The Effect of Neurofeedback Training on Cortical Activity during Motor Imagery Revealed by NIRS and fMRI

To improve the performance of the brain-computer interface (BCI) to detect motor imagery from cerebrum hemodynamic data measured by NIRS (near-infrared spectroscopy), the cortical effects of the NIRS-based neurofeedback training for subjects were evaluated by NIRS and fMRI measurements. On three out of five subjects, the magnitude of the Oxy-hemoglobin signal elicited by the motor imagery increased and/or its spatial distribution was more focused on the right hand area by the 5-day neurofeedback training. And by fMRI experiment, it was shown that the brain activations of motor cortex were more focused after training.