Anterior Insula Regulation and Pain Empathy

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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The aim is to test whether rtfMRI-based neurofeedback training on anterior insula impacts pain empathy.

Detailed Description
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In the present study, investigators plan to use the real-time fMRI neurofeedback to train healthy subjects to learn volitional control over their own anterior insula (AI) activity. Then the effect of AI regulation will assessed by examining subjects' empathic responses and functional connectivity changes. Subjects were separated into two groups randomly. While the experimental group received specific neurofeedback from their own AI, the control group received sham NF from an unspecific region.

Official Title
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Voluntary Anterior Insula Regulation Impacts Pain Empathy and Functional Connectivity: a Real-time fMRI Study

Conditions
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Anterior Insula Activity During Regulation, Empathic Responses After Anterior Insula Regulation

Intervention / Treatment
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* Device: real-time fMRI neurofeedback training running on Turbo Brain voyager (TBV) 3.2 (Brain Innovation, Maastricht, The Netherlands)


Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders Exclusion Criteria: history of head injury; claustrophobia; pregnancy; medical or psychiatric illness.

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 30 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Design Details

Primary Purpose: Basic Science
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention Model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single


Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Experimental: neurofeedback training<br>Neurofeedback training group receives neurofeedback from their own anterior insula. | Device: real-time fMRI neurofeedback training running on Turbo Brain voyager (TBV) 3.2 (Brain Innovation, Maastricht, The Netherlands)<br> <br> |
| Sham Comparator: sham control<br>Sham control group receives sham neurofeedback from a large control brain region. | Device: real-time fMRI neurofeedback training running on Turbo Brain voyager (TBV) 3.2 (Brain Innovation, Maastricht, The Netherlands)<br> <br> |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Neural Activity of Anterior Insula During Neorofeedback Training | Neural activity was analyzed using standard fMRI analysis procedure that examine neural activity during training of anterior insula regulation. The measures include BOLD signal analysis (reflecting neural activity strengths) as well as functional connectivity analysis (that examine the interaction between different brain regions). | three days. | 
| Pain Empathy Rating Scores | Subjects were required to rate their empathic feeling towards painful pictures on a Likert Scale ranging from 1-9 (1 = not at all and 9 = very painful). The effects of training on the empathy for pain were analyzed comparing the feedback group with the controls group. For each subject differences were calculated between pictures that were preceded by a training compared to a no-training block. Within the context of the present design we expected that training-induced increases in anterior insula activity should lead to higher pain empathy ratings in the training group as compared to the control group. | three days. |