Neurofeedback therapy list of research studies and clinical trials
We try to keep this list up to date when new scientific articles about neurofeedback therapy are published in scientific journals.
There is a lot of research being conducted on the effects of neurofeedback therapy. In order to keep track of all the latest findings, we have compiled this list of scientific articles that specifically look at the effects of neurofeedback therapy. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it does provide a good overview of the current state of research on this topic.
Non-pharmacological ADHD treatment and Neurofeedback research studies:
In 1976 and 1979, in double-blind studies, Lubar and Shouse demonstrated both the functional relationship between sensorimotor rhythm and ADHD behaviors and that, through real-time feedback of sensorimotor rhythm combined with operant conditioning, children with ADHD could learn to self-regulate sensorimotor rhythm and thus control their ADHD behaviors. Neurofeedback was found to be superior to cognitive training programs in four randomized controlled trials with over 270 subjects (Drechsler et al., 2007; Holtmann et al., 2009; Gevensleben et al., 2010; Steiner et al., 2014). In a study from Germany, it was equivalent to self-management training, an evidence-based treatment for ADHD that is mandated for insurance coverage in that country (Christiansen et al.,2014). Two notable randomized controlled trials compared electromyographic (EMG) biofeedback to neurofeedback to control for nonspecific effects as well as the effects of self-regulation training (Bakhshayesh et al., 2011; Strehl et al., 2017). From these two studies, we found that subjects learned to self-modulate the targeted behavior (either EMG or EEG) with neurofeedback, demonstrating significant superiority over EMG in reducing ADHD symptoms.In our article on essential oils and neurofeedback therapy, you will also find other sources of research articles. In particular, some of the essential oils that are effective in combating stress and anxiety.
Neurofeedback treatment for ADHD
This webinar will review the research on the use of neurofeedback as a treatment for someone with ADHD. The neurofeedback expert discusses the pros and cons of this therapy.The use of EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback in psychiatric rehabilitation
Markiewcz R. (2017). The use of EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback in psychiatric rehabilitation. Zastosowanie EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback w rehabilitacji psychiatrycznej. Psychiatria polska, 51(6), 1095–1106. https://doi.org/10.12740/PP/68919The aim of the systematic review was to evaluate the use of EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback in patients treated for mental disorders. The review covered publications analyzing influences and effects of therapy in patients receiving psychiatric treatment based on EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback. Selection of publications was made by searching PubMed and Scopus databases. 328 records concerning applications of the presented method were identified in total, including 84 records for patients diagnosed with mental disorders. The analysis of studies indicates that EEG Biofeedback/Neurofeedback is used for treatment of neurological, somatic and mental disorders. Its psychiatric applications for clinically diagnosed disorders include treatmentof depression, anorexia, dyslexia, dysgraphia, ADD, ADHD, schizophrenia, abuse of substances, neuroses, PTSD, and Alzheimer's disease. Research results imply that the neuromodulating effect of the therapy positively influences cognitive processes, mood, and anxiety levels. Positive effects of EEG Biofeedback confirm usefulness of this method as a main or auxiliary method in treatment of people with mental disorders. On the basis of conducted studies, it is worthwhile to consider inclusion of this method into the comprehensive neurorehabilitation activities.
Neurofeedback therapy in the treatment of tinnitus
Zhao, Z. Q., Lei, G. X., Li, Y. L., Zhang, D., Shen, W. D., Yang, S. M., & Qiao, Y. H. (2018). Lin chuang er bi yan hou tou jing wai ke za zhi = Journal of clinical otorhinolaryngology, head, and neck surgery, 32(3), 233–236. https://doi.org/10.13201/j.issn.1001-1781.2018.03.020Neurofeedback therapy is a fast-growing field of tinnitus treatment, which is a new type of biofeedback therapy. In the past, the "muscle tone" and "blood flow" were used as feedback signals in biofeedback therapy to treat tinnitus, however there was no long-term follow-up report. Instead, neurofeedback therapy utilizes EEG (electroencephalogram) as the feedback signal, which is also called EEG biofeedback therapy. At present, most treatments of tinnitus only record subjective measures of patients as evaluation indicators, whereas neurofeedback therapy is more convincing for using comprehensive evaluation including changes of brain wave as objective indicators and subjective measures of patients. A significant number of tinnitus patients have varying degree of hearing loss. As neurofeedback therapy takes advantage of EEG as feedback signal that is delivered to the patients through visual information, it has unique advantages of being not affected by the degree of hearing loss compared to the sound masking or other sound treatment. Long-term follow-up results showed that the efficacy of neurofeedback therapy was stable after half a year of short-term treatment. This paper summarizes the progress of the various types of biofeedback therapy in the treatment of tinnitus, and focuses on the neurofeedback therapy for the mechanism, indication, process, efficacy evaluation, defect and prospect of neurofeedback therapy in tinnitus treatment in order to help promote the development of domestic clinical neurofeedback therapy in tinnitus.
Neurofeedback
Hampson, M., Ruiz, S., & Ushiba, J. (2020). Neurofeedback. NeuroImage, 218, 116473. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116473EEG neurofeedback research: A fertile ground for psychiatry?
Batail, J. M., Bioulac, S., Cabestaing, F., Daudet, C., Drapier, D., Fouillen, M., Fovet, T., Hakoun, A., Jardri, R., Jeunet, C., Lotte, F., Maby, E., Mattout, J., Medani, T., Micoulaud-Franchi, J. A., Mladenovic, J., Perronet, L., Pillette, L., Ros, T., Vialatte, F., … NExT group (2019). EEG neurofeedback research: A fertile ground for psychiatry?. L'Encephale, 45(3), 245–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.encep.2019.02.001The clinical efficacy of neurofeedback is still a matter of debate. This paper analyzes the factors that should be taken into account in a transdisciplinary approach to evaluate the use of EEG NFB as a therapeutic tool in psychiatry. Neurofeedback is a neurocognitive therapy based on human-computer interaction that enables subjects to train voluntarily and modify functional biomarkers that are related to a defined mental disorder. We investigate three kinds of factors related to this definition of neurofeedback. We focus this article on EEG NFB. The first part of the paper investigates neurophysiological factors underlying the brain mechanisms driving NFB training and learning to modify a functional biomarker voluntarily. Two kinds of neuroplasticity involved in neurofeedback are analyzed: Hebbian neuroplasticity, i.e. long-term modification of neural membrane excitability and/or synaptic potentiation, and homeostatic neuroplasticity, i.e. homeostasis attempts to stabilize network activity. The second part investigates psychophysiological factors related to the targeted biomarker. It is demonstrated that neurofeedback involves clearly defining which kind of relationship between EEG biomarkers and clinical dimensions (symptoms or cognitive processes) is to be targeted. A nomenclature of accurate EEG biomarkers is proposed in the form of a short EEG encyclopedia (EEGcopia). The third part investigates human-computer interaction factors for optimizing NFB training and learning during the closed loop interaction. A model is proposed to summarize the different features that should be controlled to optimize learning. The need for accurate and reliable metrics of training and learning in line with human-computer interaction is also emphasized, including targeted biomarkers and neuroplasticity. All these factors related to neurofeedback show that it can be considered as a fertile ground for innovative research in psychiatry.
Closed-loop brain training: the science of neurofeedback
Sitaram, R., Ros, T., Stoeckel, L., Haller, S., Scharnowski, F., Lewis-Peacock, J., Weiskopf, N., Blefari, M. L., Rana, M., Oblak, E., Birbaumer, N., & Sulzer, J. (2017). Closed-loop brain training: the science of neurofeedback. Nature reviews. Neuroscience, 18(2), 86–100. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn.2016.164Neurofeedback is a psychophysiological procedure in which online feedback of neural activation is provided to the participant for the purpose of self-regulation. Learning control over specific neural substrates has been shown to change specific behaviours. As a progenitor of brain-machine interfaces, neurofeedback has provided a novel way to investigate brain function and neuroplasticity. In this Review, we examine the mechanisms underlying neurofeedback, which have started to be uncovered. We also discuss how neurofeedback is being used in novel experimental and clinical paradigms from a multidisciplinary perspective, encompassing neuroscientific, neuroengineering and learning-science viewpoints.
Neurofeedback for cognitive enhancement and intervention and brain plasticity
Loriette, C., Ziane, C., & Ben Hamed, S. (2021). Neurofeedback for cognitive enhancement and intervention and brain plasticity. Revue neurologique, 177(9), 1133–1144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurol.2021.08.004In recent years, neurofeedback has been used as a cognitive training tool to improve brain functions for clinical or recreational purposes. It is based on providing participants with feedback about their brain activity and training them to control it, initiating directional changes. The overarching hypothesis behind this method is that this control results in an enhancement of the cognitive abilities associated with this brain activity, and triggers specific structural and functional changes in the brain, promoted by learning and neuronal plasticity effects. Here, we review the general methodological principles behind neurofeedback and we describe its behavioural benefits in clinical and experimental contexts. We review the non-specific effects of neurofeedback on the reinforcement learning striato-frontal networks as well as the more specific changes in the cortical networks on which the neurofeedback control is exerted. Last, we analyse the current challenges faces by neurofeedback studies, including the quantification of the temporal dynamics of neurofeedback effects, the generalisation of its behavioural outcomes to everyday life situations, the design of appropriate controls to disambiguate placebo from true neurofeedback effects and the development of more advanced cortical signal processing to achieve a finer-grained real-time modelling of cognitive functions.