Neurofeedback

In 1924, the German psychiatrist Hans Berger connected a couple of electrodes (small round discs of metal) to a patient's scalp and detected a small current by using a ballistic galvanometer. During the years 1929–1938 he published 14 reports about his studies of EEGs, and much of our modern knowledge of the subject, especially in the middle frequencies, is due to his research.[27] Berger analyzed EEGs qualitatively, but in 1932 G. Dietsch applied Fourier analysis to seven records of EEG and became the first researcher of what later is called QEEG (quantitative EEG).[27]

Later, Joe Kamiya popularized neurofeedback in the 1960s when an article[28] about the alpha brain wave experiments he had been conducting was published in Psychology Today in 1968. Kamiya's experiment had two parts. In the first part, a subject was asked to keep his eyes closed and when a tone sounded to say whether he thought he was in alpha. He was then told whether he was correct or wrong. Initially the subject would get about fifty percent correct, but some subjects would eventually develop the ability to better distinguish between states.[29] In the second part of the study, subjects were asked to go into alpha when a bell rang once and not go into the state when the bell rang twice. Once again some subjects were able to enter the state on command. Alpha states were connected with relaxation, and alpha training had the possibility to alleviate stress and stress-related conditions.

Despite these claims, the universal correlation of high alpha density to a subjective experience of calm cannot be assumed. Alpha states do not seem to have the universal stress-alleviating power indicated by early observations.[30] At one point, Martin Orne and others challenged the claim that alpha biofeedback actually involved the training of an individual to voluntarily regulate brainwave activity.[31] James Hardt and Joe Kamiya, then at UC San Francisco's Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute published a paper that supported biofeedback.[32]

In the late sixties and early seventies, Barbara Brown, one of the most effective popularizers of Biofeedback, wrote several books on biofeedback, making the public much more aware of the technology. The books included New Mind New Body, with a foreword from Hugh Downs, and Stress and the Art of Biofeedback. Brown took a creative approach to neurofeedback, linking brainwave self-regulation to a switching relay which turned on an electric train.[33]

The work of Barry Sterman, Joel F. Lubar and others has been relevant on the study of beta training, involving the role of sensorimotor rhythmic EEG activity.[34] This training has been used in the treatment of epilepsy,[35][36] attention deficit disorder and hyperactive disorder.[37] The sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) is rhythmic activity between 12 and 16 hertz that can be recorded from an area near the sensorimotor cortex. SMR is found in waking states and is very similar if not identical to the sleep spindles that are recorded in the second stage of sleep.

For example, Sterman has shown that both monkeys and cats who had undergone SMR training had elevated thresholds for the convulsant chemical monomethylhydrazine. These studies indicate that SMR may be associated with an inhibitory process in the motor system.[36]

In the 2000s, neurofeedback took a new approach in taking a look at deep states.[38] Alpha-theta training has been tried with patients with alcoholism,[39] other addictions as well as anxiety.[39] This low frequency training differs greatly from the high frequency beta and SMR training that has been practiced for over thirty years and is reminiscent of the original alpha training of Elmer Green and Joe Kamiya.[39] Beta and SMR training can be considered a more directly physiological approach, strengthening sensorimotor inhibition in the cortex and inhibiting alpha patterns, which slow metabolism. Alpha-theta training, however, derives from the psychotherapeutic model and involves accessing of painful or repressed memories through the alpha-theta state.[40] The alpha-theta state is a term that comes from the representation on the EEG.

A recent development in the field is a conceptual approach called the Coordinated Allocation of Resource Model (CAR) of brain functioning which states that specific cognitive abilities are a function of specific electrophysiological variables which can overlap across different cognitive tasks.[41] The activation database guided EEG biofeedback approach initially involves evaluating the subject on a number of academically relevant cognitive tasks and compares the subject's values on the QEEG measures to a normative database, in particular on the variables that are related to success at that task.

In 2010, a study provided some evidence of neuroplastic changes occurring after brainwave training. Half an hour of voluntary control of brain rhythms led in this study to a lasting shift in cortical excitability and intracortical function.[48] The authors observed that the cortical response to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) was significantly enhanced after neurofeedback, persisted for at least 20 minutes, and was correlated with an EEG time-course indicative of activity-dependent plasticity.[49]

In 2015, a scientific article was published that suggested the benefits of clinical EEG neurofeedback to result from placebo effects.[50] Today, the effectiveness of the medical treatment of psychiatric disorders using EEG neurofeedback remains controversial.[51]

Although over 3,000 scientific articles have been published on EEG neurofeedback since 1968, EEG neurofeedback has limited usage in the medical mainstream.[51] However, in 2019 the FDA has permitted marketing of first neurofeedback medical device for treatment of ADHD.[52]

• Brainwave synchronization
• Decoded neurofeedback
• Comparison of neurofeedback software
• Mind machine

• Arns, Martijn; Sterman, Maurice B. (2019). Neurofeedback: How it all started. Nijmegen, The Netherlands: Brainclinics Insights. ISBN 9789083001302.
• Evans, J.R., and Abarbanel, A. An introduction to quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback. Academic Press: San Diego, 1999.
• Hill PhD, Robert W. and Eduardo MD, C. Healing Young Brains: The Neurofeedback Solution. Hampton Roads Publishing; 1 edition (May 15, 2009).
• Robbins, Jim "A Symphony in the Brain – The Evolution of the New Brainwave Biofeedback." Grove Atlantic 1st Edition 2000; 2nd Edition 2008
• Steinberg, Mark, and Othmer, S. ADD: The 20-Hour Solution. Robert Reed Publishers: Bandon OR, 2004.

• BBC article about neurofeedback improving the performance of musicians
• Biofeedback Society of California Facebook® page
• "Golf gadget cuts scores at a stroke by calming brain". The Times. 2017-01-09.