Overview
- Researchers used real-time fMRI neurofeedback to teach 85 healthy adults to upregulate mesolimbic reward activity before receiving a hepatitis B shot.
- Participants who sustained activation of the ventral tegmental area showed larger increases in hepatitis B–specific antibodies at 14 and 28 days.
- Overall group comparisons found no significant antibody differences between reward-targeted training, other-region training, and no-training controls.
- Mental strategies centered on positive expectations were most effective for boosting ventral tegmental area activity, aligning with a proposed placebo mechanism.
- The authors and outside experts note the small sample and unclear signaling pathways and call for larger, mechanistic studies to assess clinical relevance.