Physiological regulation of emotions

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Niels Birbaumer
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2007 to 2011
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 50930612

• Final Report Year: 2013

Final Report Abstract

Brain-Computer Interfaces based on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRl-BCI) allow volitional control of anatomically specific regions of the brain. We have developed a fMRl-BCl that provides subjects graphically animated, real-time contingent feedback of a circumscribed region of the brain to train them to volitionally control the region. This non-invasive technique could be used to vary the activity of the neural substrates of a region of interest as an independent variable to study its effects on behavior as a dependent variable. Furthermore, if the neurobiological basis of a disorder is known in terms of abnormal activity in certain regions of the brain, fMRl-BCl can be targeted to modify activity in those regions with high specificity. We had proposed to investigate the volitional regulation of emotions using fMRl-BCl.

Publications

• (2007). Regulation of anterior insular cortex activity using real-time fMRI. Neuroimage, 35, 1238-1246
  Caria, A., Veit, R., Sitaram, R., Lotze, M., Weiskopf, N., Grodd, W., Birbaumer, N.
  
• (2010). Volitional control of anterior insula activity modulates the response to aversive stimuli. A real-time fMRI study. Biological Psychiatry, 68, 425-432
  Caria, A., Sitaram, R., Veit, R., Begliomini, C., Birbaumer, N.
  
• (2011). Detection of cerebral reorganization induced by real-time fMRI feedback training of insula activation: a multivariate investigation. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 25, 3, 259-267
  Lee, S., Ruiz, S., Caria, A., Veit, R., Birbaumer, N., Sitaram, R.
  
• (2011). Real-time support vector classification and feedback of multiple emotional brain states. Neuroimage, 56, 753-765
  Sitaram, R., Lee, S., Ruiz, S., Rana, M., Veit, R., Birbaumer, N.
  
• Using real-time fMRI to learn voluntary regulation of the anterior insula in the presence of threat-related stimuli. SocCogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Aug;7(6):623-34. Epub 2011 Oct 7
  Veit R, Singh V, Sitaram R, Caria A, Rauss K, Birbaumer N
  
• (2012). Real-time fMRI: a tool for local brain regulation. Neuroscientist, 18, 5, 487-501
  Caria, A., Sitaram, R., Birbaumer, N.
  
• "Real-time fMRI Brain Computer Interfaces: Self-regulation of Single Brain Regions to Networks". Biol Psychol. 2013 May 1. [Epub ahead of print]
  Ruiz S, Buyukturkoglu K, Rana M, Birbaumer N, Sitaram R
  
• Learned regulation of brain metabolism. Trends in Cognitive Sciences
  Birbaumer, N., Ruiz, S., Sitaram, R.
  
• Neurofeedback-mediated self-regulation of the dopaminergic midbrain. Neuroimage. 2013 Mar 1;75C:176-184. [Epub ahead of print]
  Sulzer J, Sitaram R, Blefari ML, Kollias S, Birbaumer N, Stephan KE, Luft A, Gassert R
  
• Real-time fMRI neurofeedback: Progress and challenges. Neuroimage. 2013 Aug 1;76:386-99. Epub 2013 Mar 27
  Sulzer J, Haller S, Scharnowski F, Weiskopf N, Birbaumer N, Blefari ML, Bruehl AB, Cohen LG, Decharms RC, Gassert R, Goebel R, Herwig U, Laconte S, Linden D, Luft A, Seifritz E, Sitaram R