If this was shown to be the main factor in any treatment effects, this information would considerably influence the development of neurofeedback protocols. According to Bandura, “ People have to live with a psychic environment that is largely of their own making. Many human distresses result from failures to control disturbing, ruminative thoughts. Control of one’s thought processes is therefore a key factor in self-regulation of emotional states.”48 If neurofeedback is to benefit patients by helping them attain

control of their own thought processes and consequently their emotional states, this will probably require fine tuning of self-regulation Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical protocols to the appropriate neural networks. However, Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical social learning theory also posits that depression can be caused by a general low sense of agency and loss of experience of control of the environment. For these patients the “imposed environment,” in Bandura’s terms, would take precedence over the “constructed environment.” http://www.selleckchem.com/products/sch772984.html Successful control over one’s own brain activity

(and in this scenario the exact region would probably matter less) could then give patients a sense of agency and particularly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the experience that their own brain activity is constructed (rather than merely imposed). Neuromodulation might receive a further, presentlyspeculative, interesting inspiration from social learning Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical theory. Already in 1999 Bandura

pointed out that, “Electronic technologies greatly extend human capabilities to test the likely outcomes of given decisions and courses of action through the use of computerized enactments in simulated realities without having to carry out the activities.“48 The importance and pervasiveness of such virtual simulations has increased even further in the past 14 years and started to Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical enter the field of mental health, for example in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.49 Neurofeedback may now provide an avenue toward simulation, not just of environments and mental processes, but of the relevant brain processes themselves (although the term “simulation” here is an incomplete analogy, because even with neurofeedback the neural changes would be real rather than virtual). second One potential application might be the simulation of the effects of DBS, which could guide the later placement of permanent neuromodulation devices based on the behavioral, cognitive, or clinical effects of transient brain activation changes during neurofeedback. Future developments In addition to the rigorous testing of existing fMRI-NF protocols it will also be attractive to develop new protocols based on different ways of extracting information from brain activation data, eg, multivoxel pattern analysis,50-52 or on different brain networks.