Volitional limbic neuromodulation has a multifaceted clinical benefit in Fibromyalgia patients

Publication date: Available online 5 November 2018Source: NeuroImageAuthor(s): Noam Goldway, Jacob Ablin, Omer Lubin, Yoav Zamir, Jackob Nimrod Keynan, Ayelet Or-Borichev, Marc Cavazza, Fred Charles, Nathan Intrator, Silviu Brill, Eti Ben-Simon, Haggai Sharon, Talma HendlerAbstractVolitional neural modulation using neurofeedback has been indicated as a potential treatment for chronic conditions that involve peripheral and central neural dysregulation. Here we utilized neurofeedback in patients suffering from Fibromyalgia - a chronic pain syndrome that involves sleep disturbance and emotion dysregulation. These ancillary symptoms, which have an amplification effect on pain, are known to be mediated by heightened limbic activity. In order to reliably probe limbic activity in a scalable manner fit for EEG-neurofeedback training, we utilized an Electrical Finger Print (EFP) model of amygdala-BOLD signal (termed Amyg-EFP), that has been successfully validated in our lab in the context of volitional neuromodulation.We anticipated that Amyg-EFP-neurofeedback training aimed at limbic down modulation should improve chronic pain in patients suffering from Fibromyalgia, by balancing disturbed indices for sleep and affect. We further expected that improved clinical status would correspond to successful training as indicated by improved down modulation of the Amygdala-EFP signal.Thirty-Four Fibromyalgia patients (31F; age 35.6 ± 11.82) participated in a randomized placebo-controlled ...
Source: NeuroImage - Category: Neuroscience Source Type: research