Voluntary enhancement of neural signatures of affiliative emotion using FMRI neurofeedback.
In Ridley Scott's film "Blade Runner", empathy-detection devices are employed to measure affiliative emotions. Despite recent neurocomputational advances, it is unknown whether brain signatures of affiliative emotions, such as tenderness/affection, can be decoded and voluntarily modulated. Here, we employed multivariate voxel pattern analysis and real-time fMRI to address this question. We found that participants were able to use visual feedback based on decoded fMRI patterns as a neurofeedback signal to increase brain activation characteristic of tenderness/affection relative to pride, an equally complex control emotion. Such improvement was not observed in a control group performing the same fMRI task without neurofeedback. Furthermore, the neurofeedback-driven enhancement of tenderness/affection-related distributed patterns was associated with local fMRI responses in the septohypothalamic area and frontopolar cortex, regions previously implicated in affiliative emotion. This demonstrates that humans can voluntarily enhance brain signatures of tenderness/affection, unlocking new possibilities for promoting prosocial emotions and countering antisocial behavior.
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Jorge
J
Moll
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Julie H
JH
Weingartner
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB), Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Patricia
P
Bado
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Rodrigo
R
Basilio
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Center for Mathematics, Computation, and Cognition, Universidade Federal do ABC, Santo André, Brazil.
João R
JR
Sato
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Bruno R
BR
Melo
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ivanei E
IE
Bramati
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Gaffrée e Guinle University Hospital, Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Ricardo
R
de Oliveira-Souza
Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience Unit and Neuroinformatics Workgroup, D'Or Institute for Research and Education (IDOR), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Centre for Affective Disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College, London, United Kingdom.
Roland
R
Zahn
D000328:Adult; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007026:Hypothalamic Area, Lateral / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D058765:Neurofeedback / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D060388:Support Vector Machine