The Science of EEG Biofeedback

EEG Biofeedback (Neurofeedback) was initially studied in the early 1960s by Joe Kamiya at the University of Chicago. This early neurofeedback was focused on training increases in alpha frequency (8-11 Hz) brain activity to promote deep relaxation.

Subsequently, others experimented with EEG training both in humans and in animals. Barry Sterman at UCLA discovered Beta/SMR training (12-20 Hz) for seizure reduction, first in cats and then in humans. His initial results were followed by more than 20 replication studies in some 12 different research centers, confirming his findings that training the EEG was both possible to accomplish and also highly effective for reducing the frequency and intensity of seizure activity.

Through observations made while training clients with seizures, it was discovered that neurofeedback training could affect other conditions such as the hyperactivity component of ADHD. Joel Lubar at the University of Tennessee worked with children diagnosed with ADHD and found that neurofeedback training helped reduce hyperactivity as well as improving attention and general behavior.

Additional research and clinical practice has continued with seminal studies in addictions treatment by Eugene Peniston at the VAMC in Fort Lyons Colorado, work with learning disabled and brain injured children in public schools by John Anderson and others and work in many other areas by a variety of clinicians and researchers.

Placebo Effect?

Some have suggested that the benefits of neurofeedback are simply due to a generalized placebo effect. However, there are a variety of reasons why this is not the case. The effects of EEG biofeedback training are highly specific to electrode placement and to training frequency band. Training at a particular site by rewarding an explicit EEG frequency band produces a specific result compared to training at a different site with a different EEG frequency band.

Such site specificity and the consistency of expected effects are the same whether the client has been informed of what to expect or not. This indicates that the training has identifiable results across many individuals. It has also been demonstrated that those effects are relatively consistent across many different individuals even when the training is conducted by different trainers using different equipment and software in a wide range of clinical and research settings.

This consistency and specificity is never seen with placebo effects and is evidence of actual training efficacy rather than the non-specific effects of suggestion or environment.

The final question that is often asked about neurofeedback is regarding the lack of double blind and/or controlled studies to demonstrate the effectiveness of this approach. However, behavioral interventions such as EEG biofeedback do not have a single component (like the active ingredient in a drug) that can be separated from the overall training experience and tested compared to an inert placebo. Such interventions also do not lend themselves to a “blinded” study where the person administering the training is “blind” to the training being administered.

Neurofeedback requires that the therapist know the client well and choose the training protocol that will be most effective for that individual. The best methods for studying behavioral interventions are known as outcome studies where pre and post training testing is done by testers who are unaware of the approaches being studied and who provide an objective measure of the actual results.

There have been many of these studies comparing neurofeedback to stimulant medication, traditional addiction treatment and other medication and behavioral interventions for a wide variety of conditions. These studies have been published in peer reviewed professional journals and have consistently demonstrated the effectiveness of neurofeedback when compared to other approaches.

Further research into these questions may be conducted by connecting to the following web sites: www.snr-jnt.org & www.aapb.org as well as via a search of neurofeedback and/or EEG biofeedback in your local medical school library or on Medline.