Stroke lesions in the language centers of the brain impair the language areas and their connectivity. This article describes the dynamics of functional connectivity (FC) of language areas (FCL) during real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (RT-fMRI)-based neurofeedback training for poststroke patients with expressive aphasia. The hypothesis is that FCL increases during the upregulation of language areas during neurofeedback training and that the training improves FCL with an increasing number of sessions and restores it toward normalcy. Four test and four control patients with expressive aphasia were recruited for the study along with four healthy volunteers termed as the normal group. The test and normal groups were administered four neurofeedback training sessions in between two test sessions, whereas the control group underwent only the two test sessions. The training session requires the subject to exercise language activity covertly so that it upregulates the feedback signal obtained from the Broca's area (in left inferior frontal gyrus) and amplifies the feedback when it is correlated with the Wernicke's area (in left superior temporal gyrus) using RT-fMRI. FC was measured by Pearson's correlation coefficient. The results indicate that the FC of the test group was weaker in the left hemisphere than that of the normal group, and post-training the connections have strengthened (correlation coefficient increases) in the left hemisphere when compared with the control group. The connections of language areas strengthened in both hemispheres during neurofeedback-based upregulation, and multiple training sessions strengthened new pathways and restored left hemispheric connections toward normalcy.

中文翻译：

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实时功能性磁共振成像基于神经反馈的表现性失语症中风患者语言区域的功能连接。

大脑语言中心的中风损害会损害语言区域及其连接性。本文介绍了基于实时功能磁共振成像（RT-fMRI）的神经反馈训练对表达性失语症患者的语言区域（FCL）功能连接（FC）的动力学。假设是在神经反馈训练期间语言区域上调期间FCL会增加，并且训练会随着会话次数的增加而改善FCL，并使之恢复正常。该研究招募了四名测试性失语症患者和四名具有表达性失语症的对照患者，以及四名被称为正常组的健康志愿者。测试组和正常组在两次测试之间进行了四次神经反馈训练，对照组仅进行了两次测试。训练课程要求受试者暗中进行语言活动，以便它上调从Broca区域（左下额回）获得的反馈信号，并在与Wernicke区域（左上颞回）相关时放大反馈。实时核磁共振成像。通过皮尔逊相关系数来测量FC。结果表明，与对照组相比，测试组的左半球FC弱于正常组，训练后的连接在左半球增强（相关系数增加）。在基于神经反馈的上调过程中，两个半球的语言区域之间的联系得到加强，