"Since neurofeedback training I have experienced an increase in planning and organizational skills such as decisiveness and clarity of thought. I have found it easier to complete university assignments, work reports and personal correspondence and to organize my papers."
University student - learning / organizational problems Female 30.
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Background Reading / Media
First Direct Evidence of Neuroplastic Changes Following Brainwave Training 2010
A pioneering collaboration between two laboratories from the University of London has provided the first evidence of neuroplastic changes occurring directly after natural brainwave training. Researchers from Goldsmiths and the Institute of Neurology have demonstrated that half an hour of voluntary control of brain rhythms is sufficient to induce a lasting shift in cortical excitability and intracortical function.
Remarkably, these after-effects are comparable in magnitude to those observed
following interventions with artificial forms of brain stimulation involving
magnetic or electrical pulses. The novel finding may have important
implications for future non-pharmacological therapies of the brain and calls
for a serious re-examination and stronger backing of research on neurofeedback,
a technique which may be promising tool to modulate cerebral plasticity in a
safe, painless, and natural way.
Inner control of oneown brain activity may be learned with the aid of a
brain-computer interface, which acts to display a personinstantaneous brain
activation on a computer screen through what is known as a neurofeedback loop.
During brainwave neurofeedback, a visual display on a computer screen behaves
like a virtual mirror to real electrical oscillations produced by neurons in
the cerebral cortex, which are recorded by surface sensors on the scalp.
Lead author Tomas Ros, and co-authors Diane Ruge and Moniek Munneke, under the
supervision of Professors John Gruzelier and John Rothwell, utilised
noninvasive transcranial magnetic stimulators (TMS) to investigate whether any
tangible changes in cortical function take place shortly after a single sitting
of brainwave self-regulation. This was done by applying a short magnetic pulse
externally to the scalp to stimulate the motor cortex, producing a muscle
twitch which remained proportional to the level of neural responsiveness (or
excitability) of the cortex.
Ros and colleagues observed that the cortical response following activating
neurofeedback (which involved suppressing alpha brainwaves) was significantly
enhanced and accompanied by a disinhibition of intracortical synaptic function
of up to 150%. Such after-effects persisted for at least 20 minutes following
termination of training, a time-course indicative of neuroplastic change.