What is Neurofeedback?
Your body’s many systems are constantly responding to changes in your internal and external environments.
Functions like respiratory rate, heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature are continually adjusted to keep you in a state of balance known as homeostasis.
Amazingly, your brain handles all of this subconsciously with no effort on your part.
Biofeedback is a mind-body technique that helps you consciously achieve this balanced state.
It enables you to monitor what your body is doing by monitoring functions like heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, or muscle tension in real time.
With this information and some practice, you can then influence these functions to improve your ability to achieve and maintain homeostasis.
There are several types of biofeedback which differ according to the body metric being monitored.
In this article, we’re focusing on neurofeedback — a biofeedback technique that monitors brainwave patterns.
Neurofeedback is also known as neurotherapy, neurobiofeedback, or EEG biofeedback.
NEUROFEEDBACK: TRAINING YOUR BRAIN WAVES
To fully understand neurofeedback, you need a basic understanding of brain waves.
Your brain cells generate electricity to communicate with each other and this electrical activity forms patterns called brain waves.
They can be measured by(EEG), a non-invasive method of recording electrical activity using sensors on the scalp.
Scientists have found five main patterns of brain waves: alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and theta.
Each brainwave state corresponds to a different state of awareness as shown in the chart below.
We normally cycle in and out of these different brainwave states throughout the day and night.
All brainwave states are essential but should be experienced appropriately — at certain times of day and for particular durations of time.
Neurofeedback teaches you to consciously control your brain waves to achieve a desired brainwave state when you want.
For example, alpha waves occur when you are relaxed.
Beta waves are associated with alertness, but when maintained too long lead to feelings of fear and anxiety.
So, if you are stressed and anxious, learning how to increase alpha waves while reducing beta wave activity might be your goal.
BENEFITS OF NEUROFEEDBACK
Neurofeedback offers a viable alternative for many disorders when prescription medications haven’t worked or cause unacceptable side effects.
Neurofeedback has been used successfully to treat a wide range of mental health and brain-related disorders including:
anxiety
attention disorders
autism
depression
eating disorders
epilepsy
memory loss
learning disabilities
insomnia
schizophrenia
substance abuse
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
traumatic brain injuries
The first studies on neurofeedback were performed on cats with epilepsy.
Amazingly, it was discovered that cats could be trained to alter their brain waves to reduce their number of seizures.
If cats can do it, so can you!
Here are some of the major benefits of using neurofeedback:
For many stress-related conditions, neurofeedback can help stop stress by teaching you how to reduce the stress response.
Mental disorders like depression and anxiety have reached epidemic levels and the standard medical treatments — drugs and cognitive therapy — don’t work for everyone.
Neurofeedback is a learnable skill that, once mastered, can help you for a lifetime.
Improvements made through neurofeedback can carry over from one area of your life into others.
Learning neurofeedback is empowering — it puts you in charge of your own mental health.
Neurofeedback is not hard to do and can be learned by anyone from kids to seniors.
BEST USES FOR NEUROFEEDBACK
Now let’s take a deeper look at the most common, evidence-based uses for neurofeedback.
1. NEUROFEEDBACK FOR STRESS AND ANXIETY
If there is one specific area where neurofeedback shines, it’s stress reduction.
It’s useful for literally any condition that’s related to stress.
Learning how to manage stress is one of the best things you can do for your overall health, brain function, and mental well-being.
The typical stress-induced flight-or-fight response initiates a cascade of physiological changes you normally have no control over.
Your heart rate and blood pressure increase, your breathing becomes fast and shallow, and blood gets directed away from your brain and into your muscles.
Neurofeedback teaches you how to manage your brainwave activity to stop the stress response cascade.
It’s particularly helpful for any health condition with a high correlation to stress like anxiety, high blood pressure, bruxism (teeth grinding), and digestive disorders like IBS and chronic constipation.
2. NEUROFEEDBACK FOR ADHD
The most studied use of neurofeedback is for ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder).
It shows promise as a safe and effective drug-free treatment for children as well as adults.
In a meta analysis of 15 studies on ADHD, researchers concluded that neurofeedback effectively reduces the symptoms of inattention, impulsiveness, and hyperactivity.
One review of large-scale clinical trials found that neurofeedback therapy induces a state of relaxed attention, modulates both over and under-arousal, and works comparably to the typical stimulant medications prescribed for ADHD.
3. NEUROFEEDBACK AND DEPRESSION
Dr. D. Corydon Hammond is a recognized authority in the field of neurotherapy.
He has nearly 200 scientific publications to his credit and is the primary author of the recommended standards of practice for the clinical use of neurofeedback.
In a review of the current body of literature on neurofeedback for depression, he states that significant, enduring improvements occur approximately 80% of the time when patients have a biological predisposition to depression.
Most patients notice a difference after three to six sessions, feel a very significant improvement after ten to twelve sessions, and usually complete treatment within 20 to 22 sessions.
One study on depression found that the use of neurofeedback decreased depressive symptoms by 50%.
4. NEUROFEEDBACK FOR PEAK PERFORMANCE
Neurofeedback is also an effective technique to enhance overall performance.
It is used by Olympians, professional athletes, NASA astronauts, entrepreneurs, biohackers, and others who seek peak physical or mental performance.
The US military uses neurofeedback to treat soldiers with PTSD and brain injuries, and for general performance enhancement.
You can use it to improve any area of your life — work, studies, relationships, health, and happiness.
5. ADDITIONAL USES FOR NEUROFEEDBACK
The list of uses for neurofeedback is so long it reads like the table of contents of a medical textbook.
There you’ll find links to research on the following conditions:
addictions
ADHD
anxiety
asthma
autism and Asperger’s
bipolar disorder
cerebral palsy
chemotherapy side effects
chronic fatigue syndrome
chronic pain
cognitive decline, including dementia
cognitive enhancement
depression
dissociative disorders
eating disorders
epilepsy
fibromyalgia
headaches, including migraines
high blood pressure
insomnia
learning disabilities
Lyme disease
memory loss
obsessive-compulsive disorder
Parkinson’s disease
post-traumatic stress disorder
restless leg syndrome
schizophrenia
stress
stroke
tinnitus
Tourette’s syndrome
traumatic brain injury
Many studies have been conducted on the use of neurofeedback for optimal mental functioning as well.
It’s been shown to increase creativity, memory, concentration, attention, and general well-being.
Neurofeedback has been compared to playing a video game with your mind.
But what you are really doing is harnessing your brain’s ability to change, known as neuroplasticity, by modifying your brainwave patterns for your benefit.
Significant changes in brain plasticity have been observed after just a single neurofeedback session.