Voluntary Enhancement of Neural Signatures of Affiliative Emotion Using fMRI Neurofeedback

In Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner”, empathy-detection devices are employed to measure affiliative emotions. Despite recent neurocomputational advances, it is unknown whether brain signatures of affiliative emotions, such as tenderness/affection, can be decoded and voluntarily modulated. Here, we employed multivariate voxel pattern analysis and real-time fMRI to address this question. We found that participants were able to use visual feedback based on decoded fMRI patterns as a neurofeedback signal to increase brain activation characteristic of tenderness/affection relative to pride, an equally complex control emotion. Such improvement was not observed in a control group performing the same fMRI task without neurofeedback. Furthermore, the neurofeedback-driven enhancement of tenderness/affection-related distributed patterns was associated with local fMRI responses in the septohypothalamic area and frontopolar cortex, regions previously implicated in affiliative emotion. This demonstrates that humans can voluntarily enhance brain signatures of tenderness/affection, unlocking new possibilities for promoting prosocial emotions and countering antisocial behavior.在雷德利·斯科特（Ridley Scott）执导的电影《银翼杀手》（"Blade Runner"）中，共情检测设备（empathy-detection devices）被用于测量亲和情绪（affiliative emotions）。尽管近年来神经计算（neurocomputational）技术取得了长足进展，但亲和情绪的脑特征（brain signatures）——如温柔/喜爱情感（tenderness/affection）——是否可被解码并进行自主调控，目前仍不明确。本研究采用多体素模式分析（multivariate voxel pattern analysis）与实时功能磁共振成像（real-time fMRI）来解答这一问题。我们发现，相较于同样复杂的对照情绪——自豪（pride），被试能够利用基于解码功能磁共振成像模式的视觉反馈作为神经反馈信号（neurofeedback signal），增强与温柔/喜爱情感相关的脑激活特征。在未使用神经反馈、仅执行相同功能磁共振成像任务的对照组（control group）中，并未观察到此类提升。进一步分析显示，神经反馈驱动的温柔/喜爱情感相关分布式脑模式增强，与隔下丘脑区（septohypothalamic area）和额极皮层（frontopolar cortex）的局部功能磁共振成像响应相关——这两个脑区此前已被证实与亲和情绪相关。本研究证明，人类可自主增强温柔/喜爱情感的脑特征，为促进亲社会情绪（prosocial emotions）、对抗反社会行为（antisocial behavior）开辟了新的可能。