Biofeedback of activity in the orbitofrontal cortex for OCD

描述(申请人提供)：实时功能磁共振成像(RT-fMRI)数据的生物反馈是一种新技术，其中将受试者大脑特定区域的活动作为反馈信号提供给受试者。受试者可以试验不同的认知策略，以确定哪些策略能有效地影响感兴趣区域的大脑活动。通过练习这些策略并监控它们的成功，受试者可以训练自己控制目标大脑区域。拟议的研究项目将这项技术应用于强迫症(OCD)。更具体地说，该项目研究了RT-fMRI数据的生物反馈是否能够使强迫症患者对其眼眶前额叶皮质中与症状焦虑有关的区域的活动进行控制，从而减少他们的强迫症状。如果是这样的话，这项新技术可能会产生一种低风险、非侵入性的强迫症临床干预方法。此外，还将检查生物反馈前后大脑区域之间静息状态功能连接的模式，以确定干预如何改变固有的大脑动力学，以及这些改变与临床症状的变化如何相关。这将有助于我们对强迫症背后的网络动态的理解。虽然这一研究项目的重点是开发一种专门用于治疗和研究强迫症的方案，但该方法作为一种治疗干预措施和广泛的神经精神障碍的研究工具具有很大的前景。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Biofeedback of real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rt-fMRI) data is a new technique in which the activity in a specific region of a subject's brain is provided as a feedback signal to the subject. The subject can experiment with different cognitive strategies to identify those that are effective in influencing brain activty in the region of interest. By practicing those strategies and monitoring their success, subjects can train themselves to control the target brain region. The proposed research project applies this technique to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). More specifically, the project examines whether biofeedback of rt-fMRI data can enable individuals with OCD to develop control over activity in a region of their orbitofrontal cortex involved in symptom anxiety and thereby reduce their obsessive-compulsive symptoms. If so, this new technique may yield a low-risk, non-invasive clinical intervention for OCD. In addition, patterns of resting state functional connectivty between brain areas will be examined before and after biofeedback to determine how intrinsic brain dynamics are altered by the intervention, and how those alterations relate to changes in clinical symptoms. This will inform our understanding of the network dynamics underlying obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Although this research project is focused on developing a protocol specifically for treating and studying OCD, the methodology has great promise as both a treatment intervention and a research tool for a broad range of neuropsychiatric disorders.