Congratulations to Dr. Ranga Sitaram who has just been awarded with a McKnight Brain Institute Neuroimaging Pilot Grant! 

The project’s broad aim is to use real-time fMRI (rt-fMRI) neurofeedback to elucidate the neural circuits mediating emotional experience and expression, and provide a foundation for possible use of Brain-Computer Interfaces in the evaluation and treatment of mood disorders. The proposal is motivated by a conjunction of our laboratories, joining significant new technological developments in BCI/rt-fMRI (R. Sitaram) with programmatic clinical research with anxiety/mood disorders (P.J. Lang and M. Bradley). Previous studies have significantly advanced understanding of emotional imagery’s effect on the body’s reflex physiology (heart beat, skin conductance and startle response), subjective reports of affect, and importantly, on the brain’s neural circuitry in both healthy individuals and patients. This proposal achieves the MBI Neuroimaging Pilot Grant’s goals in developing novel neuroimaging capabilities and by using AMRIS research facility. This project would build tools and methodology of real-time fMRI based closed loop control using which cortical and subcortical brain regions could be modulated, either for fundamental neuroscience investigations of the brain and behavior, or in clinical and translational applications.