Real-time fMRI feedback guides self-generated cognition toward upregulation of hippocampal activity.

Contingent real-time fMRI feedback enables humans to self-upregulate hippocampal activity within a single session, with a significant increase across all hippocampal subfields.

• Why it matters: Hippocampal dysfunction impacts aging, stress resilience, and mental health, yet effective self-guided modulation methods are lacking, limiting potential therapeutic applications.
• What they did: Researchers conducted two neurofeedback studies with 141 participants, providing contingent feedback that allowed individuals to learn to upregulate hippocampal activity through mental strategies, compared to sham controls.
• The result: Successful upregulation was linked to co-activation of memory-related networks and altered neural representations during naturalistic experiences, suggesting neurofeedback can induce meaningful neural plasticity for hippocampus-dependent functions.