Anterior Insula Regulation and Pain Empathy

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

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

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Anterior Insula Activity During Regulation; Empathic Responses After Anterior Insula Regulation
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: real-time fMRI neurofeedback training running on Turbo Brain voyager (TBV) 3.2 (Brain Innovation, Maastricht, The Netherlands)

Detailed Description

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.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 37
• Phase: Not Applicable

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years to 30 years (Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Healthy subjects without past or current psychiatric or neurological disorders

Exclusion Criteria:

• history of head injury;
• claustrophobia;
• pregnancy;
• medical or psychiatric illness.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: neurofeedback training; 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)
Sham Comparator: sham control; 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)

What is the study measuring?

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.

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: June 1, 2015
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2015
• Study Completion (Actual): July 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: May 29, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 4, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): June 8, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 9, 2022
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 8, 2022
• Last Verified: February 1, 2022

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: UESTC-SCAN-02