Biofeedback-produced hemispheric asymmetry of slow cortical potentials and its behavioural effects

doi:10.1016/0167-8760(90)90069-P

International Journal of Psychophysiology

Volume 9, Issue 2, September 1990, Pages 151-165

https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-8760(90)90069-P Get rights and content

Abstract

Two studies served to examine behavioural effects of slow cortical potentials (SPs). SPs were manipulated by means of a biofeedback procedure. The ability of human subjects to alter SPs differentially between the two hemispheres - specifically over the lateral aspects of teh central sulcus - was tested by providing feedback ofthe SP difference betwrrn C3 and C4. In Expt. I, 21 of the 45 subjects produced hemispheric asymmetries of more than 2 μV between C3 and C4 on an average after 80 trials of analogue, continuous and immediate feedback. In Expt. II, SP changes were fed back digitally at the end of each trial. Within 120 trials, 20 of the 48 subjects reached the criterion of a minimum 2-μV difference in SPs between C3 and C4 on the average. Average differentiation remained significantly below the SP differentiations achieved for continuous feedback. Trials with feedback were followed by ‘task’ trials without feedback, during which subjects were still requested to produce SP changes but also had to complete a task: Either sensorimotor tasks (Expt. I) or forced choice handedness tasks (Expt. II) were presented to evaluate behavioural consequences of hemispheric SP differences. In subjects achieving the required SP differentiation it affected the behavioural output in agreement with the known functions of the respective cortical area.

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Also, some trials without feedback from the rocket ship or the target score were placed in between the feedback trials and in these trails, the ability to self-regulate the SCP was maintained in spite of the lacking feedback. Reports on SCP conditioning obtained through feedback have been reviewed [297,343], and include cases in which subjects were trained to increase the negativity of SPC in one hemisphere while suppressing it in the other [344,345]. The possibility that SCP control could be mediated via eye movement artifacts or scalp skin conductance had been excluded in an early work on operantly trained positive or negative SCP shifts [346].
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Real-time fMRI (rtfMRI) allows immediate access to experimental results by analyzing data as fast as they are acquired. It was devised soon after the inception of fMRI and has undergone a rapid development since then. The availability of results during the ongoing experiment facilitates a variety of applications such as quality assurance or fast functional localization. RtfMRI can also be used as a brain–computer interface (BCI) with high spatial resolution and whole-brain coverage, overcoming limitations of EEG based BCIs. This review will focus on the application of rtfMRI BCIs to neurofeedback, i.e., the online feedback of the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) response. I will motivate its development and place its beginnings into the contemporary scientific context by providing an account of our early work at the University of Tübingen, followed by a review of the accomplishments and the current state of rtfMRI neurofeedback. RtfMRI neurofeedback has been used to train self-regulation of the local BOLD response in various different brain areas and to study consequential behavioral effects. Behavioral effects such as modulation of pain, reaction time, linguistic or emotional processing have been shown in healthy and/or patient populations. RtfMRI neurofeedback presents a new paradigm for studying the relation between brain behavior and physiology, because the latter can be regarded as the independent variable (unlike in conventional neuroimaging studies where behavior is the independent variable). The initial results in patient populations improving pain, tinnitus, depression or modulating perception in schizophrenia are encouraging and merit further controlled clinical studies.
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Biofeedback-produced hemispheric asymmetry of slow cortical potentials and its behavioural effects

Abstract

Biol. Psychol.

Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Biol. Psychol.

J. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.

J. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Neuropsychologia

Brain Res.

Neuropsychologia

J. Electroencephalogr. Clin. Neurophysiol.

Biol. Psychol.

Int. J. Psychophysiol.

Neuropsychologia

Hirnelektrische Korrelate der cerebralen Musikverarbeitung bein Menschen

Eur. Arch. Psychiat. Neurol. Sci.

Electrophysiological evidence of hemispheric dominance for language, calculation and music

Pfügers Arch. Eur. J. Physiol.

Electrophysiological evidence of right parietal dominance of visual-spatial processing tasks

Regulation of slow brain potentials affects task performance

Imagery affects slow cortical potentials

Int. J. Neurosci.

Slow potentials at the cerebral cortex and behavior

Physiol. Rev.

A simple feedback system for self-control of blood pressure

Percept. Motor Skills

An instrument for producing deep muscle relaxation by means of analog information feedback

J. Appl. Behav. Anal.

Modern mind reading: psychophysiology and cognition

Psychophysiology

Detecting Early Communication: Using measures of Movement-related Potentials to Illuminate Human Information Processing

Effects of binary and proportional feedback on bidirectional control of heart rate

Psychophysiology

Cortical slow-wave and cardiac rate responses in stimulus orientation and reaction time conditions

J. Exp. Psychol.

Biofeedback langsamer kortikaler Potentiale

Patterns of stimulus- and self-induced slow brain potentials — a sign of task specific preparation

Human Neurobiol

The influence of low-level transcortical DC-currents on response speed in humans

Int. J. Neurosci.

Threshold regulation — a key for the understanding of the combined dynamicsof EEG and the event-related potentials

J. Psychophysiol.

Slow Brain Potentials Preceding Task Performance

Response priming and components of the event-related brain potential

Psychophysiology