Fear reduction without fear through reinforcement of neural activity that bypasses conscious exposure

Koizumi, Akira; Amano, Kaoru; Cortese, Aurelio; Shibata, Kazuhisa; Yoshida, Wako; Seymour, Ben; Kawato, Mitsuo; Lau, Hakwan

doi:10.1038/s41562-016-0006

Cited by 130 publications

(201 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…We focus on four of these advancements here. First, the use of implicit protocols allows participants to be kept unaware of the purpose of neurofeedback training [10–12,15,19–21] or even the fact that they are being trained [22]. Second, the use of external rewards, such as money, has been reported to facilitate neurofeedback learning [20,23].…”

Section: Recent Advancements In Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, recent studies have demonstrated that neurofeedback training can be highly effective even when participants do not know what behavior is being trained, or indeed that they are being trained at all [10–12,15,19–22]. We have termed this type of fMRI neurofeedback implicit neurofeedback .…”

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Unbeknownst to participants, the size of the disk actually reflects the degree of “similarity” of an fMRI voxel pattern in a specific brain region measured on a real-time basis to the fMRI voxel pattern based on a predetermined targeted neural activity pattern. After repetitive trials with this procedure, participants learn to significantly enhance the degree of the similarity [10–12,15,19–21]. In other words, they learn to induce neural activity patterns similar to the targeted predetermined activity pattern.…”

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In other words, they learn to induce neural activity patterns similar to the targeted predetermined activity pattern. Importantly, results of post-experiment questionnaires showed that participants are indeed unaware of what brain functions were trained [10–12,15,19–21]. …”

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some might think that participants in implicit neurofeedback also learn to induce voxel patterns similar to the predetermined targeted voxel pattern by trying to learn what is expected to be learned by experimenters. However, this possibility has been ruled out by DecNef training with a double-blinded method [21], an extension of [15] and by DecNef training in a totally automated and modern monkey experimental system [77], which replicated the human study [19]. …”

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Advances in fMRI Real-Time Neurofeedback

Watanabe

Sasaki

Shibata

et al. 2017

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) neurofeedback is a type of biofeedback in which real-time online fMRI signals are used to self-regulate brain function. Since its advent in 2003, significant progress has been made in fMRI neurofeedback techniques. Specifically, the use of implicit protocols, external rewards, multivariate analysis, and connectivity analysis have allowed neuroscientists to explore a possible causal involvement of modified brain activity in modified behavior. These techniques have also been integrated into groundbreaking new neurofeedback technologies, specifically decoded neurofeedback (DecNef) and functional-connectivity-based neurofeedback (FCNef). By modulating neural activity and behavior, DecNef and FCNef have substantially advanced both basic and clinical research.

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Section: Recent Advancements In Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Four Significant Aspects Of Progress Of Fmri Neurofeedbackmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 3 more Smart Citations

Advances in fMRI Real-Time Neurofeedback

Watanabe

Sasaki

Shibata

et al. 2017

Trends in Cognitive Sciences

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219

211

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Implicit but not explicit extinction to threat‐conditioned stimulus prevents spontaneous recovery of threat‐potentiated startle responses in humans

et al. 2018

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IntroductionIt has long been posited that threat learning operates and forms under an affective and a cognitive learning system that is supported by different brain circuits. A primary drawback in exposure‐based therapies is the high rate of relapse that occurs when higher order areas fail to inhibit responses driven by the defensive circuit. It has been shown that implicit exposure of fearful stimuli leads to a long‐lasting reduction in avoidance behavior in patients with phobia. Despite the potential benefits of this approach in the treatment of phobias and posttraumatic stress disorder, implicit extinction is still underinvestigated.MethodsTwo groups of healthy participants were threat conditioned. The following day, extinction training was conducted using a stereoscope. One group of participants was explicitly exposed with the threat‐conditioned image, while the other group was implicitly exposed using a continuous flash suppression (CFS) technique. On the third day, we tested the spontaneous recovery of defensive responses using explicit presentations of the images.ResultsOn the third day, we found that only the implicit extinction group showed reduced spontaneous recovery of defensive responses to the threat‐conditioned stimulus, measured by threat‐potentiated startle responses but not by the electrodermal activity.ConclusionOur results suggest that implicit extinction using CFS might facilitate the modulation of the affective component of fearful memories, attenuating its expression after 24 hr. The limitations of the CFS technique using threatful stimuli urge the development of new strategies to improve implicit presentations and circumvent such limitations. Our study encourages further investigations of implicit extinction as a potential therapeutic target to further advance exposure‐based psychotherapies.

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Less is more: Neural activity during very brief and clearly visible exposure to phobic stimuli

Siegel

Warren

Wang

et al. 2017

Human Brain Mapping

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Research on automatic processes in emotion has focused almost exclusively on the provocation of fear responses. We have shown, in contrast, that the repeated presentation of masked feared images reduces avoidance of a live tarantula by spider-phobic participants. We investigated the neural basis for these adaptive effects of masked exposure. We identified 21 spider-phobic and 21 control participants using a psychiatric interview, fear questionnaire, and approach behavior towards a live tarantula. They received each of three conditions: (1) very brief exposure (VBE) to masked images of spiders; (2) clearly visible exposure (CVE) to spiders; and (3) masked images of flowers (control). Only VBE to masked spiders generated neural activity more strongly in phobic than in control participants, within subcortical fear, attention, higher-order language, and vision systems. Counter-intuitively, CVE to the same spiders generated stronger neural activity in control rather than phobic participants within these and other systems. VBE activated regions that support fear processing in phobic participants without causing them to experience fear consciously. CVE, by contrast, deactivated regions supporting fear regulation and caused phobic participants to experience fear. Activations by CVE to spiders correlated with fear ratings - explicit fear. Activations by VBE to masked spiders correlated with color-naming interference of spider words – implicit fear. These multiple dissociations between the effects of VBE and CVE to spiders suggest that limiting awareness of exposure to phobic stimuli through visual masking paradoxically facilitates their processing, while simultaneously minimizing the experience of fear.

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Fear reduction without fear through reinforcement of neural activity that bypasses conscious exposure

Cited by 130 publications

References 43 publications

Advances in fMRI Real-Time Neurofeedback

Advances in fMRI Real-Time Neurofeedback

Implicit but not explicit extinction to threat‐conditioned stimulus prevents spontaneous recovery of threat‐potentiated startle responses in humans

Less is more: Neural activity during very brief and clearly visible exposure to phobic stimuli

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