VOLITIONAL MODIFICATION OF BRAIN ACTIVITY IN ASD

Difficulties in successful interaction with other people or problems in reading other peoples mind? Impaired speech, ritualistic or bizarre behaviors? These characteristics all belong to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). ASD is an umbrella term für a condition which appears to have its roots in early brain development with the majority of affected individuals display lifelong abnormalities in social development, communication and repetitive/obsessive behaviors and interests. Dr. Lilian Konicar and her team recruit 40 adolescents with ASD for an intensive intervention program designed to teach them to control their brain activity. The method, called neurofeedback, has been used preliminarily in the treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder with positive results. Adolescents are connected to an EEG machine to monitor brain activity. The activity is then represented on a computer screen by a graphical object (e.g. a fish). Patients then try to move the object by controlling their brain activity, receiving positive feedback for moving it in an indicated direction, like a video game. During 24 sessions of neurofeedback over a three month period, the trainees learn to control the object) by producing different required states of brain activity (e.g. increase activity or decrease activity). The research group assumes, that that patients with ASD are in general -like healthy volunteers or other patients- able to learn the volitional control of their brain activity and could countersteer the often reported deviant brain activation related to ASD. Further, the researchers expect main characteristics of ASD to be improved after the experimental brain self-regulation training. To proof the effectiveness of the intensive intervention, a mix of methods on several levels is used: subjective changes of ASD symptoms will be assessed by means of psychological ratings and interviews of both, the patients and their parents. Computerized tests will detect changes in behavior and physiological parameters, like skin conductance and heart rate, after the neurofeedback intervention. Also changes of brain functioning, its structure, the connectivity between socially relevant areas of the brain, as well as the basic level of brain activation will be recorded with electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and analyzed after the neurofeedback intervention, compared to the results before the intervention. The findings of this pivotal project could pave the road for the first biologically based, non-invasive, non-pharmacological, sustainable treatment for patients with autism spectrum disorder.

Rain Mans' Brain: Control Regained Volitional Modification of Brain Activity in Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder A Slow Cortical Potential Neurofeedback Study With this study, Dr. Lilian Konicar and her ABC BRAIN LAB Team prove, that it is possible for adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder to learn how to volitionally change the activity level of their own brains. The results of the study showed, that this successful brain activity control via EEG neurofeedback is correlated with improvements in the clinical core symptoms of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Especially disorder-related difficulties in social cognition and autistic mannerism, which are closely linked to empathic social behavior, were reported to be significantly improved after the therapeutic brain training. These clinical, psychological effects could also be measured at the level of the brain itself, as brain activity at rest was found to be balanced after the brain training (i.e. similar to adolescents without Autism Spectrum Disorder: without any particular abnormalities). Furthermore, brain imaging via magnet-resonance spotted changes on the neural level at rest being linked to improvements in emotional functions in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder after brain training. Behavioral characteristics such as heightened impulsivity were found to strongly influence the procedure of brain-regulation learning in further in-depth- analysis of this study, but were also found to be reduced after brain training in a meaningful way. An exploratory comparison between female adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and male adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder showed, that both sexes were able to learn brain activity control via EEG neurofeedback in the same manner. More importantly, attention should be paid on the assessment and diagnosis of girls with Autism Spectrum Disorder, which requires gender-adopted clinic- psychological measurement tools and modern diagnosis procedures. The applied mix of methods of this study, including psychological ratings and interviews, computerized tests, measures of brain activity via EEG and of brain activation via magnetic resonance prove the effectiveness of this intensive EEG-based neurotherapy. Overall, the results of this project strengthen the evidence that brain training via neurofeedback could serve as a promising biologically based, non-invasive, non-pharmacological, sustainable treatment for young patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder.