Manipulating brain network to change cognitive functions: New breakthrough in neuroscience
Thanks to advances in brain sciences, it is possible to decode one's brain network by measuring functional MRI ( fMRI ) activity just for five minutes. Since the brain network is formed by genetics and experiences, it is possible to predict one's age, personality, or performance in cognitive functions from functional connectivity patterns in their brain network. In psychiatric disorders, functional connectivity, which is measured by temporal correlations between some brain regions, is too much increased or decreased compared to healthy control. It has been suggested that these abnormal connections cause the decrement of cognitive function. However, treatments of psychiatric disorders (e.g., drugs and cognitive behavior therapy) could not increase or decrease a specific connectivity between two regions, because these methods give broad effects on the global network. Therefore, the method, which can induce the both direction of change (i.e., an increase or a decrease) in a spe...