Harnessing the brain for mental and physical health through mesolimbic Neurofeedback

COEX 

Reward processing is essential for our mental- and physical health. I will present two paths in neurofeedback (NF) research for harnessing reward brain circuit activation towards mental and physical health augmentation.
The first path addresses the scalability gap of functional MRI neurofeedback (fMRI-NF) by developing a scalable fMRI-informed EEG model related to reward activity in the ventral-striatum (VS) – a major node of the brain's reward system. Such an EEG based prediction model of VS-BOLD activation may enable ecological monitoring and modulation of reward-related neural processing without the use of the stationary and costly fMRI. To establish this EEG model, we collected simultaneous EEG-fMRI data from two cohorts of healthy individuals while listening to selected pleasurable music – a highly rewarding stimulus known to engage the mesolimbic circuit. We used these cross-modal data to construct a generic regression model for predicting the concurrently acquired Blood-Oxygen-Level-Dependent (BOLD) signal from the VS using spectro-temporal features from the EEG signal (termed hereby VS-Electrical Finger Print; VS-EFP). We then validated the EEG model on the second dataset and showed its functionality by training individuals to upregulate the VS-EFP model and measured modified reward processing neuronally (fMRI) and behaviorally (tasks and scales).
The second path addresses the mind-body gap by testing the effect of NF training to upregulate mesolimbic fMRI activity on immune reactivity following Hepatitis vaccination. In a pre-registered, triple-blinded controlled design, 85 healthy individuals were assigned to one out of three groups: (1) test group of mesolimbic reward circuit NF (N=34), (2) an active control group (N=34) allowing to disentangle target-specific from non-specific effects; and (3) no-NF control group (N=17). Each NF participant underwent four fMRI-NF training sessions and received a vaccination in order to challenge their immune system either after training (group 1 &2) or at a similar time lag (group3). We found that greater NF upregulation in the mesolimbic circuit resulted in greater Hepatitis IgG count following vaccination and that this modulation was mediated by mental strategies associated with reward consumption.
The promising results obtained via the described paths of research, together pave the way for future use of scalable self-neuromodulation of the reward circuit in humans for alleviating mood disturbance as well as for empowering body immunity.