Facing emotions: real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback using dynamic emotional faces to modulate amygdala activity

Watve, Apurva; Haugg, Amelie; Frei, Nada; Koush, Yury; Willinger, David; Bruehl, Annette Beatrix; Stämpfli, Philipp; Scharnowski, Frank; Sladky, Ronald

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1286665

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Watve, A., Haugg, A., Frei, N., Koush, Y., Willinger, D., Bruehl, A. B., Stämpfli, P., Scharnowski, F., & Sladky, R. (2024). Facing emotions: real-time fMRI-based neurofeedback using dynamic emotional faces to modulate amygdala activity. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17, 1286665. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1286665

Abstract

Introduction: Maladaptive functioning of the amygdala has been associated with impaired emotion regulation in affective disorders. Recent advances in real-time fMRI neurofeedback have successfully demonstrated the modulation of amygdala activity in healthy and psychiatric populations. In contrast to an abstract feedback representation applied in standard neurofeedback designs, we proposed a novel neurofeedback paradigm using naturalistic stimuli like human emotional faces as the feedback display where change in the facial expression i