Research On Emotional Self-Regulation Based On Amygdala Activity Feedback Using Real-Time FMRI

With rapid development of the society,emotional dysregulation lead to mental diseases which related to emotional reuglation,and also lead to more and more serious social burden.How to enhance the capacity of emotional regulation became a matter of concern.The neurofeedback technique based on real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging(rtfMRI)is an noninvasive and non-drug approach,it can be used to improve cognitive function in the human brain.The cognitive neuroscience has demonstrated that amygdala is a key brain region in the emotional brain network,and it plays an important role in the task of performing social cognition and emotion processing in the brain.Therefore,research on the amygdala rtfMRI neurofeedback emotional regulation technology,assess the effects of rtfMRI neurofeedback training,and analyze the effects of neurofeedback training on the brain have important theoretical significance and potential clinical value.This paper based on the rtfMRI neurofeedback technology,aimed at how to regulate the amygdala activity using rtfMRI neurofeedback training,including the amygdala rtfMRI neurofeedback emotional regulation method of experimental design,data processing and real-time feedback model.Based on the local and global characteristics of brain,this paper analysis the impact of rtfMRI neurofeedback training on brain activity,and the method of assessment rtfMRI neurofeedback training effects.The main research contents are as follows:(1)Aiming at the amygdala acticity exist dysregulation when cope with positive or negative emotional stimuli in the depressive state.An rtfMRI neurofeedback emotional regulation method for the amygdala was proposed.First of all,the amygdala signals were extracted in real time,and neurofeedback model for amygdala was constructed.We designed the rtfMRI neurofeedback emotional regulation training,in order to regulate the amygdala activity in the positive or negative emotional state.In the end,we analyzed the amygdala activity and functional connectivity network after training.The experimental results showed that the capacity of regulate amygdala activity in the positive or negative emotional state was significantly enhanced.Meanwhile,the functional connectivity between amygdala,frontal lobe,cingulate cortex,and temporal lobe were altered.These results were keeping with the precious clinical and emotional regulation experiment researches.It demonstrated that using the method in this paper,the emotional regulation capacity of subjects were improved significantly.(2)Based on the synchronization of spontaneous activity in brain regions,we proposed a method,in order to evaluate the rtfMRI neurofeedback emotional regulation training based on regional homogeneity(ReHo).Using ReHo,we investigated that the synchronization of spontaneous activity in the brain after amygdala rtfMRI neurofeedback training,and compared the results with control group.The experimental results showed that the ReHo score were alterd in the amygdala,temporal lobe,inferior frontal gryus and parahippocampal gryus after the amygdala rtfMRI neurofeedback training.These regions were related with emotional regulation,and in the line with clinical researches.This evaluation method coubld be used as neurofeedback emotional regulation of the amygdala experimental brain imaging marker.(3)From the perspective offunctional brain network,we proposed an evaluation method for the rtfMRI neurofeedback emotional regulation of the amygdala which was based on the topological properties of functional brain network.Functional brain network could describe the emotional regulation function more effectively.So we chose small world properties,network efficiency and node degree to describe the topological properties of the functional brain network,and we compared the differences before and after the rtfMRI neurofeedback training.The experimental results showed that the training had effects on small world properties,network efficiency,and altered the node degree in the anterior cingulate gyrus,parahippocampal gyrus,caudate,superior temporal gyrus which were related to emotional regulation.The results were keeping with the clincal and emotional brain mechanism researches,and verified the effectiveness of the assessment method.