Neurofeedback Applications and Benefits

Three years ago Jake’s parents sought out a clinic offering neurofeedback, a form of biofeedback that involves displaying a person’s brain waves on a computer screen and helping him control them.

Jake would sit at a monitor with a sensor on his scalp, and whenever his brain achieved the calm, steady rhythms that normally eluded him, a Pac-Man would start gobbling black dots and beeping. Soon he was controlling the screen action at will, by recognizing the way it feels when the Pac-Man goes to work, and his brain was growing more stable.

“It took care of his teeth grinding and sleep problems in two sessions,” says his mother. Within a week Jake was using scissors and developing a range of other fine motor skills. The number of seizures dropped, and his schoolwork improved dramatically.

Benefits of Neurofeedback

Called neurofeedback (or EEG feedback, because it uses an electroencephalogram), researchers in clinics, universities and even NASA are now working to refine it. Neurofeedback can help your child to:

  • Improve concentration and focus
  • Reduce errors on cognitive tests
  • Improve response time
  • Reduce obsessiveness
  • Decrease bed-wetting
  • Reduce sugar craving
  • Reduce motor and vocal tics
  • Alleviate mood dysregulation of moods and emotions
  • Reduced depression
  • Reduce anxiety
  • Reduce anger
  • Improve IQ scores
  • Improve handwriting

The effect of this intervention is far-reaching…. or the self-regulatory functions of the nervous system may simply be stronger.

Neurofeedback Applications

This technology is emerging as a tool to improve symptoms of:

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In the past few decades, neurofeedback has made its way into the offices of hundreds of reputable doctors, psychologists and counselors.

ADHD

The most prominent application of neurofeedback is for ADHD because the business of the brain really is paying attention – not only to the outside world, but also to internal processes, through which it monitors its own activities and those of the body. When children with AD(H)D train certain brain rhythms, hyperactivity and impulsivity decrease and vigilance improves. Often children can normalize their behavior with twenty to forty training sessions.

It is important to note that the American Academy of Pediatrics recognizes neurofeedback as a Level One Intervention for ADHD, meaning that it is at least as effective as medication and that it is more likely to be covered by insurance.

Learning Disabilities

Neurofeedback can also address specific learning disabilities such as:

  • Visual retention
  • Arithmetic skill deficits
  • Difficulties in spatial relations
  • Language-processing issues

The technique is unique in that it can specifically target shortcomings in localized hemispherically specialized functions. Jake, for example, would train his right hemisphere for spatial processing (geometry), his left hemisphere for dyslexia, and his frontal areas for articulation problems.

Seizures

Neurofeedback was originally a treatment for epilepsy and seizures, still a prominent area of application. Training generally stabilizes the brain. The treatment may have to be long-term, but some gain is usually observable in improved level of function, reduced medication, and perhaps avoidance of brain surgery for intractable seizures.

Autism

Individuals with high-functioning autism, who respond well to computer tasks, and who can tolerate electrodes on their scalps, can also benefit. The best candidates for neurofeedback are those whose problems are more purely neurophysiological, with no compounding family and psychological issues.

Cost

Though neurofeedback appears to be very safe, it’s expensive; evaluation and 20 or more sessions can cost anywhere from $2,000 to $5,000. And while that’s about the same as auditory training or vision therapy, not all insurance covers it. The systems are simple to use, however, and a few practitioners lease units to patients, who can, with an office visit and phone counseling, take them home and do the training at a fraction of the usual cost.

It is exciting to think that such a painless, non-invasive, and relatively fast technology can help reorganize the brain to promote greater attention, better self-control, or improved learning. “I feel like someone has given us a piano and we’ve learned to play a couple of keys,” says Sue Othmer, Executive Director of EEG Spectrum, a company that makes neurofeedback equipment, trains people to use it, and has several hundred affiliates around the country.

Jake’s parents say he has made far more progress than they dared to dream. The few keys he plays sound like a symphony to them.

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Sources & References

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Beauregard, M., et al. Functional magnetic resonance imaging investigation of the effects of neurofeedback training on neural bases of selective attention and response inhibition in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback, 2006 Mar;31(1):3-20.

Chiu, H.J., et al. Surface electroencephalographic neurofeedback improves sustained attention in ADHD: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Child Adolesc Psychiatry Ment Health. 2022 Dec 19;16(1):104.

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