Continuous vs. intermittent neurofeedback to regulate auditory cortex activity of tinnitus patients using real-time fMRI - A pilot study

Publication date: Available online 6 January 2017 Source:NeuroImage: Clinical Author(s): Kirsten Emmert, Rotem Kopel, Yury Koush, Raphael Maire, Pascal Senn, Dimitri Van De Ville, Sven Haller The emerging technique of real-time fMRI neurofeedback trains individuals to regulate their own brain activity via feedback from an fMRI measure of neural activity. Optimum feedback presentation has yet to be determined, particularly when working with clinical populations. To this end, we compared continuous against intermittent feedback in subjects with tinnitus. Fourteen participants with tinnitus completed the whole experiment consisting of nine runs (3 runs×3days). Prior to the neurofeedback, the target region was localized within the auditory cortex using auditory stimulation (1kHz tone pulsating at 6Hz) in an ON-OFF block design. During neurofeedback runs, participants received either continuous (n=7, age 46.84±12.01, Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) 49.43±15.70) or intermittent feedback (only after the regulation block) (n=7, age 47.42±12.39, TFI 49.82±20.28). Participants were asked to decrease auditory cortex activity that was presented to them by a moving bar. In the first and the last session, participants also underwent arterial spin labeling (ASL) and resting-state fMRI imaging. We assessed tinnitus severity using the TFI questionnaire before all sessions, directly after all sessions and six weeks after all sessions. We then compared neuroimaging results from ne...
Source: NeuroImage: Clinical - Category: Radiology Source Type: research