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Neurofeedback Training for Brain Functional Connectivity Improvement in Mild Cognitive Impairment

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Abstract

Purpose

Neurofeedback training (NFT) has been widely used to regulate brain activity. The present study aimed to examine the effectiveness of NFT in enhancing brain functional connectivity in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).

Methods

Functional brain networks were constructed based on the coherence and phase synchronization index and verified the improvement effect by analyzing the characteristic parameters of brain connections between different electrode pairs for delta, theta, alpha, and beta rhythms.

Results

The coherence and phase synchronization index of each brainwave rhythm showed significant improvement after NFT, especially in the beta rhythm, with Pbc=0.003 < 0.05, Pbp=0.075 < 0.1. Functional brain networks demonstrated that the functional connectivity of the whole brain was enhanced, especially in frontal region and between the frontal region and the temporal, parietal, and occipital regions.

Conclusion

The results indicate that NFT can improve the brain functional connectivity of people with MCI. Coherence and phase synchronization analysis can objectively and accurately evaluate improvements in functional connectivity.

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank all subjects from the First Hospital of Hebei Medical University and the HanDan Central Hospital for their participation in this study.

Funding

This study was funded by Hebei Provincial Natural Science Foundation (F2014203244, F2019203515) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2014M550582).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Yanshan University, Qinhuangdao, 066004, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Li, Jie Zhang & Rui Su

  2. Measurement Technology and Instrumentation Key Lab of Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao, 066004, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Xin Li, Jie Zhang & Rui Su

  3. Qinhuangdao Huisianpu Medical Systems Inc, Qinhuangdao, 066000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Xiang-Dong Li

  4. HanDan Central Hospital, Handan, 056000, Hebei, People’s Republic of China

    Wei Cui

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  1. Xin Li
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Correspondence to Xin Li.

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Li, X., Zhang, J., Li, XD. et al. Neurofeedback Training for Brain Functional Connectivity Improvement in Mild Cognitive Impairment. J. Med. Biol. Eng. 40, 484–495 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-020-00531-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40846-020-00531-w

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