title: Real-time fMRI links subjective experience with brain activity during focused attention.
abstract: Recent advances in brain imaging have improved the measure of neural processes related to perceptual, cognitive and affective functions, yet the relation between brain activity and subjective experience remains poorly characterized. In part, it is a challenge to obtain reliable accounts of participant's experience in such studies. Here we addressed this limitation by utilizing experienced meditators who are expert in introspection. We tested a novel method to link objective and subjective data, using real-time fMRI (rt-fMRI) to provide participants with feedback of their own brain activity during an ongoing task. We provided real-time feedback during a focused attention task from the posterior cingulate cortex, a hub of the default mode network shown to be activated during mind-wandering and deactivated during meditation. In a first experiment, both meditators and non-meditators reported significant correspondence between the feedback graph and their subjective experience of focused attention and mind-wandering. When instructed to volitionally decrease the feedback graph, meditators, but not non-meditators, showed significant deactivation of the posterior cingulate cortex. We were able to replicate these results in a separate group of meditators using a novel step-wise rt-fMRI discovery protocol in which participants were not provided with prior knowledge of the expected relationship between their experience and the feedback graph (i.e., focused attention versus mind-wandering). These findings support the feasibility of using rt-fMRI to link objective measures of brain activity with reports of ongoing subjective experience in cognitive neuroscience research, and demonstrate the generalization of expertise in introspective awareness to novel contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: kathleen.garrison@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Kathleen A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Garrison
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208042, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: dustin.scheinost@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Dustin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Scheinost
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: patrick.worhunsky@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Patrick D
authors.initials: PD
authors.lastname: Worhunsky
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: hani.elwafi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Hani M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Elwafi
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: thomas.thornhill@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Thomas A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: Thornhill
authors.affiliation: Department of Philosophy, University of Toronto, 170 St. George Street, Room 428, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A1, Canada. Electronic address: evan.thompson@utoronto.ca.
authors.forename: Evan
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Thompson
authors.affiliation: Center for Mind and Brain, University of California Davis, 267 Cousteau Place, Davis, CA 95618, USA. Electronic address: cdsaron@ucdavis.edu.
authors.forename: Clifford
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saron
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 Thirteenth St #2301, Boston, MA 02129, USA. Electronic address: gdesbord@nmr.mgh.harvard.edu.
authors.forename: Gaëlle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Desbordes
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: hedy.kober@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Hedy
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kober
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208042, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: michelle.hampson@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hampson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: jeremy.gray@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Jeremy R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208042, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: todd.constable@yale.edu.
authors.forename: R Todd
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Constable
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, PO Box 208042, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: xenophon.papademetris@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Xenophon
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Papademetris
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 300 George St. Suite 901, New Haven, CT 06511, USA. Electronic address: judson.brewer@yale.edu.
authors.forename: Judson A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Brewer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006179:Gyrus Cinguli / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D019122:Meditation / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D058765:Neurofeedback / Q000379:methods* / Q000502:physiology
keywords: Default mode network; Focused attention; Meditation; Posterior cingulate cortex; Real-time fMRI; Real-time neurofeedback