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. 2013 May 17;8(5):e64590.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0064590. Print 2013.

Cross-brain neurofeedback: scientific concept and experimental platform

Lian Duan  1 , Wei-Jie Liu, Rui-Na Dai, Rui Li, Chun-Ming Lu, Yu-Xia Huang, Chao-Zhe Zhu
Affiliations

Cross-brain neurofeedback: scientific concept and experimental platform

Lian Duan et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

The present study described a new type of multi-person neurofeedback with the neural synchronization between two participants as the direct regulating target, termed as "cross-brain neurofeedback." As a first step to implement this concept, an experimental platform was built on the basis of functional near-infrared spectroscopy, and was validated with a two-person neurofeedback experiment. This novel concept as well as the experimental platform established a framework for investigation of the relationship between multiple participants' cross-brain neural synchronization and their social behaviors, which could provide new insight into the neural substrate of human social interactions.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. The fNIRS-based experimental platform.
(A) The framework of the platform. (B) An overview of the experimental scenario. Both two participants have given their written informed consents, as outlined in the PLOS consent form, to publication of their photograph.
Figure 2
Figure 2. The “tug-of-war” NFB game for platform validation.
(A) The experimenter interface. (B) The feedback screen for the participants. The green horizontal line represented the rope, with a red ribbon on it. Both the participants' brain activities in the target ROI were also fed back onto the screen (the red bar and blue bar for 1P and 2P, respectively). (C) Arrangement of the optodes and measurement channels. (D) Paradigm of the experiment.
Figure 3
Figure 3. Results of the validation experiment.
(A) Data from the two sessions. The upper shows the first session and the lower shows the second session. The red lines and blue lines illustrate the brain activities in the ROI of 1P and 2P, respectively. The fighting time is highlighted in the green color. The raw signals were bandpass filtered (0.01–0.5 Hz) to reduce the low-frequency drifts and high-frequency noises such as thermal noise and pulse rate. (B) The mean and standard error of the r values in the draw and dominant blocks, respectively.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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