University of Rochester psychologists have found that real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging neurofeedback (rtfMRI-NF) can help a person regulate neural activity in a way that might improve psychiatric illness.

David Dodell-Feder, an assistant professor of psychology and neuroscience, together with Emily Dudek, who after graduating from Rochester became Dodell-Feder’s full-time lab manager, looked at 17 relevant studies that included a total of 410 participants. The findings of their meta-analysis have been published in the journal Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews.

According to lead author Dudek, their review found that when people were shown their own brain patterns in real time, they were able to regulate activity in specific regions of the brain. “This training, known as neurofeedback, offers an exciting and novel treatment method for psychiatric illness.”

Coauthor Dodell-Feder agrees that the findings are “very promising,” especially because there are very few treatments, psychopharmacological included, that specifically target neural circuits known to contribute to psychopathology.

Yet, there are caveats: the data show less clear evidence that volitional control over the brain regions targeted by neurofeedback translates to an improvement in a person’s symptoms or cognitive impairments. For example, when analyzing the impact of rtfMRI-NF on symptoms, the team found an approximately 60 percent chance that a randomly selected person who received rtfMRI-NF showed improvement in symptoms compared to a randomly selected person who received a placebo procedure. Read more here.

In a paper published in Nature Communications, physics and astronomy graduate students Maitreyi Jayaseelan and Sreenath Kizhakkumpurath; Andrew Jordan, professor of physics; and Nicholas Bigelow, the Lee A. DuBridge Professor of Physics and Optics, outline their latest research on a fundamental problem in both science and philosophy—the arrow-of-time problem.

The research is important in better understanding the laws governing quantum thermodynamics.

The arrow of time refers to time having a direction; however, processes and laws at a microscopic level are believed to be time-symmetric, moving forward and backward in time.

“The puzzle is then why we seem to have chosen the forward direction among the two possibilities, or why we call one forward and one backward,” Jordan says.

The researchers used ultracold atoms to experimentally probe the irreversibility of wavefunction collapse in quantum mechanics. The origin of this irreversibility, which is a departure from classical physics laws, has puzzled scientists for decades. The researchers dropped atoms through a region with a varying magnetic field so that the different spin states of the atoms were resolved in a quantum wavefunction collapse. By making the magnetic field variation stronger, the researchers were able to make more precise measurements.

The researchers analyzed whether the wavefunction collapse process can be viewed as moving forward in time or moving backward in time. They showed that the process can generally be seen equally as moving forward or backward in time, however, the likelihood of the time-forward process becomes larger the more certain the measurement.

The Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience will offer up to $900,000 in support of 17 pilot projects with a focus on novel basic, clinical, and translational research in the neurosciences. This is the largest funding opportunity in the program’s history.

The awards are open to all faculty in the Medical Center and at the University. Submission deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, April 19, for the following:

The Schmitt Program in Integrative Neuroscience supports pilot and feasibility awards (up to $50,000 per award) for basic science and translational projects that advance our understanding of both normal and abnormal brain functioning (4-5 awards available).

The Harry T. Mangurian Jr. Foundation offers pilot and feasibility awards (up to $50,000 per award) for basic, clinical, and translational projects that specifically support research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) (2 awards available).

The Rochester Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research supports pilot and feasibility awards (up to $50,000 per award) for basic science and translational projects that advance our understanding of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The Feinberg Family Fund generously donates funds for one award (2 awards available).

Friends of the Del Monte Funds support pilot and feasibility awards (up to $50,000 per award) for novel basic, clinical, and translational projects in the neurosciences limited to assistant professors and research assistant professors. Funds for two awards are provided by generous philanthropic gifts of many individuals who support the mission and vision of the Del Monte Institute (2 awards available).

Ernest J. Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience Research Pilot and Feasibility Program supports pilot and feasibility awards (up to $50,000 per award) for basic science and translational and clinical projects that advance our understanding of both normal and abnormal brain functioning (6 awards available).

Learn more here.

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• The University’s COVID-19 Resource Center for important updates and guidance on working, teaching, and learning remotely
• University of Rochester Medical Center website for restrictions, resources, and news
• The University’s COVID-19 “Restart and Recovery” web page

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