中文摘要
酒精成瘾是一种具有慢性、复发性的大脑障碍,伴随的是情绪冲动性的失控和压力调控的降低。目前可用的行为和药物疗法效果介于低效与较为有效之间,并且成功戒断后依然存在高复发率。利用实时功能磁共振针进行神经反馈训练是一种新型精神障碍治疗方法,用于帮助个体获得对单个大脑区域大脑活动的主动调节能力。然而成瘾是一种大脑网络层面的障碍,传统的基于单个大脑区域的活动进行反馈训练的方法不具有直接针对性。..基于这些因素,本项目的目标为对基于连接的实时功能磁共振方法在训练被试控制大脑区域间连接性进行评估。研究第一阶段将通过对健康被试的研究来首次证明训练对于改变大脑网络水平连接是可能的,在第二阶段我们将尝试进一步证明本方法可以帮助酒精成瘾患者提高情绪控制并阻止复发,推动此新型技术在治疗酒精成瘾障碍上的应用。这些结果对于成瘾网络的基础研究有重大意义,有望革新现有的酒精成瘾及其它精神障碍治疗手段。
英文摘要
Alcohol addiction is a chronic relapsing disorder of the brain, accompanied by a loss of control over emotional impulsivity and reduced stress regulation. Alcohol addiction is one of the major causes of disabilities and leads to individual suffering of patients and their families, and a huge economic burden for the society. The currently available behavioral therapeutic and pharmacological treatment approaches are of low-to-moderate efficiency and relapse rates after successful detoxification from alcohol are high. Real-time fMRI training approaches that train subjects to gain volitional control over the activity in single brain regions have been proposed as innovative treatment in psychiatric disorders. However, the currently used real-time neurofeedback approaches in psychiatric populations are hampered by several limitations, possibly due a focus on activity in single-brain regions that might not account for the complexity of the disorders on the network level...To this end we aim at evaluating a connectivity-based real-time fMRI approach that enables subjects to control the interaction between different brain regions on the network level. Demonstrating the general feasibility of this approach in healthy subjects (phase 1) would generate the first scientific evidence that it is possible to train brain-networks instead of single region activity and would have a great scientific impact, promoting the development of further connectivity-based methods. Further demonstrating a beneficial impact in alcohol use disorder (phase 2) would promote the importance of emotion-regulation in the prevention of relapse and advocate the application of connectivity based feedback approaches in treating alcohol use disorder. This would be of great impact for basic research on the networks of addiction and could revolutionize the therapeutic strategies for addiction disorders and other psychiatric disorders by advocating real-time connectivity feedback approaches as innovative treatment. The resulting beneficial effects for the patients would reduce relapse-rates, decreasing personal suffering and economic burden caused by alcohol use disorders.
