Title : Controlled reconstruction of cerebral networks: The possibilities of interactive brain therapy (stimulation) on the example of stroke (fMRI-EEG-neurofeedback research)
Abstract:
Neuroplasticity is the main characteristic of the adaptive properties of the brain, which ensure the self-organization of complex hierarchical and multi-relational connections within and between neural networks, during normal growth and development and under pathological conditions. Targeted mental influence on the activity of specific cerebral structures and/or on the functional connections between them hypothetically contributes to clinical improvement in brain diseases, and feedback of the actual change in neural activity during task performance can optimize such training, making its effect on local neuroplasticity more pronounced. Simultaneous registration and processing of the signal of the brain activity electrical component (EEG) and the hemodynamic response to it (fMRI) provides a unique research tool - a bimodal neuroplatform for studying the spatial (fMRI) and temporal (EEG) components of brain activity. These parameters, being built into the feedback loop, create a new class of neurotechnologies - interactive therapy (stimulation) of certain brain formations and/or their interactions. The process of neuroplasticity becomes available for the cognitive reconstruction of neural networks with therapeutic, restorative, and research aims. Using the example of stroke and depression, the report will consider the possibilities of the fMRI-EEG platform for neurofeedback (interactive therapy (stimulation) of the brain) in the study of transformations of the functional networks of the human brain and their clinical-network correlations.
