.8y), 4 weekly training sessions • 3T Philips MRI, 8 channel head coil, TR 2000 ms, TE 25 ms, whole brain, TurboBrainvoyager, MS Visual Studio, SPSS 3. Tasks (Fig. 1) • Functional localizer (A): • Negative emotional faces 8 vs. neutral pictures 9  Identify activated amygdala region (source for feedback) • Feedback task (B): • “View” vs. “Regulate”, negative emotional faces • Feedback of amygdala activity: color blocks on both sides of the faces (orange = high activity) • Instruction for regulation: reappraisal, reality-check 10 • Transfer into other situations/stimuli • Sham-control • Optimizing training and tasks • Transfer into clinical populations Acknowledgements: This study was supported by a grant of the Swiss National Science Foundation (No. 320030-146972). References 1. Ochsner KN, Silvers JA, Buhle JT (2012) Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1251:E1-E24 2. Hamilton JP, Etkin A, Furman DJ, Lemus MG, et al. (2012) American Journal of Psychiatry 169: 693-703. 3. Etkin A, Wager TD (2007) American Journal of Psychiatry 164: 1476-1488 4. Quide Y, Witteveen AB, El-Hage W, Veltman DJ, Olff M (2012) Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 36:626-644 5. Zotev V, Krueger F, Phillips R, Alvarez RP, et al. (2011) PLoS ONE 6: e24522 6. Posse S, Fitzgerald D, Gao K, Habel U, et al. (2003) NeuroImage 18:760-768. 7. Sulzer J, Haller S, Scharnowski F, Weiskopf N, et al. (2013) NeuroImage 76:386-99 8. Lundqvist D, Flykt A, Öhman A (1998) Karolinska Institutet 9. Lang PJ, Bradley MM, Cuthbert BN (2005) University of Florida 10. Gross JJ, John OP (2003) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 85:348-362 Fig. 2 Results A. Whole group (mean/SD) B. Individual values and trend lines A. B. Dr. Annette B. Brühl: annette.bruehl@puk.zh.ch reative Commons License. F100 mitted under Creative Commons License. F1000 Posters: Us ers: Use Permitted under Creative Commons License. F1000 Posters: Use Permitted u 000 Posters: Use Permitted under Creative Commons License. F1000 Posters: Use Permitted under Creative Use Permitted under Creative Commons License. F1000 Posters: Use Permitted under Creative Commons Li under Creative Commons License. F1000 Posters: Use Permitted under Creative Commons ve Commons License. F1000 Posters: Use Permitted under Creativ License. F1000 Posters: Use Permitted View publication stats View publication stats