Successful Modulation of Temporoparietal Junction Activity and Stimulus-Driven Attention by fNIRS-based Neurofeedback – a Randomized Controlled Proof-of-Concept Study

Abstract

AbstractThe right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is a core hub in neural networks associated with reorienting of attention and social cognition. However, it remains unknown whether participants can learn to actively modulate their rTPJ activity via neurofeedback. Here, we explored the feasibility of functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)-based neurofeedback in modulating rTPJ activity and its effect on rTPJ functions such as reorienting of attention and visual perspective taking. In a bidirectional regulation control group design, 50 healthy participants were either reinforced to up- or downregulate rTPJ activation over four days of training.Both groups showed an increase in rTPJ activity right from the beginning of the trainingbut only the upregulation group maintained this effect, while the downregulation group showed a decline from the initial rTPJ activation. This suggests a learning effect in the downregulation exclusively, making it challenging to draw definitive conclusions about the effectiveness of rTPJ upregulation training. However, we observed group-specific effects on the behavioral level. We found a significant group x time interaction effect in the performance of the reorienting of attention task and group-specific changes, with decreased reaction times (RTs) in the upregulation group and increased RTs in the downregulation group across all conditions after the neurofeedback training. Those with low baseline performance showed greater improvements. In the perspective-taking task, however, only time effects were observed that were non-group-specific.These findings demonstrate that fNIRS-based neurofeedback is a feasible method to modulate rTPJ functions with preliminary evidence of neurophysiologically specific effects, thus paving the way for future applications of non-invasive rTPJ modulation in neuropsychiatric disorders.Graphical abstractHighlightsthe right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) as a core hub for attentive and socio-cognitive functions is a promising target for neuromodulatory interventionsfirst single-blinded, randomized controlled study demonstrates feasibility and effectiveness of the fNIRS-based neurofeedback training of the rTPJ in healthy adultssubjects are able to regulate the rTPJ with different learning characteristicsfirst evidence of a neurophysiologically specific effect on stimulus-driven attentionfindings have important implications for clinical translation of neurofeedback interventions targeting the rTPJ