Methodological considerations with EEG/fMRI Neurofeedback and 7T fMRI Neurofeedback

EEG Neurofeedback aims to let people be able to voluntarily modulate their own brain activity. The purpose of EEG neurofeedback depends on what people try to achieve with it: usually EEG neurfeedback is used to cause an improvement in cognitive function or for a treatment of psychological condition. In addition, EEG NF training would potentially also enable voluntary modulation as a 'perturbation' tool (much like TMS) for neuroscience research. However, only about 30% of everyone who undergoes an EEG NF training can learn to voluntarily change their brain activity - they are EEG NF 'illiterate'.
To investigate this EEG NF illiteracy I am working on a real-time EEG/fMRI setup that would allow real-time EEG NF during scanning, so that MRI scanning could shed light on the mechanisms of EEG NF illiteracy. To reach this goal, however, the EEG signal needs to be of much higher quality than is currently feasible. The main thing I will present therefore is a hardware-based method for removal of MRI-related artefacts during EEG/fMRI.

Enquiries: l.wilkinson@uq.edu.au