Abstract #1592

The Use of Neurofeedback with Real-Time Functional MRI to Suppress Physiological Noise.

Jerzy Bodurka¹, Javier Gonzalez-Castillo², Peter Bandettini^1,3

¹Functional MRI Facility, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA; ²Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA; ³Section on Functional Imaging Methods, National Institute of Mental Health, NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA

In the present study, we employed rtfMRI neurofeedback to investigate whether healthy subjects can learn to self-regulate the variability of the fMRI response in areas affected by high levels of physiological noise. In particular, subjects were asked to attempt to reduce the standard deviation (SDEV) of the fMRI signal in the ventricles and in the posterior sinus. We hypothesized that learning to self-control the variability of the fMRI signal in these extra-cortical areas would be accompanied by increased fMRI time series temporal signal to noise ratio (TSNR=mean voxel time course signal/time course standard deviation) in both white (WM) and gray (GM) matter compartments. Indeed five of six subjects studied were able to self-regulate the variability of the fMRI signal. Our results show: (1) that subjects can actively reduce SDEV of the fMRI signal in the ventricles and the posterior sinus using fMRI neurofeedback; and (2) such SDEV decrease is accompanied by a significant increase of fMRI TSNR in both white and gray matter compartments.