Abstract
fMRI Neurofeedback (NF) is a promising tool to study the relationship between behaviour and brain activity. It enables people to self-regulate their brain signal. Here we applied fMRI NF to train healthy participants to increase activity in their supplementary motor area (SMA) during a Motor Imagery (MI) task of complex body movements while they received a continuous visual feedback signal. This signal represented the activity of participants’ localized SMA regions in the NF group and a pre-recorded signal in the control group (sham feedback). In the NF group only, results showed a gradual increase in SMA-related activity across runs. This up-regulation was largely restricted to the SMA, whilst other regions of the motor network showed no, or only marginal NF effects. In addition, we found behavioural changes, i.e., shorter reaction times in a go/no-go task after the NF training only. These results suggest that NF can assist participants to develop greater control over a specifically targeted motor region involved in motor skill learning. The results contribute to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of SMA NF based on MI with a direct implication for rehabilitation of motor dysfunctions.
Significance
Participants in the NF group specifically learned to up-regulate their SMA fMRI BOLD signal.
This effect was largely restricted to the BOLD signal of the SMA.
The neurofeedback was also associated with improvements in motor reaction times.
Footnotes
Authors report no conflicts of interest.
“Salim Al-Wasity acknowledges the support of the Higher Committee for Education Development in Iraq”
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