Biofeedback of activity in the orbitofrontal cortex for OCD

描述（由申请人提供）：实时功能性磁共振成像（rt-fMRI）数据的生物反馈是一种新技术，其中受试者大脑特定区域的活动作为反馈信号提供给受试者。受试者可以用不同的认知策略进行实验，以识别那些有效影响感兴趣区域的大脑活动的策略。通过实践这些策略并监测其成功，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种技术应用于强迫症（OCD）。更具体地说，该项目研究rt-fMRI数据的生物反馈是否可以使强迫症患者能够控制与焦虑症状有关的眶额皮层区域的活动，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个低风险，非侵入性的临床干预强迫症。此外，在生物反馈之前和之后，将检查大脑区域之间的静息状态功能连接模式，以确定干预如何改变内在的大脑动力学，以及这些改变如何与临床症状的变化相关。这将使我们了解强迫症症状背后的网络动力学。虽然这项研究项目的重点是开发一个专门用于治疗和研究强迫症的协议，该方法有很大的希望，作为一个治疗干预和研究工具，广泛的神经精神疾病。

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.