Prefrontal control of the amygdala during real-time fMRI neurofeedback training of emotion regulation

TL;DR

This study investigates how real-time fMRI neurofeedback training influences the effective connectivity within a prefrontal-amygdala network involved in emotion regulation, highlighting the role of the rACC in modulating amygdala activity.

Contribution

It provides the first causal analysis of the effective connectivity changes in the prefrontal-amygdala network during neurofeedback training, emphasizing the rACC's modulatory role.

Findings

rACC modulates amygdala and other prefrontal regions during training

Training enhances the effective connectivity from rACC to amygdala

Increased instantaneous effects of rACC on multiple regions observed

Abstract

We observed in a previous study (PLoS ONE 6:e24522) that the self-regulation of amygdala activity via real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rtfMRI-nf) with positive emotion induction was associated, in healthy participants, with an enhancement in the functional connectivity between the left amygdala (LA) and six regions of the prefrontal cortex. These regions included the left rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), bilateral dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC), bilateral superior frontal gyrus (SFG), and right medial frontopolar cortex (MFPC). Together with the LA, these six prefrontal regions thus formed the functional neuroanatomical network engaged during the rtfMRI-nf procedure. Here we perform a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) analysis of the effective connectivity for this network. The SVAR analysis demonstrates that the left rACC plays an important role during the rtfMRI-nf training, modulating the LA and the other network regions. According to the analysis, the rtfMRI-nf training leads to a significant enhancement in the time-lagged effect of the left rACC on the LA. The training is also accompanied by significant increases in the instantaneous (contemporaneous) effects of the left rACC on four other regions - the bilateral DMPFC, the right MFPC, and the left SFG. The instantaneous effects of the LA on the bilateral DMPFC are also significantly enhanced. Our results are consistent with a broad literature supporting the role of the rACC in emotion processing and regulation. Our analysis provides, for the first time, insights into the causal relationships within the network of regions engaged during the rtfMRI-nf procedure targeting the amygdala. It suggests that the rACC may constitute a promising target for rtfMRI-nf training along with the amygdala in patients with affective disorders, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).