In Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner”, empathy-detection devices are employed to measure affiliative emotions. Despite recent neurocomputational advances, it is unknown whether brain signatures of affiliative emotions, such as tenderness/affection, can be decoded and voluntarily modulated. Here, we employed multivariate voxel pattern analysis and real-time fMRI to address this question. We found that participants were able to use visual feedback based on decoded fMRI patterns as a neurofeedback signal to increase brain activation characteristic of tenderness/affection relative to pride, an equally complex control emotion. Such improvement was not observed in a control group performing the same fMRI task without neurofeedback. Furthermore, the neurofeedback-driven enhancement of tenderness/affection-related distributed patterns was associated with local fMRI responses in the septohypothalamic area and frontopolar cortex, regions previously implicated in affiliative emotion. This demonstrates that humans can voluntarily enhance brain signatures of tenderness/affection, unlocking new possibilities for promoting prosocial emotions and countering antisocial behavior.
Previously, using fMRI, we demonstrated lower connectivity between right anterior superior temporal (ATL) and anterior subgenual cingulate (SCC) regions while patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) experience guilt. This neural signature was detected despite symptomatic remission which suggested a putative role in vulnerability. This randomised controlled double-blind parallel group clinical trial investigated whether patients with MDD are able to voluntarily modulate this neural signature. To this end, we developed a fMRI neurofeedback software (FRIEND), which measures ATL-SCC coupling and displays its levels in real time. Twenty-eight patients with remitted MDD were randomised to two groups, each receiving one session of fMRI neurofeedback whilst retrieving guilt and indignation/anger-related autobiographical memories. They were instructed to feel the emotion whilst trying to increase the level of a thermometer-like display on a screen. Active intervention group: The thermometer levels increased with increasing levels of ATL-SCC correlations in the guilt condition. Control intervention group: The thermometer levels decreased when correlation levels deviated from the previous baseline level in the guilt condition, thus reinforcing stable correlations. Both groups also received feedback during the indignation condition reinforcing stable correlations. We confirmed our predictions that patients in the active intervention group were indeed able to increase levels of ATL-SCC correlations for guilt vs. indignation and their self-esteem after training compared to before training and that this differed significantly from the control intervention group. These data provide proof-of-concept for a novel treatment target for MDD patients and are in keeping with the hypothesis that ATL-SCC connectivity plays a key role in self-worth.https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/results/NCT01920490
ObjectiveUsing fMRI, we have identified lower coupling between anterior temporal (AT) and subgenual cingulate (SC) cortex while patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) experience guilt. This neural signature was detected despite symptom remission which suggests its role in MDD vulnerability. This double-blind, controlled, randomised and pre-registered clinical trial aimed at determining whether patients with MDD are able to voluntarily modulate this neural signature. To this end we developed an fMRI neurofeedback software tool (FRIEND), which measures AT-SC coupling and displays its levels to patients during fMRI in real time.MethodTwenty-eight patients with remitted MDD were randomised to two groups each receiving one session of fMRI neurofeedback whilst retrieving guilt and indignation-related autobiographical memories. They were instructed to feel the emotion whilst trying to increase the level of a thermometer-like display on a screen. Active intervention group: The thermometer levels increased with increasing levels of AT-SC correlations in the guilt condition. Control intervention group: The thermometer levels decreased when correlation levels deviated from the previous baseline level in the guilt condition thus reinforcing stable correlations. Both groups also received feedback during the indignation condition reinforcing stable correlations.ResultsWe confirmed our predictions that patients in the active intervention group are indeed able to increase the level of their AT-SC correlation for guilt vs. indignation after training compared to before training and that this differed significantly from the control intervention group.ConclusionThis provides the proof-of-concept for a novel MDD treatment approach. Future studies need to probe its efficacy when applied repeatedly.
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