Volitional limbic neuromodulation exerts a beneficial clinical effect on Fibromyalgia

Publication date: 1 February 2019Source: NeuroImage, Volume 186Author(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 amplificating 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 would improve chronic pain in patients suffering from Fibromyalgia, by reducing sleep disorder improving emotion regulation. We further expected that improved clinical status would correspond with 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