Voluntary Enhancement of Neural Signatures of Affiliative Emotion Using fMRI Neurofeedback

Autor(es)

Moll, Jorge ^{[1, 2]} ; Weingartner, Julie H. ^{[1, 2]} ; Bado, Patricia ^{[1, 2, 3]} ; Basilio, Rodrigo ^{[1, 2]} ; Sato, Joao R. ^{[4, 1, 2]} ; Melo, Bruno R. ^{[1, 2]} ; Bramati, Ivanei E. ^{[1, 2]} ; de Oliveira-Souza, Ricardo ^{[1, 2, 5]} ; Zahn, Roland ^{[1, 2, 6]}

Afiliação do(s) autor(es)

^[1] DOr Inst Res & Educ IDOR, Cognit & Behav Neurosci Unit, Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[2] DOr Inst Res & Educ IDOR, Neuroinformat Workgrp, Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[3] Univ Fed Rio de Janeiro, ICB, Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[4] Univ Fed ABC, Ctr Math Computat & Cognit, Santo Andre - Brazil

^[5] Fed Univ State Rio de Janeiro, Gaffree & Guinle Univ Hosp, Rio De Janeiro - Brazil

^[6] Kings Coll London, Inst Psychiat, Ctr Affect Disorders, London WC2R 2LS - England

• Tipo de documento: Artigo Científico
• Fonte: PLoS One; v. 9, n. 5 MAY 21 2014.
• Citações Web of Science: 15

Resumo

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. (AU)

• Processo FAPESP: 13/10498-6 - Aprendizado de máquina em neuroimagem: desenvolvimento de métodos e aplicações clínicas em transtornos psiquiátricos
• Beneficiário: João Ricardo Sato
• Modalidade de apoio: Auxílio à Pesquisa - Regular