title: Effects of salience-network-node neurofeedback training on affective biases in major depressive disorder.
abstract: Neural models of major depressive disorder (MDD) posit that over-response of components of the brain's salience network (SN) to negative stimuli plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of MDD. In the present proof-of-concept study, we tested this formulation directly by examining the affective consequences of training depressed persons to down-regulate response of SN nodes to negative material. Ten participants in the real neurofeedback group saw, and attempted to learn to down-regulate, activity from an empirically identified node of the SN. Ten other participants engaged in an equivalent procedure with the exception that they saw SN-node neurofeedback indices from participants in the real neurofeedback group. Before and after scanning, all participants completed tasks assessing emotional responses to negative scenes and to negative and positive self-descriptive adjectives. Compared to participants in the sham-neurofeedback group, from pre- to post-training, participants in the real-neurofeedback group showed a greater decrease in SN-node response to negative stimuli, a greater decrease in self-reported emotional response to negative scenes, and a greater decrease in self-reported emotional response to negative self-descriptive adjectives. Our findings provide support for a neural formulation in which the SN plays a primary role in contributing to negative cognitive biases in MDD.
authors: Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden. Electronic address: paul.hamilton@liu.se.
authors: J Paul
authors: JP
authors: Hamilton
authors: Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors: Gary H
authors: GH
authors: Glover
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors: Epifanio
authors: E
authors: Bagarinao
authors: Advanced MRI Section, Laboratory of Functional and Molecular Imaging, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
authors: Catie
authors: C
authors: Chang
authors: Department of Anesthesiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors: Sean
authors: S
authors: Mackey
authors: Neurosciences Program, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors: Matthew D
authors: MD
authors: Sacchet
authors: Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA.
authors: Ian H
authors: IH
authors: Gotlib
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D058765:Neurofeedback / Q000379:methods*
keywords: Functional magnetic resonance imaging; Information processing biases; Major depressive disorder; Neurofeedback; Salience network